Is it Possible to OD on Personal Growth?

I got an email from my brilliant assistant (a word which does not do justice to the value this woman brings to my life. Alternative title options welcomed) asking my opinion on the question:

Is it possible to OD on personal growth?

I answered with a resounding: YES! TOTALLY!

Here’s the thing:

We all have everything we need within us right this second.

You don’t need another course…
You don’t need a coach…
You don’t need to read another book…
You don’t need more information…
Or more insight…
Or another practice…
Or philosophy…

…to tap into the brilliance of who you are.

You have that in you already. It’s just a matter of remembering.

Here’s the truth:

Over the past couple of years, I’ve spent countless hours being coached, reading “grow yourself” books (as my friend Josh calls them), and attending personal development oriented events. Many of my closest friends are actually professionals in the personal growth industry, so I barely go a day without chewing on the possibility of optimizing the human experience.

But the other morning, I awoke really early and a strong voice within me said: ENOUGH.

I had signed up for another series of coaching, and my body was giving me a clear signal in the form of a knot in my stomach that I’m currently filled up on personal growth.

Sometimes, we just need to chill and integrate. Sometimes, the biggest life lessons will come over ice cream with your three year old instead of a weekend retreat with the guru of the hour. And sometimes, you don’t need a lesson. You just have to be.

There’s infinite information, insight, and wisdom on the planet. We were all given God’s direct line. Some of us have simply forgotten where we wrote it down.

I write this post with a sense of irony given the fact that I happen to work in the personal growth industry. So I’m not telling you not to buy any more personal growth books or take any more workshops. (I would be SUCH a hypocrite if I did.)

Do I believe in the work that I do in the world? Hell yeah. Will I keep attending seminars, searching my soul, going on retreats, and listening to others for wisdom and insight? You bet your bippy.

But today, I wanted to remind you that sometimes you get full. Sometimes, you’ve had enough. Sometimes, you need a little time and space to digest what you have already learned from without and from within.

If I honestly put into action even five percent of the material I’ve learned from books and seminars that I’ve not yet implemented, my life would be revolutionized. And if I went within and asked my soul more questions instead of looking for answers outside, I would probably spontaneously combust from unleashing the spark of divinity cooking away in there at all times.

And I know you would too.

Take a break from time to time. Be un-coached for a while. Let the fields of self-actualization lie fallow for a season. Ask yourself what you think instead of your girlfriend or guru. Read a novel for a change.

And then, the next time you walk into a seminar, take a course, or open a personal growth book, you’ll be coming from a place of fullness instead of emptiness. You’ll not be looking for the missing piece of information to complete you. Instead, you’ll be browsing for the cherry on top of your already incredibly dense, deep, sweet, wise cake of self-assurance and personal knowing.

I promise you: you’ll get a heck of a lot more out of another person’s wisdom when you first see yourself as full instead of empty.

So my reminder to you today is this:

It is possible to overdose on personal growth.
Take a break from growing every now and then, at least from growing in any sort of focused, purposeful way.
You already have everything within you that you need.
You are full already. You came that way. You are lacking in nothing.

Kate Northrup is a professional freedom seeker and creative entrepreneur and mentors entrepreneurs in creating their own financial freedom. She created financial freedom for herself at the age of twenty-eight through building a team of more than 1,000 wellness entrepreneurs in the network marketing industry. Her philosophy is that if you free yourself financially, you can be fully present to your purpose on the planet. Find out more and take her free Money Love Quiz to find out what your relationship with money says about you at KateNorthrup.com and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

*Photo Credit: Stephan Geyer via Compfight cc