Nurturing My Growth
By Di Cullen
In April of 2024 I set up my Whole You Growth Plan with a commitment to Courageously believe and embrace my powerfully intentional ability to manifest a thriving Whole You community in 2024.
While I felt confident I could build a thriving community, I also noticed a little doubt once in a while that I wanted to explore further. By creating this GROWTH COMMITMENT, along with some SMART goals to support it, I set out to see what I could learn about myself in the next 45 days - not if I could achieve or perform the goals.
Within 3-4 weeks, I discovered a number of important things, one being a little voice in my head that showed up every so often saying "Who do you think you are....? with a sarcastic, negative and condescending tone. For example, "Who do you think you are....
...to want to make a difference in other people's lives when your life isn't perfect."
...building a self development program with no formal experience or educational credentials."
...dreaming big dreams....and pursuing them."
....and so on.
While I wasn't fully surprised this voice was there, I was a bit disappointed. I had done a LOT of personal development work over the years to uncover, face and resolve much of these negative inner critic messages, designed to keep me small. Keep me in my place. Especially as a girl and a woman.
Once I recognized the voice, I shared what I was experiencing with my committed listener/buddy Renee and my Trail Blazers groups. I decided to continue the same Growth Plan for the next 45 days. There was more to learn!
During the second 45 days, I started to dig deeper into how often this voice appeared, noticing the context and what I did - or didn't do - in reaction to this voice. I practiced using my Whole You Being Vision (BV) and Soulful Life Purpose (SLP) to shift me out of the negative inner critic and into an empowering story - authored by me - about me.
Just by acknowledging this voice to myself then sharing it with others, I was able to reduce the power it had over me. I was onto it. I applied some of the resilience skills I learned from We Are Resilient ™. I was able to notice it, assess it and choose if I wanted IT to determine my life or if I wanted ME to pave my path.
I am still in the process of identifying the best tools and practices to help me quiet this voice, which will take time.
I have learned a lot about myself through this Growth Commitment. I would not have been able to discover, understand and shift the inner voice underlying the nagging doubt that I occasionally felt, had I not given it focus, space and time.