Growth is a Process, not a Destination
...final thoughts from the wrap-up of the "Gifts of Imperfection" re-read and listen-along
Welcome! I’m Dr. Jillian, a physician leader, toddler mom, and coach who writes Humans Leading to help overwhelmed professionals live less stressed, more satisfying lives. If the full post doesn’t show up in your e-mail, come over to the webpage or Substack App to see the whole thing. Subscribe here for free to get future posts straight to your inbox:
✨ Last time: Week 4 of our 4-week journey through “The Gifts of Imperfection”: Catch up here.
✨ Today: Final thoughts on the Gifts of Imperfection series
Welcome to the wrap-up post of the Gifts of Imperfection Re-Read and listen-along!
It has been so inspiring to see what you learned about yourselves through this process, whether you were reading along, listening to the podcast, reading the posts here on Humans Leading, or some combination of these.
If you’re new to the re-read and would like to check it out, you can get started with the links to each week below.
Introduction:
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:
Week 4
Now, for my final thoughts.
I recently had someone ask me if making small changes in our lives actually adds up to meaningful change.
We’d been discussing this re-read, and I had mentioned how eye-opening it had been for me to retake the “Wholehearted Inventory” from Brene Brown. As I wrote here, retaking the assessment allowed me to see how I’d changed since I first took it and helped me areas of opportunity for further growth.
The person I was talking to seemed skeptical about this process. She told me that it seemed “depressing” that 4 years’ worth of self-development work hadn’t “fixed” the issues I was working on. And her concerns about the usefulness of making small changes were getting in the way of her beginning to make changes in her own life.
She was looking for an easy button.
You know: the magic button that you can push that allows you to skip forward in time past all of the difficulty. The magic pill you can swallow that fixes you and lets you get to the “good part.”
But, as I wrote here, this doesn’t exist. And waiting for the easy button often causes us to waste our lives. Instead of making small changes that add up over time, we remain stagnant.
This re-read reminded me of several important truths:
The only way to get to where you want to be is to start with small steps.
These add up over time and result in the change you wish you make.
The easy button or magic pill doesn’t exist.
You won’t be motivated to make a change in your own life until the pain of staying the same is greater than your fear of beginning to make the change.
These are the ‘unravelings’ that Brené writes about in the book.
I wrote about my own experiences of this here on
’s publication. If I hadn’t experienced burnout, I’m not sure I would’ve ever begun to address my perfectionism and workaholism.My life has been a series of unravelings that have led to change. Your own life is likely full of them, too.
We never reach the end of growth. The process of growing is the goal.
Growth is not a destination. It is a process without an end.
The good news is that we do make progress over time when we put in the work. I have certainly seen progress in my own life over the past month.
This series was the next phase of growth in my own life.
I started it as a way to be less self-critical about my imperfections, and I found it to be immensely helpful. It served as a way for me to continue to unlearn things that were no longer serving me and was also a reminder to continue to cultivate more of the things that I want in my life: joy, play, rest, etc.
I am still processing all that I have learned and will be continuing to share here on Humans Leading.
What was your biggest takeaway from this experience?
This was an insightful series. Small tidbits that when accumulated lead to a larger realization. I was really struck with standing in one place and have incorporated that concept into actionable forward motion. Thank you for the recommendation to be a part of this series.