you're not behind in your personal growth journey

I've been thinking a lot lately about the advice we hear in the personal growth world. Just become her. Act as if. Stop getting in your own way.

I don't actually disagree with any of it. I believe we're capable of becoming entirely different versions of ourselves. I've experienced that firsthand. What I've been wrestling with is the assumption that everyone should take the same path to get there.

Imagine two women training for a marathon. They both want to cross the finish line. They're both committed. They're both willing to do the work. They're both fully capable of finishing the race. The only difference is that one of them is recovering from a knee injury.

A coach would create two very different training plans for those women because of where each of them is starting. The goal is exactly the same. The path just looks different.

It made me wonder why we don't think about personal growth the same way.

I've spent a lot of time over the past few weeks thinking about this because I see people (including myself) measure their progress against someone else's journey. Someone built a successful business in a year, so why haven't I? Someone left a relationship and seemed to bounce back overnight. Someone manifested their dream life by following five simple steps. We assume that if it worked for them, it should work for us too.

But what if we are asking the wrong question?

What if it is not what worked for her? What if it is given where I am starting today, what is the path that is actually going to move me forward?

To me, that is not making excuses. It is not lowering the standard. It is acknowledging reality. Our experiences shape us. Our beliefs shape us. Our environments shape us. None of those things determine what is possible for us, but they absolutely influence how we get there.

The best support I have had in my own life did not look like someone handing me a formula and telling me to follow it exactly. It looked like someone helping me understand my starting point and trust what I needed from there.

We are all capable of reaching the finish line. The real courage is trusting that your race is allowed to look different.

If you are in the middle of figuring out what your path looks like, that is exactly what my coaching work is built around. Not a one size fits all roadmap, but a process that starts with where you actually are.