A series of easy coaching tools to help you measure your personal development and consciousness growth and change over 2015.
2015 was hard – we all felt it and it left its mark on all of us. Very few people won’t tell you that they’re glad to see the back of last year – and we’re all certainly hoping 2016 bodes better.
Even though we’ve changed though, and we can clearly feel it, it’s always difficult to get an accurate measure of how far you’ve come and how much you’ve changed. It’s also important to do so occasionally, because it gives you momentum and motivation to keep going. It makes the growth pill a little less bitter to swallow.
In most growth cycles, you naturally reach moments of awareness where you see how much you’ve grown. I’ve termed them closing loops, because it almost seems to mark the closing of a period that began way back when. Each loop that closes reinforces your commitment to the personal development cycle, because it’s awareness of the mental and emotional rewards reaped from the practice.
So how do you close loops so that you can feel you are consciously benefitting from the trials and trauma you’ve survived?
Techniques to measure personal development growth & change
While it is possible to calibrate personal development growth according to the Human Consciousness scale (http://lifecoachestoolbox.com/index.php/the-human-consciousness-scale) as published by Sir David Hawkins in Power vs. Force, understanding how much you’ve changed is better measured in a vague and abstract way that makes sense to you.
The exercises below are designed to show you the detail and specifics of how your thinking has changed, at a level that you can understand.
Each comparison is designed to show you how you’re thinking differently and how your mind and belief systems have changed, as well as how your consciousness awareness and intelligence have grown as a result of the change.
Before you begin…
Before you dive right into the contrast and comparison exercise, it may help you to briefly jot down the key areas of focus in your life right now, what is important to you and the key people in your life.
This will help bring your new way of thinking into your awareness and more clearly highlight the changes in thinking and being you have undergone. Doing this entire closing loops process will also help you understand where you are now, and what the detail of your new frame of thinking and reference is.
Old written content
Most spiritual and personal development peeps have a folder or notebooks of writing hidden away somewhere.
From journals to poems to old psychic readings, you’ve held onto this content for years, never actually doing anything with it - in most cases not even revisiting it at all. Well we’re going to revisit it now.
Old journals will show you how your thinking has changed and the different areas of life you’re focused on. Old poems and writing will achieve the same end.
Old notes from psychic readings going back over the years can be very telling to show you how much your priorities have shifted and your desires have changed.
Favorite books, movies & shows
Books, movies and TV series that have made an impact on your over the years are a fabulous way to experience how much you’ve grown.
Identify which movie or series you plan to watch and take a few minutes to jot down the key themes, concepts and characters you remember from the content.
While you’re watching, ask yourself the following questions:
- How does this differ from what I remember?
- How has the storyline changed?
- How are the themes different?
- Am I relating to the same characters or different characters?
- Do I still empathize with or relate to the main character in the same way?
- Has my sense of humor changed?
- Does it feel like I am smarter when I watch this this time?
- Do I understand this more easily?
- Am I able to hold the flow of the storyline more readily?
- Is my comprehension and thinking clearer?
Favorite songs
Music has universal appeal for all of us, and so we understand that the music we’re drawn to changes over time.
Take some time to revisit some of your old favorite songs. Listen to the tempo and tone and see how your body feels about that now – does it still elicit the same joy and freedom? Stop and read the lyrics. Are they aligned to the way you feel now? How do you feel differently?
As you bring each change into awareness and close the loop, it will help you develop your confidence in your new way of thinking and being. This in turn makes it easier to live aligned to your new way of being.