7 Interpersonal Changes That Managed To Help Me Both in Life and in My Career

Where there is change, there is growth

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Just recently I came to think about improvement and growth. We all want to achieve them, yet not everyone is ready to face what it takes in order to climb the success ladder in life.

There’s this thing with growth, both personal and professional — more often than not, it requires changes since otherwise, we wouldn’t be improving as well and as fast as we’d wished for. Be it changes in behavior, in our thought process, in our ability to endure obstacles, you name it — my experience has shown me that growth in character often comes with changing for the better. Call it to upgrade, leveling up, you name it — the truth is we rarely manage to reach goals and unravel our potential if we stand still in our own personal development.

When I reflect on my road so far, I’m pretty certain it all came down to personal growth in terms of upgrading and changing for the better. And when I refer to changes, I mean both interpersonal traits and mindset-driven actions (or lack of).

I remember I used to have settled quite a few obstacles in front of me back in my employee days — there were times when uncertainty, fear of rejection and failure, and anxiety-driven thoughts used to rule my day-to-day to the point where my professional future seemed pretty vague and unclear. My path took me to crossroads — I had to decide whether the employed life was serving me justice or

Also, all these emotions and predispositions impact the way you perceive yourself and the others around you, resulting in poor experiences in your personal life in terms of self-growth and ability to move forward.

So it dawned on me — if I wanted to pursue a life full of delight, inspiration, and fulfillment, I simply had to make some changes in the mindset and behavior department. Once I’ve come up with the success formula, all I had to do was to think of a way to implement it in action and reality.

But why is it so hard to face change even if the sole reason behind it is personal growth?

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I don’t think anyone would disagree — one of the hardest things ever is to accept and implement change. But why even if the sole reason behind it is personal growth?

Instead, we should all be willing to make the necessary changes and even view them as quick and easy fixes to all our mishaps and issues in life. The reality, however, shows us something else — more often than not it’s required plenty of time and effort to even begin working on certain changes. A whole other scenario is the acceptance of change — there are plenty of instances when we often fall in denial and avoid admitting we need changing.

If you ask me, it all comes to ego — we all find it hard to accept that we are all flawed in some ways. Be it the way we view the world, our work ethic, or even the way we view ourselves — the majority of people need excessive inner work to further elevate their development. Of course, that’s the beauty of human nature but it can be rather difficult when you are in the middle of the process itself.

Self-growth often requires abandoning mental models that no longer serve you. It often deals with changing our perspective about ourselves — viewing ourselves from a different angle can indeed be quite challenging. Pretty much anything that deals with replacing certain behavioral and mindset patterns can be really traumatic for the self — it’s almost like admitting you have to let go of a certain self-image and make room for the new, better and improved one to step in.

The silver lining is that no matter how difficult and core-shaking the elevating process can be, the results in the end are worth the effort. Let me share with you what I changed in my perception of the world, the people, the business, and myself — I believe it all helped me shape my improved and further developed self.

7 interpersonal changes that managed to help me both in life and in my career

1. I stopped avoiding crippling thoughts. You know — the ones that insist on you thinking about what’s really important in life. What my dream job is? How do I imagine spending my life? Am I happy? What else can I do in order to improve my lifestyle overall? At first, you may think that those are questions the majority of people give answers to on a daily basis, but the truth is slightly different. Actually, I’ve come to the realization that many people tend to avoid those self-reflecting topics out of fear that perhaps they won’t like the answer and therefore will have to implement a few changes. And changes are scary — everything that’s throwing us out of our comfort zone is crippling and capable of totally immobilizing us in the unfulfilling present.
2. I started to pay attention to my surroundings. People are heavily influenced by other people so your daily networking is really important for the way you view yourself and life in general. If your close friends and acquaintances show toxic tendencies, it’s safe to assume that this will influence the way you think and the way you approach things. Condescending and envious behaviors are proven to be great obstacles to anyone’s personal development and growth. So paying attention to your social circle and implementing the needed changes is essential if you want to further elevate your well-being.
3. I learned to adequately and objectively measure my competencies. Underestimating and overestimating are everyone’s pet peeves at some point in life. The problem with the lack of adequate self-esteem is that it can greatly confuse us in the long term in our decision-making. If we are underestimating ourselves, there’s a high chance we’d miss plenty of opportunities. What happens when we overestimate ourselves is simply overburdening ourselves with excessive workload. So finding the balance is a must — realize your strengths and weaknesses and focus on nurturing healthy self-esteem.
4. I refused working something I don’t enjoy. In today’s corporate world there’s a high chance for people to settle for a job that they don’t particularly like due to what they think society’s expectations would be. But in reality, there is nothing more deadly to anyone’s professional development than engaging in a job that doesn’t correspond with your inner passion. Back in my employed days, I felt I needed to further develop my career so I took the plunge and went all entrepreneur-style. Today I’m a happy CEO of my WordPress development company and I couldn’t have been happier with my risky decision back in 2016. It’s worth all the effort.
5. I started to pay attention to my mental health. Prioritizing one’s inner world is perhaps the best thing one can do to develop themselves to the fullest. I ultimately believe that getting to know your emotions, triggers, traumas, and mindset is the best approach toward growth a person can take. Engaging in soul searching is incredibly therapeutic and can really help us feel better in our skin. And once we’re able to achieve this state of inner peace, we’ll soon find that things happen effortlessly for us since we are going to be true to ourselves and our nature.
6. I’ve always been keen on doing sports, but I’m putting this here for all folks who let their physical health deteriorate. We know that we are a body-mind-soul unity. It’s incredibly naive for us to think that taking care of our mental health only is going to be enough — what about our physical health as well? Paying attention to our body’s needs is as important as everything else going on in the development department. Pick a sporting routine and stick to it. Pay attention to what you eat. Drink plenty of water. Do your regular medical checkups. It’s all going to pay off.
7. I learned to let go of fear and negativity. At first, it may seem that those are all natural actions familiar to everybody, but in reality, we are more prone to negativity than we expect. When we focus on what truly brings happiness into our lives, we attract similar thoughts and moods — and with that we welcome positivity. Positivity helps us cherish everything we used to take for granted. This elevated mindset gives us the energy to keep moving forward with a smile on our faces — what’s more to that?

To wrap things up

The path toward self-improvement is not always an easy one but it’s always worth taking. Down the road, we might have to change a thing or two about ourselves — and while at first, this may seem scary and unsettling, it’s almost always for the better. My advice would be to always aim for the best in life without hesitation and doubt — it will all turn out just fine in the end.