Change and Personal (Endless) Growth
Why the endless growth model is broken and how it affects our personal growth
The endless growth model: it’s something that is built into our culture and seeps into different facets of our lives unknowingly. Endless growth itself is an obvious oxymoron when examined with any attention, yet it’s deep-seated message goes largely unnoticed as it affects our economic and social systems down to the very core. Nothing material can grow forever. Endless growth is nearly impossible and still it is the basis for so many of our cultural beliefs in this late stage capitalist economy.
Beyond the implications on our economic and social systems, endless growth is a pattern that I’ve also noticed in my own aspirations and life goals. Raised in a competitive westernized educational environment, my school system taught me one thing: never settle, always push for more. More money, better jobs, bigger houses, newer cars, more clothes, expensive vacations - never mind the personal ladder-climbing: more fame, more recognition.
Writing this down, it feels exhausting. And it is. Endless growth is impossible. Just like it leads to inevitable burnout for our planet and her resources, so it also leads to personal burnout and exhaustion. Midlife crisis, anyone?
This cultural urging forward to always push myself towards something bigger and better has probably been one of the hardest mental shifts to hold tangibly. Personal betterment sounds like a darn fine thing until you factor in those notions of endless growth. I’m not talking about the quest for enlightenment: of course there is always more to learn, more to know, more ways to grow and change. The books will always be there to read, the knowledge always there to learn.
What I mean is the personal wearing-down that comes with the never-ending search for something more. Self-improvement has it’s limits not because there isn’t endless ways to improve, but because it’s fucking exhausting. Just like those higher paying jobs and bigger houses are always there, endlessly and aggressively pursuing personal betterment will eventually lead to burn out. I know this because I’ve lived it over the past few years.
Maybe it’s because I’m coming into my 40s, but I’m starting to feel the wear and tear of the cultural practice of personal endless growth and it’s exhausting. I’m a person that generally thrives in times of challenge and change but I’m starting to see and understand that sometimes it’s okay to pick the same path that I’m already on rather than the path of acute change.
So here’s my take-away: self-improvement and learning is important but not to the point of burnout, don’t be afraid of change but also be cool with staying the same, and acknowledge when the endless growth model is wreaking havoc on my personal goals and shift to something more sustainable that serves me rather than a broken economic model.
Further reading: