Hello Seekers and Wanderers!
It’s been a month since our last issue. I wanted to give you a quick update on what’s been going on at Lowe HQ. And what better way to do it than on a Sunday stroll?
“WHO AM I?” VS. “WHAT CAN I ACHIEVE?”: CHOOSING THE RIGHT PERSONAL JOURNEY
People often ask me what’s the difference between personal growth and personal development. While many people use the terms “personal growth” and “personal development” interchangeably, there are some distinct differences between these two concepts that are important to understand. In this post, I’ll break down the key differences so you can better focus your efforts in both domains.
Personal growth refers primarily to inner work—gaining self-knowledge, working through internal issues and challenges, and developing as a conscious human being. It’s about understanding yourself more deeply and expanding your perspective. Key elements of personal growth include self-reflection, building self-awareness, healing past wounds, and finding meaning and purpose. The focus is inward.
Some examples of personal growth activities include meditation, journaling, therapy, reading inspirational texts, having deep conversations with others, consciously working through traumatic experiences from your past, discovering your passions and values, or more abstract pursuits like developing wisdom.
Personal development, on the other hand, refers mainly to outward skill building, gaining concrete competencies, and achieving external goals. It’s about intentionally developing capacities to allow you to function at a higher level in your work and personal life. Key elements include learning new hard and soft skills, expanding your capabilities, accomplishing tangible objectives, and boosting performance. The focus is outward.
Some examples of personal development activities include taking courses to improve relevant job skills, learning to communicate more effectively, building habits to increase productivity, setting and pursuing goals like starting a business, getting mentorship to advance your career, taking on new challenges, and acquiring credentials to open up opportunities.
As you can see, personal growth is inner-directed towards increased self-understanding, while personal development is outer-directed towards increased functionality. Personal growth asks, “Who am I and why am I here?” Personal development asks, “What can I do and achieve?”
Pursuing both personal growth and personal development together is key to overall flourishing. Growth fuels development by providing a compass to guide your path. Development fuels growth by giving you the skills to bring your insights to life. Focusing on one helps the other come more naturally. With both, you set yourself up for inner wholeness and outer success.
I hope this breakdown helps provide clarity on these two related but distinct domains of life. Keep growing, keep developing, and keep flourishing!
THE LUMINOUS LANDSCAPE: HOW THOUGHTS CONSTRUCT OUR INNER WORLD
Our thoughts form the foundation of our inner world, the vast, luminous landscape of private experience. Simply put, a thought is anything that occupies the mind, from fleeting observations to long-held beliefs. Yet thoughts don’t sit idle and inert—they swirl together to create the flowing current of consciousness. Without thoughts, there would be no consciousness, no awareness of self or subjective reality. Subtle thoughts, feelings, and perceptions are the foundation of profound mystical states.
Subjective experience itself relies entirely on the mind’s capacity to think. The myriad sense impressions and stimuli we encounter mean nothing until thoughts invest them with meaning and value. A striking painting excites no one until thoughts of beauty, longing, or admiration arise. Our myriad life experiences, from the traumatic to the transcendent, shape who we are only through the filter of our interpretations and beliefs. The richness of life is entirely down to the mind’s capacity to knit the blooming, buzzing confusion of reality into coherent thoughts and insights.
Yet the commerce between thoughts and subjective experience flows in two directions. Our thoughts are not generated in a vacuum. The lens through which we view and make sense of reality both creates and constrains our inner world. Our worldview channels our thoughts down well-worn neuronal pathways, filtering out those that do not conform to our assumptions and selected truths. At the same time, when our thoughts remain too rigid and hardened by presumption, we become closed off to the nuanced melody and mystery of life. Subjective experience then grows dull and dim.
Thus, thoughts continually structure subjective reality while simultaneously remaining open and amenable to the world’s teachings and the continuous expansion of our consciousness and understanding. Achieving the fluid interplay between thoughts and a flexible, open awareness may be one key to awakening both wisdom and joy. Through such balanced inner dialogue, we nurture the best of what makes us human.
HOW TO GAIN CONTROL OVER YOUR EMOTIONS
This is a microlearning module.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
Explain the difference between an emotional reaction and an emotional response
Practice a deep breathing technique to self-soothe when emotionally triggered
Identify 3 strategies for regulating emotional reactions
Learning Playlist
Ok, good people, I hope you’ve had a good week.
Stay curious,
Clay