The year 2020 will surely linger in our memories for decades to come. The series of unexpected events unsettled many plans and projections of many of us. From the pandemic to various happenings in the world, being in control seemed like such a far-fetch.

If you set some lofty goals for 2020, and it looks like some of them were not even touched at all, take a deep breath and smile. If you did not even have any goals for the year and you feel like a whole year went down the drain, take a deep breath too and smile. If you fall in the category of those who set goals and accomplished all of them, take two deep breaths, you deserve a bowl of ice cream.

Wherever you find yourself in the goal accomplishment spectrum, you would need to shift your focus a bit from the goals you’ve scored to the growth you’ve attained. It is great to set goals, but it’s more important to grow into a better person. One of the ways to truly improving yourself with goal setting is being growth oriented. Being growth oriented is focusing on growing yourself to the point where you are able to consistently produce better results.

This means that your goal getting is not just being able to say that you made an amount of money in a year and get back to ground zero by the next year. Being growth oriented is having grown to a point where making that amount of money in a year is not just a one-time feat, but something you can repeatedly do and surpass.

When I was a lot younger, I was shorter than average. I would jump beside my father, and tell him I was taller than him. He would usually say, “Young man, don’t bother jumping, just grow”. (needless to say, I’m taller than him now)

This statement resounds in my mind often, because I realize that this is a vital truth for success. Success in itself is not necessary a particular achievement or milestone, it is a journey of personal growth with many milestones on the way.

Whenever we set goals, we usually want to write down things that are beyond our reach, so that we push ourselves to do more. When they don’t happen the way we envisaged or wished, we get disappointed. However, all you have to do is look at where you are at the moment and how much you’ve grown.

You could think that, “Oh, I didn’t do anything this year.” Well, the fact that you are uncomfortable with doing nothing shows you have grown in the expectations of yourself and all you have to do now is ‘do something’.

Acknowledging growth at every point helps you to correctly assess yourself and intentionally take steps to become the person you want to be. Being growth-oriented in setting goals stops you from achieving some feats and starting over from the bottom.

There are times when I set goals for myself and achieved them, and then I asked, “What’s next?” I ended up losing the effect of that achievement because I was not focused on growth.

Personal growth does not have a stop point. The limits that seem to exist are those you place on yourself. You have nothing to lose by aiming higher, because all you have to do is grow to the point where the sky is just a launching pad.

Your primary responsibility right now is to become more intentional about your growth. Find points of growth and applaud yourself. Recognize that you are not the same person you were at the onset of the year because you’ve grown (I’m certainly not talking about the few kilograms added).

Look at where you are now and begin to plan for the future by setting new goals. These goals should be set with growth in mind. You want to have certificates in particular courses, not just for the sake of them, but because you would use them to improve yourself and become more relevant in your industry or wherever you find yourself.

While you are winding up and simply waiting for the next year, remember your life does not need to pause because this year is almost over. Keep going, you have all it takes to be the best version of you. Take those giant leaps, the best is yet to come.

Yours in the journey,

Elushade Oluwatumininu.

Feel free to contact me: tumsielushade@gmail.com