Do you recognize yourself from a year ago?
How about 4 years ago? 8 years ago?
A friend of mine recently noted, “you’ve grown a lot in the past year and a half. It’s been pretty insane to see how you’ve changed.”
His comment, made me stop and think to myself about the person I was when I had first met him.
To give you some context, when we met, I was in a committed relationship, a full-time student pursuing a major I didn’t care about, and working full-time at a startup in NYC.
Today, I’m happily single, love what I do for work, and am learning more/at a faster rate than I ever have.
It’s important to note, not everything is up and to the right.
Over the last year, I’ve lost touch with many people I thought I’d have life-long relationships with.
In the past few months: my ideas have been rejected more times than I can count, I’ve been on the edge of going broke, and have struggled with managing my psychology through the highs and lows.
My friend’s comment made me realize I’ve grown more than I could have imagined in the past year and a half.
The cost of growth is letting go of all the people, experiences, and things that aren’t relevant to the person I’ve become.
It’s incredibly hard to dissociate with your past self. Especially because you can’t relate to the people you once could. You don’t enjoy some of the experiences you once did. The things that once mattered don’t any more.
