Barometer of Growth

Today is my birthday. Not that today I have suddenly grown up (well technically I have) but today I feel I stand tallest of all the situations I have seen in the past. How this particular today is better than all the yesterdays. Birthdays are your ‘report card’ days when you get to evaluate your performance.

Out of professional growth in terms of expertise/ money, personal in terms of your behavioral aspects/ friends, social in terms of your relationships, emotional in terms of mental strength, I feel the report card subjects are quite extensive and scattered and hence there is no definite way to term a achievement as growth.

And guess what, we don’t have that much time to spare for introspection. I have recently thought of a barometer that has helped me measure my growth.

The barometer has six slabs-

1.       Prayers- Prayers are the most honest requests. Observe the trend of your prayers. Do you now, think you deserved what you demanded then. Have you been adamant? Do you think getting what you wanted has changed your life more than not getting what you wanted. How significant prayers have been. Do you still pray.

 2.       Fears- Have you won over what you were scared to face. And how convincingly. Not winning over, but facing it is a victory. How have you defined your own standards of what will scare you and what should not.

3.       Acceptance- To which levels have you allowed the Truth to peep inside your system. How much have you accepted and how much you think you need to brush off your ‘How could/ how dare” levels. 

 4.       Doubts- Did you allow doubts to become obstacles or used them as excuses. What categories have you created where you think doubts had been helpful in the past. How much risk averse have you become when it comes to ignoring your doubts.

 5.       Desires- What trend do you see when you watch your desires. Do you still long for things you always did and do you still believe getting those will change you. Did getting what you desired for change you the way you thought they will?

 6.       Gratitude- How thankful you are to the events occurred in your life. How much have you retained the learning from them. How thankful you are to the bad time in your life vis-à-vis good times.