What is the Pursuit of Happiness about? Why did the Founding Fathers deem it so important that it was ranked in equal value along with life and liberty?
At the Growing Group, the pursuit of happiness takes on many forms. There’s the search for core values and personal growth, finding our purpose and finding community. The search includes spirituality & self-discovery, optimism along with mental and physical well-being. It’s a quest for lifelong learning as well as a reflective call for searching inward.
After several years of examining and seeking on a path to finding a way to better living, we’ve discovered a few things to help guide fellow travelers in their pursuit.
Breaking it up
Making the journey a fun adventure & lifelong pursuit that never ends!
Not simply knowing that half the journey is in embarking and taking on the challenge. It’s knowing that the journey is the best part of life…discovery and change and adventures and finding yourself and …
Lifelong Learning
One of the greatest joys in working to find new ideas and advice to share from all varieties of sources and experts has created opportunities for all of us,myself included, to learn new habits and set new goals for ourselves. It has offered glimpses of how to succeed in business and to inspire us to work towards our own personal goals. And with classes online and books to share, along with weekly articles to read and challenge ourselves, the concept of lifelong learning becomes reality.
Habits to develop-Creating Optimism and Motivation!
I have found that creating a short list of self-guided exercises to share weekly with readers and followers at The Growing Group has been the best way for all of us to exchange ideas and experiences as we move forward. And it helps to create habits that spur us on and motivate us to finish what we start!
- Weekly Exercises to use as self-guided tools for personal growth
- A Life Audit can open your eyes to the past and pave the way forward into the future!
- Journaling: It’s what we do!
Your Spiritual Journey
- The Mind/Body Wellness Connection—Living Healthier!
- Finding Community….Discovering your “Tribe!”
Beginning your spiritual journey doesn’t always begin with a public pronouncement of faith or a dramatic conversion. It may start with a quiet period of reflection and evaluation where you begin to ask yourself the type of questions needed to begin a change in your life. That may include the introduction of meditation, or a period of time daily where you can pray or reflect and meditate to build your own inner strength and resources.
If’s also about finding the connections we have between mind and body. How we feel and how we feel about ourselves can translate into a variety of ways we react and create productive work each day. When we make the decision to think of treating the body as our ‘temple’ to be treated with respect and kindness, it can change our lives. And that includes forgiveness for past mistakes. It means we can begin to see ourselves as worthy of respect and to treat ourselves accordingly!
Reading the Room: Raising your “EQ!”
- Reframe past perceived Failures-Accepting the Challenges
- Creating Success in your life w/ a Solutions Based Mindset!
You may have heard this phrase in terms of people who seem to put their foot in their mouths when they speak. They make verbal Faux Pax or gaffes when they are out in public because of their inability to correctly gauge the temperature of the audience or people they are speaking with.
They don’t know how to ‘read the room.’ Most of us can identify with saying something that we wish we could take back. And that is simply a matter of finding the right balance between what we need to say, in a measured way, and what we feel we must say and sometimes with passionate force.
Those who are practiced and skilled at being able to gauge the temperature of the people they are communicating with effectively are said to have high “Emotional Intelligence.’ They can measure their audience and balance the right amount of effective verbal skills and cues with an effective manner of communicating and in most cases, with calm and with intent as they get their message across.
It is a wonderful skill for those in business who meet and must communicate with a large number of different groups and teams. And emotional intelligence is needed when we are faced with difficult challenges in our lives. There are different discussions that we need to have with loved ones, friends and family members that may lead to emotional outbursts or dramatic confrontations. Those who are gifted with the skill of having a high “EQ”, or emotional intelligence are the ones who can mediate discussions, listen to what others have to say, and to intervene and navigate through difficult times. This is something we can all learn. And it’s a valued part of our personal growth journey at The Growing Group!
The End Result= Creating a new version of “The Best of all Possible You’s!”
The “Best of all Possible You’s” almost seems to be a flippant or tongue-in-cheek pronouncement at first. Why? Because we all yearn to become that best version of ourselves. And like the character that is paraphrased from “Candide,’ the path is always fraught with difficult challenges and diversions. These diversions can lead us away from achieving our goals and our coveted dreams for our lives.
But it is the reason that the phrase “Personal Growth’ has become so popular in recent years. It is because we are all on that journey to achieve growth in life. To be stagnant, or not moving forward and changing or adapting with the times means we will never truly be fulfilled or capable of finding our true purpose in life. Growing as a person is one of the most exciting and wonderful things we can do as humans.
As parents, you look forward from the time your child is small to nurturing your child. You wonder and you plan for him or her to have the most fulfilling life they could possibly lead. And we all want that for our children and for our world. And that includes our own individual goals and dreams in life. We all want to be able to say that we achieved our dreams or we’ve fulfilled our goals in life. That is the reason we started “The Growing Group.’ And it is why we are continuing to grow by adding “The Pursuit of Happiness’ to our roster!
Some more Growing Group topics to pursuit!