Why There’s Always ANOTHER Layer! (PERSONAL)
🍊 THERE’S (ALWAYS) ANOTHER LAYER TO PEEL!!! 🍊
I’ve been around the Personal Development community for over 3 years now. I’ve read many books, heard lots of speakers, and met hundreds of people who continue to help me grow into my best self! 👤
I’m forever grateful! ❤️
But yet, I can hardly say I’ve grown into my greatest potential! 😱
🗣️ “Wait! Are you saying all this stuff’s just a bunch of hooplah, Donald?!” 🗣️
Oh no, not at all! I’ve gotten a ton of growth through Personal Development! 👍 But what I’m saying is the longer I’ve been around the community, the longer I’ve focused on growing myself, the longer I’ve immersed myself in piles upon piles of material, I can safely say I still have a long way to grow. 🌱
And because of it, life never gets boring! That’s why I’m going to be sharing another story with you today! 👨🏫
One thing I can tell you, say you decide to go on your own journey of personal growth: As long as you keep making the choice to never stop growing, you won’t stop growing! 👍
Some people will stop after watching 1 motivational video. Some will stop after attending 1 transformational seminar. Some will, in fact, stop at the end of the section in the library titled “Personal Development”! 😱
But, if you decide to keep growing you will keep growing. But that also means more than just living your life inside the Personal Development circle. 👍
Last week I was having a conversation with someone I consider a dear friend as well as a mentor in my personal growth, Charles. Charles, in fact, was the gentleman who first encouraged me to write down my thoughts like I’m doing here. He saw in me what I for a long time wasn’t willing to acknowledge: a gift for communication through writing. ✍️
And because of him you all now get to put up with my divergent, lengthy social media posts! Muhwahaha! 😈
Anyways, as Charles and I spoke we got onto the topic about my time Crewing at Tony Robbins’s events. I told him how I was a big fan of Tony Robbins’s work…but not in the sense he or others may think me to be. 🤔
On the surface, I can definitely see how some others may see me as a “fanboy”, a “sheep”, or a “naive” individual. But I told him about how in-depth my reasoning goes as to why I actually support Tony’s work. It’s not at all black-and-white! 🔲
(If you want to know more about my reasoning, read my post here.)
But what started as a conversation about Tony’s work soon branched into many different subjects, from the Hard Sciences to Philosophy to Sociology to Social Media. They were all subjects I’d been self-educating myself on the past year, and I found how they were all interconnected in some form or another. 🔄
I led Charles down many territories of thought, and as much as my explanations fell into tangents I somehow was always able to bring it back to the overall root. ☘️
I was showing a side of myself to Charles I don’t typically share. It’s one I don’t share much on social media either. And I know some of you have heard me say that statement many times before! 😅
But like I said earlier:
🍊 THERE’S (ALWAYS) ANOTHER LAYER TO PEEL!!! 🍊
I revealed to Charles the Intellectual part of my personality:
📌 The one that sees a more complex world than the one we generally make it out to be.
📌 The one which loves to analyze and get to the root of issues.
📌 The one which sees a world filled with lots of paradoxes and contradictions.
📌 The one who has an idea and then debates that idea in his head in a dialectic.
📌 The one who is hesitant to come out into Donald’s everyday life out of concern no one will understand him.
Fear peeked in his little ugly head throughout our conversation. 😨
“I hope you’re not boring Charles!”
“I hope you’re explaining this well enough to him!”
“I hope you’re still talking like a ‘normal’ human being!” 🗣️
Eventually, Charles asked me a question I’m not at all surprised he asked: Was there a moment I decided to go outside the Tony Robbins and personal development environments to learn all these things? ⁉️
Quite often it’s easy to stay inside our comfort zones by surrounding ourselves with ideas we’re already familiar with, ones which don’t challenge our current paradigms of the world. 🙌
But I was doing that. Why? 🤔
The best way I could answer Charles: At some point I decided my personal growth could not end at Tony Robbins’s doors. 🚪
I decided my personal growth could not end at the library section labeled “Personal Development”. I decided my personal growth could not end at only learning about topics that I was interested in or reinforced my current worldview. 🌎
This past year I stepped outside Personal Development, not away from it but took time exploring what other subjects the world offered. I’ve been self-educating myself on various topics from Philosophy to Psychology to the Hard Sciences. I’ve even learned about topics I’m NOT interested in! 😲
By no means am I saying this to toot my own horn or act like I’m somehow now intellectually superior. I’ve only just started developing this part of myself. And I’m going to continue letting it grow! 😁
(For those who want to continue expanding their knowledge base, CrashCourse has become one of my top favorite Education channels on YouTube here 💻.)
