Personal growth comes in many forms. One can grow spiritually through tribulations they have overcome; a person can grow emotionally through new experiences in compassion and caring; and many have grown financially by way of their investments. Encompassed in all of these is the true personal growth that leads to wisdom, which is what we are all striving for.
The hardest thing about growing personally is that it requires discomfort, or growing pains. Just as a young person will feel the pain in his or her joints as a growth spurt is endured, so will a person seeking wisdom. When people are body building, a note or two can be taken from the film Stay Hungry, starring Arnold Schwarzeneggar. In one scene he informs his workout partner that “without the burn there is no growth.” When it comes to personal growth one must feel the burn as well.
There is a very important point on personal growth that those seeking it should know, and it is that not all pain leads to personal growth. This is crucial because this knowledge may be the saving grace between making terrible choices in relationships, at work, or with investments. Believe it or not, there are some who are so optimistic that they think all of the pain they endure is a step on the path toward growing into a better person. Sometimes, pain is just a step in the wrong direction.
Stepping in the wrong direction can lead to personal growth, though, if one learns from his mistakes. For example, when one is choosing investments on his own there are a number of methods that can be employed for picking stocks of funds. Some use historical data, others use information they know from working within a certain industry, and a few will go off of press releases. The last of these is very dangerous because many are not aware that a press release is often the work of a firm that is hired to release positive information about a company. While the information released is not necessarily false, it may not be a true indicator of whether one should take ownership in that particular firm, and it could lead to large losses.
Loss, though, in relationships or finance can ultimately be a good thing if the sufferer of such hardship gains wisdom from the experience, gaining true personal growth.