Clutter Busting Coach

...clearing clutter from your mind, body and space

The Enemy of Growth is Conformity

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Staying in our comfort zone feels safe. Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior to fit in with a group.

Conformity can help you abandon your bad habits. If you happen to always arrive late for an event or meeting, then the pressure placed by the group to arrive on time can spur you to make changes in your life that stops this issue and can help you make positive changes to your behaviors.

Understanding conformity can help you make sense of the reasons why some people go along with the crowd, even when their choices seem out of character for them. It can also help you see how other people’s behavior may influence the choices you make.

Does conformity limit freedom, inspiration, and independence? Conformity, defined as acting in order and in compliance with social behavior and law, is an extremely vague term, but it can mean that creativity and originality can be lost due to the standards set by authoritative figures if we take it to an extreme. Don’t get me wrong there are laws, etc. that need to be followed.

My purpose of this post is to focus on conformity keeping us stuck and not growing because we limit ourselves based on the perceived opinions of others. So, dance, sing and create. Do something that feels uncomfortable, and you might plant the seed of growth

Freedom to Make Mistakes

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Do you make mistakes? How do you feel when you make a mistake? Why have you labeled it a mistake? Most often we will judge our actions as a mistake based on external influences.

We unconsciously judge ourselves by external influencers all the time. And so much so that we are feeling constantly judged or that we can never do anything “right”. But who decides if are actions are a mistake?

We allow ourselves to think that we can never make mistakes…. that society or our colleagues or our friends/family will judge our actions as good or bad or that we are a failure. It is our thoughts, emotions, and perception of what our actions mean that can set us free from judgement. It is a way that we can change our view about our actions as learning opportunities versus mistakes. If we allow ourselves permission and freedom to make mistakes, we are creating an opportunity for growth. The quote above resonated with me because it is important that we make a shift in our thoughts so that we treat our lives independent of external influences. We can lead are lives knowing that there will be mistakes along the way and that is okay if we rectify them and learn from them. [Read more…]