I’m grateful I’ve taken the time to step outside the Personal Development field to see how else I could expand my mind. And you know what: some of the topics I used to once consider ‘boring’ as a kid I now learn and find very fascinating! 😄
But I never would’ve re-discovered them had I not decided to step outside the realm of Personal Development. 🙌
🌟 Paradoxically, you limit your growth when you limit yourself just to Personal Development. 🌟
But of course, what is to come of all this learning I’m doing?! 🤷♂️ Education is pointless if I’m not also finding ways to use and integrate it in my life, right? As the quote goes: “Knowledge is not power; it’s potential power.” 💬
Nothing comes of knowledge when it’s only sitting in your brain! And what if you die with all this knowledge just left in your head?! ⁉️
I thought about all this as I continued talking with Charles. I admitted to him these kinds of topics where they get complex I don’t usually talk about. Why? Because Fear likes to rationalize in the mind:
😨 “Your online brand needs to stick to a singular focus!”
😨 “People won’t understand what the hell you’re talking about!”
😨 “People want simplicity; that’s Entrepreneurship 101!”
But if you were to ever tell me to a write a book on a singular topic, I’d surely write you a book titled “Assorted Writings”! 😂
It was only until this conversation with Charles that I was reminded for the millionth time…
🍊 THERE’S (ALWAYS) ANOTHER LAYER TO PEEL!!! 🍊
I thought I had gotten over my fears of judgement and rejection from others. I have in many situations! But here it was appearing again, hiding in a crevice I never thought to look into! 🧱
Charles gave me an important lesson last week: If you have a gift, open it. Don’t let it go to waste. Don’t let your fear of social acceptance waver your sail from reaching its final destination. ⛵
So now, with the realization I was still holding back, I’ve decided in the coming year I’m going to be sharing with you all a lot more of Me in future entries. 👤 I’m going to share topics that are more in-depth and things I believe will benefit others to learn about. It’s not to bore you; I can assure they all serve a greater purpose other than to hear myself ramble! 😉
It doesn’t matter if I think in complex ways some people won’t understand. It doesn’t matter if I won’t always be accepted for my lengthy posts. It doesn’t matter if my thinking so often falls on Yellow in the Spiral Dynamics scale. 💛
They are only “flaws” if I embrace the belief that they are. But what if they are in fact my greatest “gifts”, and I’m wasting them by hiding them? It’s time for them to be shown a lot more! 👍
If you have a talent or skill you believe is useful in sharing, go and share it! 🏃♂️ I think of the scene in “Good Will Hunting” here where Will’s best friend Chuckie gives him some tough love, but it’s exactly what he needed to hear (Clip). 📺
Share your gifts. 🎁 Share your skills which others don’t have. That goes for anyone, not just me. Like this movie scene illustrates: If you won’t owe it to yourself, owe to the people who want to see you succeed. Owe it to the people who want to see you thrive. Owe it to the people who need to receive what you can give them. Life is far more than just about focusing on yourself. 🌎
It’s why I share this post with you today. It’s my hope through my own stories that you see them reflect through your own. 🙌
As I’ll always continue to tell you all: I’m not perfect, and I will never claim to be. I’m perfectly imperfect, just like you. And I’m also still growing just like you. 🌱
🌟 The moment you say you know all there is to know is the moment you stop growing. 🌟
I think of Socrates’s quote: “All I know is that I know nothing.” 🗣️ And the more I’ve continued to learn and grow, the more I keep seeing how that quote rings true. 🔔
Because…
🍊 THERE’S (ALWAYS) ANOTHER LAYER TO PEEL!!! 🍊
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