True Growth

Most of us would like to achieve our full potential in life. We want to use all our talents and opportunities toward maximizing our impact on this world. The most popular paths to this goal have been the pursuit of wealth, fame, power, and education. Generally, external gains are valued over internal growth.    

 “True growth is the ability of a society to transfer increasing amounts of energy and attention from the material side of life to the nonmaterial side.” (Arnold Toynbee, “Law of Progressive Simplification”)

Once our basic material needs are met—food, shelter, etc.—we should be able to invest more of our time and energy into developing our nonmaterial, intrinsic values. Instead, we tend to keep focusing on the acquisition of more and more extrinsic accomplishments.

Why do we neglect our potential for inner growth? I suspect it has something to do with the lack of public validation. Inner growth lacks visibility and is difficult to measure.

I have an only child, and I’ve kept meticulous records of his growth. Every birthday, for the last 18 years, I’ve written down his height and weight. I also wrote down his big achievements for each year; things like, ‘won geography bee,’ ‘graduated with honors,’ ‘got driver’s license,’ etc. However, I haven’t cataloged the signs of inner growth, such as—‘started becoming more responsible, self-directed, mature, and considerate,’ ‘developed good judgment and morals,’ or ‘progressed in ability to think independently and not to be influenced by peer pressure.’ Since these intrinsic qualities are immeasurable, and unrecorded they may seem to have less value than those that receive public validation. Yet, this is not true.

True growth is the development of our inner, human potential—an increase in discernment, compassion, fairness, and the ability to see beyond the superficial, measurable standards of the material world to the intangible, nonmaterial realms of our soul.