As people, we are constantly growing. Even when our bodies have stopped, our minds, personalities and general personal growth are developing all the time.

Yet sometimes, this growth can ground to a halt and we can find ourselves feeling lost and unsure. There are five tell-tale signs that your personal growth has stopped, which we have detailed below, and five very easy fixes.

So, if you feel that your personal growth may be struggling, take a read of our solutions.

1. You Feel Stuck

Are you feeling stuck in life and as though you are struggling to get the results you want? This may be a signature sign that you are not growing as a person. Whether you feel as though you are stuck in a job, a relationship, or any other circumstance, it’s a feeling that you have lost control.

How to fix it:

Take some time to really figure out what it is that is making you feel stuck. If your job feels restrictive, consider other career paths, or how you could improve your current position. If a relationship is making you feel stuck, consider talking to your partner about how you feel and how you can move away from the behaviours you are struggling with.

2. You Are Avoiding Responsibilities

This is strongly linked to feeling stuck. We can often feel stuck in a situation that we don’t want to deal with, and we avoid the solution to the problem because it may be more difficult than the situation itself.

How to fix it:

Take responsibility for what you need to do. If you have a large workload, make a list and begin to work through it slowly until you complete the task that is making you feel stuck.

If there are issues in a relationship, sit down and just have the difficult conversation. Be respectful and listen to the other person, then calmly explain your perspective. Once you have an understanding of each other, you will be better equipped to move forward toward a solution to suit both of you.

3. You Feel Confused but Don’t Know What about

As humans, we like to be certain, so confusion can rattle us. We spend a lot of time trying to avoid it as much as possible. If you feel as though you are confused but cannot pinpoint the exact reason why, you may be struggling to utilise certain personality strengths that you have not yet had the growth to use.

How to fix it:

Take control of other areas of your life. Control makes the uncertainties feel much less important, as we feel as though we can choose what happens next. Take responsibility for what you need to, and take responsibility for the decisions you make. This responsibility gives us the control we need to eradicate the uncertain feelings. It may be that you simply needed to feel this control in terms of personal responsibility.

4. Your Emotional Responses Aren’t As Stable

Personal growth helps us to mediate and manage our emotions. If we are struggling internally, our emotional responses tend to be much stronger and potentially more violent. This can be detrimental in some situations and make us feel less in control of ourselves.

How to fix it:

Take the time you need to manage areas of your life that you feel you do not have control of. If it is financial worries, start to keep track of expenses and make a budget. If it is a large workload, make a list of smaller tasks to undertake one by one until the larger task is done.

Reducing the stresses in other areas of life can make us much more capable of managing and mediating our emotions so that we can react appropriately when the time comes.

5. You Feel As Though You Don’t Know Yourself

A large part of personal growth is really getting to know yourself as a person, what affects you and what influences your responses. If you feel as though you are constantly asking yourself the ‘Who am I?’ question, then your personal growth may be suffering, and even stopped.

How to fix it:

Get to know yourself the way you would another person. Find out the activities you enjoy and do them, whether it be art, music, or writing. Learning your own personality traits and becoming comfortable with yourself is a huge step for personal growth, and will give you personal strength and resilience for the future.

We all need to take the time to grow as people, and when life gets in the way, it is important to come back to who we are as people. Pushing our personal growth allows us to develop better as people, and be more in control of our emotions, reactions, and our lives in general.

Image credit: Dimitris Drougoutis


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This Post Has One Comment

  1. James Garner

    I have been working as a cart pusher at Walmart for the past 11 and one half years. I started doing this at age 40, and am now 52 and am still doing it. Here’s the problem: the job is low-paying, i don’t make enough money to buy a car, which i used to have but haven’t had one for 9 years now, plus for the last 30 years or so, i’ve hardly had any social life at all except for one great friend i have known for 36 years,but never any girlfriends. Also, i haven’t been able to do other things i want to do or buy because i don’t have enough money,because i don’t have the skills necessary to get a better paying job, and i never earned a college degree, but i haven’t a clue as to what i would major in. This leaves me feeling very hopeless, sad, bored,frustrated,angry and etc. I just can’t seem to figure it all out, and i’m not 20 or 25 any more either.

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