055 | What Does Personal Growth Mean to You?

A Special 1 Year Anniversary Episode!

Listen to What Does Personal Growth Mean to You? – A Special 1 Year Anniversary Episode! on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts

One year ago, a HUGE dream of mine was coming to life…launching a podcast! Between my personal journey, the conversations we’ve had on this show, countless lessons learned, new perspectives, and overall growth, this year has truly been one like no other.  I’m so grateful to YOU for making Gather in Growth what it is today. 

I’ve had the joy of interviewing some incredible women who inspire me and have beautiful stories to share. I’ve learned so much about myself, the world, and you along the way and I’m so excited to share pieces of that with you in this very special anniversary episode. In each guest interview, I ask the question “what does personal growth mean to you” and we have compiled each guest’s answer to make today’s episode extra special. 

Over the last 12 months, there’s been a huge transformation in me and in my life. I’ll also be sharing how my perspective of personal growth has shifted over the last year.

In this episode, What Does Personal Growth Mean to You?, we cover:

• How my health journey and personal growth story has gotten me where I am today
• My perspective of personal growth now vs. a year ago 
• What does it look like to live life on purpose?
• Lessons learned through this show, therapy, and a year of ups and downs

Resources & Links:

• The Gap and the Gain by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan [affiliate link]
• Learn more about ASCEND retreats and get on my email list to get all the updates!
• Join the waitlist for Masterminds! (registration opening in June 2023)
• Get your Monthly Mileage Tracker here
• Learn more about my speaking
• Get your YouDoYou32 tracker! (82’s little sister!)
• Get your YouDoYou82 tracker and join the Facebook community!
• Gather in Growth podcast produced by: Jill Carr Podcasting

Connect with my Guests:

• Episode 002 | Katrina Klooster
  The definition I have for that has changed so much in the last 25 years. I think when I first started on this journey of personal development, it was really with this idea of learning more and wanting to understand myself and other people better. And I still think there’s a piece of that there. But I am now in this place where I really think that personal development is so much more about UNlearning and letting go of other people’s expectations or society’s expectations, my beliefs about who I thought I had to be, and really owning who I am allowing myself to have the permission to be me and to show up in the world and make the contribution that I know is like what I’m here for. 
  
  
• Episode 004 | Mya Nichol
  Personal growth for me is just looking back on the day before, and recognizing that there has been change. For me, it’s just looking at myself and like really having tunnel vision on my journey and like making sure that where I’m going is really in line. And as I do look back on, what did I do yesterday or like where was I at yesterday and making sure that it is in line with where I’m wanting to go
  
  
• Episode 006 | Coach Kiah
  Personal growth to me means having a lifelong learning mentality about myself. And that is so multifaceted. I think something that I’ve learned to embrace over the last few years is to have compassionate curiosity always for myself and others. I think the day that I decide that I know myself completely inside and out is the day that I stop learning, because I feel like I’ve changed so much. I feel like I’m gonna continue to change because our experiences teach us and we take those lessons into our future. And so I think for me, personal growth is compassionate curiosity. 
  
  
• Episode 008 | Aly Robins
  Personal Growth means diving deep into who you are and what makes you tick, and making sure that you’re also recognizing where you want to go and figuring out how to get there and making sure you’re keeping yourself accountable to the things that you’re doing in your everyday life.
  
  
• Episode 010 | MP Sass
  I think if you can set goals for yourself, and whatever that be personal, business, whatever, and continually look back to see how far you’ve come with reaching those goals, such as, prioritizing family, and constantly making that something that you’re thinking about. And growing towards it. I feel like that’s personal growth in a nutshell. For me it is working every day to build the life that you want to be living. 
  
  
• Episode 012 | Kylie Epperson
  Personal Growth is working on yourself to become the best version of yourself. It is kind of the root of everything. And if we don’t grow as a person, then we stay stuck. And I think living a very stuck life is one of the most disappointing things that we have given ourselves or our families. So personal growth is needed. 
  
  
• Episode 014 | Maddie Peschong
  Personal growth, to me means something that is constant. I feel like personal growth is something that we’re always working on. But the way that we’re working on it looks really different in different seasons of life. I’ve had seasons, and I feel like I’m in one now where personal growth is really related to my business. And probably most of last year personal growth was way more related to me as a human. Like, what does Maddie like to do? Who is Maddie without the business? And I think sometimes we get very siloed on like, personal growth means business growth, but it doesn’t. And when I really realized that personal growth is more related to just Maddie as a whole person, I feel like that was when I made a lot of really cool changes in my life, just as far as like habits and disciplines and self care practices that make me really happy and just make me excited to be alive and not just be a person with like a job or whatever. 
  
