Sleeping Beauty awakens: these are the 5 phases of personal growth

Suddenly I felt it. I started thinking differently. I started acting differently. And then I started getting different results. It's called personal growth for a reason, so everyone experiences the process differently, but there are a number of phases that the process has in common.

Phase 1: Sleeping Beauty is still sleepy, sleepy
It's quite funny, because at the moment you're reading this, you're probably already past this phase. Hey, what do you do differently in an article about personal growth? We call the ‘sleep phase’ the period in which your fears and habits still ruled your life. Now you're ‘awake’ and you realize that you no longer want to live on autopilot.

Phase 2: The prince has kissed you: wakey wakey
At the moment you wake up from your sleep, you suddenly wonder why you actually do what you do. You wonder what holds you back from living the life you actually want. You start to see patterns, begin to notice that you resemble your parents more than you expected (even have the traits you found silly as a child) and why you keep falling into the same traps. For the first time you realize: if I want to change, I have to start with myself.

Phase 3: Sleeping Beauty is going to do it
Yes, the actual application of the new knowledge. By now you know that you want to change. After all, your old way of living hasn't brought you the optimal happiness you hoped for. In this phase, you may also experience ‘growing pains’. You are aware of it, but then a whole lot of courage is needed to clean up and tackle your ‘old’ self, and that feels unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Sleeping Beauty has to get to work! You're ready.

Phase 4: Does she live happily ever after?
Oh yes, she does. She hasn't become a different person, she has... Finally. Become herself. She no longer fights against reality. She understands her emotions more. When you have made your new habits your own, you accept what you cannot change more easily. And what you cannot accept, you change.

Phase 5: Spread the word
People are actually such lovely beings. When things are really going well for us, we are happy to share our love. We don't just want to change our own lives, but also that of others. I mean: you wish everyone pure happiness, right? Probably Sleeping Beauty wants to immediately share her newly acquired information and insights (which have led to purer happiness) with the others in the fairy tale forest. That's beautiful and sweet, but she is in no hurry. It takes time to fully transform, and she should therefore be patient with herself. And especially very proud. Because she has grown. She has become herself.

Photography: @bymabelphotography