  
• Episode 015 | Leah McCloud
  Personal Growth means being happy and being unapologetic in whatever it is that you’re doing. That’s growth, is just not caring. That would be a sign of personal growth. That’s what it means to me is just being content with yourself and where you’re going and your path without letting other people get in the way of that
  
  
• Episode 017 | Julie King 
  Being willing to consider that there’s another way and just being open to that idea. 
  
  
• Episode 017 | Joanna Faber 
  Personal growth would be to hold a little part of my mind open to another way that I have not considered before. Even though so much of my mind wants to say I know how to do this, this is how I’ve been doing it. And I’m very invested in that being the right way.
  
  
• Episode 018 | Molly Knuth 
  I really feel like personal growth is that kind of desire to keep expanding ourselves. And it’s the knowing that we are perfect as we are right now, we might have things we want to work on. And we are on a quest, that’s our life’s goal, to continue that journey to get to where we ultimately want to go. 
  
  
• Episode 020 | Hilary Richards
  Personal growth means pushing myself out of my comfort zone. Doing the hard things whether I feel totally confident about it or not. And the trust in manifestant note that helps me know that everything’s working out exactly how it’s meant to work out. So I keep saying trust, like it’s just one of the biggest personal growth things that I have done is just sat with things and like let them come to me and I’m not forcing anything and that is like huge growth for me because I used to just force everything and be super anxious. Like, why isn’t this happening, I need to make this happen. And so one of the biggest ways I have personally grown is just trusting that everything is happening exactly the right time. 
  
  
• Episode 021 | Kristen Rogers
  It really means pausing to me. If I could give you a visual representation of personal growth for me, now, it looks like going through an ordinary experience of work, play, whatever it might be, and recognizing, oh, I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach right now, what is that? I need to take a minute and realize how important that is. Because if I don’t now, I’m going to be trying to three months from now. And so I think that’s now for me, I just need to continue to put tools in my toolbox that allow me to manage emotions in the moment. Instead of compartmentalize and intellect them away. Emotions are good. It’s by working through the emotions as they come and naming them, claiming them, feeling them, not trying to  fix them, versus allowing them to exist. And eventually, I’m through that emotion without any intellect. 
  
  
• Episode 025 | Tara Vander Dussen
  I think for me, personal growth is always evolving. There’s never an end point, it’s a constant. I think it is also understanding your weaknesses. Being aware of your weaknesses, maybe you aren’t fixing them today, maybe you’re not fixing them tomorrow. But just being self aware enough to know where it is. Like for me, there’s a lot of things I could probably work on. But I’m very happy with myself at this point in my life that I’m aware of those and then I’m at least working in a way at something every day, every month, every year just trying to move the needle a little bit more and self growth. 
  
  
• Episode 025 | Natalie Kovarik
  When you’re investing into changes, it’s a very small percentage that actually moves the needle, a very large percentage. When I began personal development, I think of really little things I can do every single day to just be better. Like is it to wake up consistently, is it to make my bed, is it to take vitamins, like what little thing can I do. I kind of am the person that is a little bit more strategic. Like I try to pick one thing a month I want to do a personal development around and then I try and stick with that. One thing that month and hopefully it’s a habit by the end of the 30 days, and then I can add something new in the next month. But I think personal development, as basic as it sounds, it’s just about choosing to better yourself every day in little ways. It’s not like personal development is this big, grand thing. It’s really built on small things that compound. 
  
  
• Episode 027 | Emily Schaapman
  Personal Growth means not being afraid to fail and viewing it as failing forward. I think it’s just viewing everything as an opportunity to grow and to learn. And it’s really finding the good in all situations, even the really shitty hard situations. It’s going into it with enthusiasm that, hey, I can really have enthusiasm because this is fun, this is awesome, this is wonderful. Or I’m going to have the enthusiasm to make the most out of this situation and look for it as an opportunity to grow. 
  
  
• Episode 029 | Dawn Marie
  Personal Growth means to me just the steps that you’re eager enough to take risks and move forward, even if it’s scary, even if it’s change, even if it means something new. That to me is personal growth. So just anything that you’re willing to take a stance on or to try, because I feel like that’s the biggest step for a lot of us. And it’s just amazing what can happen. When we allow personal growth to settle in to us. 
  
  
• Episode 030 | Katelyn Duban
  I think personal growth for me comes back down to the reflection part. Being self aware. How are we regulating ourselves in our emotions? How do these things make me feel? And actually slowing down and understanding that and knowing that before we leap into things. So being really connected on the inside, to me, that’s personal growth.
  
  
• Episode 032 | Sarah Elrod
  Growing for me right now in this season, is being willing to let things go and being willing to sit in a season of slowness. Because before I would have said that growth is growing, getting bigger, doing new things, doing a lot of things. And that almost became easy for me. And now I’m struggling through this idea of slowing down. And it’s made me a better person, it’s made me a more present wife, a more present mom. And I think I’ve really kind of stepped into this season of let’s just let’s just take a backseat for a little bit and slow down and not feel like I have to be doing everything all the time. 
  
  
• Episode 034 | Jenny Roth
  Personal Growth means to me that I am really paying attention to how my day feels and making sure that I’m not just driving myself to do more, be more, produce more, be supermom. Not just putting all those pressures on myself but really taking a moment to recognize everything that I have right now. And to understand that it’s more than enough right and that I’m more than enough and that I can do things that I never thought were possible and I’m worthy of it. So personal growth is like literally, for me an hourly thing that I go through and I fail at it a lot, but I get up and try again. So personal growth is just trying to love my life and be happy in my life.
  
  
• Episode 036 | Danna Larson
  I am a learner. So I’m constantly trying to learn new things. And that probably goes hand in hand with being an entrepreneur. But yeah, I think it’s so important. If we’re not growing, we’re going backwards, you know, and so I always want to be growing, I always want to be learning. And we will have failures, but to be able to learn from them and apply that to making things better moving forward is key and not getting hung up on that stuff. I think personal growth is a huge part of what we’re doing individually and how we’re reviving our communities.
  
  
• Episode 038 | Theresa Lear Levine
  It’s the ability to be able to step into the next version of myself confidently, and to embrace everything that I can become with support, knowledge and new understandings. 
  
  
• Episode 042 | Annaliese Wegner
  Personal growth for me is just taking time for me time to slow down to reflect, to remind myself, what does bring me joy. Taking time to learn something new. To grow. To put yourself out there in a new way, not just like, sticking with the norm. It’s getting off track a little bit. Getting off the beaten path. 
  
  
• Episode 044 | Kayla Zenner
  Personal growth to me means being able to look at my life and really figure out what it is that I want and work towards that in no matter what area it could be. It could be my mental growth, it could be my professional growth. But having the ability to look inside myself and see what it is that I need to do to grow in whatever capacity I want to. 
  
  
• Episode 048 | Kate House
  For me, personal growth is this opportunity as an adult, to still be like a student of life. To be reading books that are fiction, but to be reading books that are personal growth oriented, that are working on my mindset, or my self love practices, or my journaling or creativity. So to me, personal growth is, it’s one part creating awareness of myself and others and learning how I interact with the world, how my past experiences might impact that how I can show up as a more present and patient and hopefully, better person in the future, while also still loving who I am right now. And like appreciating all my past experiences because it brought me here. Not shaming myself or “shoulding” myself. Just finding that contentment and that joy in the day to day, while still growing into the future. 
  
  
• Episodes 049 & 050 | Elaine Froese
  Personal growth to me is lifelong learning, showing up as the best version of me, with all the experiences and losses and journeys that I’ve had in my life to help use my life as an encouragement to other people. You never stop learning, you can keep growing, and the positivity is I always know, there’s hope. And you can go out there and make really good choices to have an amazing life. 
  
  
• Episode 052 | Ashley Machado
  Personal Growth means to me in this season, choosing to let go of perfection. And understanding, just taking steps is okay too and perfect in its own way.
  
  
• Episode 054 | April Roberts 
  I think for me, it’s been learning to accept myself exactly for the person that I am. And not being not being embarrassed of certain things, not being ashamed of certain things, not wanting to hide certain things. But just being okay with who I really am, and being confident in that and just learning to actually love myself.

Connect with Emily:

• Follow on Instagram and Facebook
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• Check out my website
• Connect with on LinkedIn

Related Episodes:

• Episode 001│do it scared
• Episode 043 | the confusing intersection between chasing and content

More about Gather in Growth podcast: 

Where can I connect with fellow rural women who aren’t afraid to dream big dreams? How do I create and sustain daily habits that help me reach my personal and professional goals? Am I the only one that absolutely loves living in the middle of nowhere but wants to understand the world beyond my backyard? What should I do about the unshakable feeling that there’s more to life than just showing up? How do I break free from other people’s opinions and confidently live as my authentic self? 

Welcome to Gather in Growth, a show created for passionate, growth-focused rural women like you. From mindset work and building strong habits to nerding out over personal growth books through the lens of life on a backroad, this is a show to leave you feeling joyful, inspired, ready to take action, and a little less alone. 

Tune in for honest and heart-felt conversations with host, Emily Reuschel, and fellow thought leaders, to talk about personal growth and thriving as a rural woman. Here you’ll gain tactical strategies to bring your dreams to reality, real talk about the ups and downs of tackling goals, meaningful insight from fresh perspectives, and the confidence to step into the calling that’s been laid on your heart for a reason. If you crave to feel seen in a small town, you’re in the right place. 

Whether you’re currently running on a backroad, shuffling kids to town, hopping along for a tractor ride, or three loads deep into folding laundry… we’re in this together. Absolutely anything is possible and I’m so grateful to be on this journey with YOU! 

Be sure to hit subscribe so you never miss the latest episode! Reviews help us reach more rockstar rural women, and are always greatly appreciated!