Who we are without our frameworks.
We discuss growth like it is a destination or goal. The more tools we invest in, the more insights we get, the greater our awareness and healing, waiting with bated breath for the moment that everything just, clicks into place. The light bulb moment when it all suddenly makes sense and clarity awakens us from our torrid unconscious.
In business terms, growth is the phase where resources increase so revenue can increase. You invest, you hire, you experiment and you really expand your brand in a manner that supports forward momentum. Yes, input is heavy, but the returns justify it.
Personal growth is not dissimilar. We go to therapy, we hire a coach, we invest in self-help books and workshops, we take a myriad of classes and subscribe to a host gurus and their podcasts. We attend thousand dollar retreats to discover ourselves and our truest potential, and then we keep pumping the investment to help sustain the journey. Resource heavy, but boy, does the mind and self expand. You learn things about yourself that you never knew before, you unlock hidden potential and develop healthier habits and routines. You become more self-aware, and that helps you crossover limiting behaviour.
But like a business, we can’t stay in growth forever. A business of any kind, (minding your own included!) cannot sustain a resource-intensive or input heavy model. At some point, we have to shift to scale.
Scaling Life
Scaling is when we step out of that incubator, and start breathing and living on our own. We have fully developed, enough to self-sustain and it’s time to start using what we have developed.
When a business moves from growth to scale, it doubles down on optimising internal processes and building efficient systems to reduce codependency. We establish decision frameworks that allow output to hold steady, and continue growing revenue without continuously increasing input. It’s basically optimising what already exists instead of endlessly acquiring more.
In personal development, moving from growth to scale means internalising what we’ve learned, reducing dependence on external regulation, building sustainable and repeatable emotional and cognitive processes and making fewer decisions, but better quality ones.
We stop asking, “What more can I acquire?” and move into asking “Who am I without my supports?”.
- “Can I hold myself to the same standard without my coach watching?”
- “Can I self regulate without needing someone to guide me through it?”
- “Can I formulate my own thoughts and beliefs without quoting someone else’s language?”
- “Am I still perpetuating beliefs that were never mind?”
- “Am I defending my fears and projections with shiny new vocabulary?”
- “Am I confusing awareness for embodiment?”
If growth feels expansive, then scale will leave you feeling exposed
Growth as the scaffolding of self standing tall against the test of time
Life Without The Scaffolding
There’s a moment in every system where the supports are removed, and we witness the structure we’ve built stand on it’s own. If it was built on solid foundation, and strong workmanship, it can now bask in the glory of all the hard work.
In a business, our scaffolding are consultants, frameworks, playbooks, decks, external advisors—all necessary early on to help stabilise what hasn’t yet found its own form.
But after time, the questions begs, “Can this thing stand on its own?”
A business that can’t make decisions without a consultant or external advisory, isn’t a business. It’s a dependency.
The same is true for life. “Can I stand on my own?”
Without my coaches and teachers, without constant guidance, without borrowed language and thoughts. Without needing to reference someone else to validate my own choices.
Yes, it’s confronting as hell. There’s no one to translate my experience into meaning for me, no one to validate me or tell me, “You’re right”. No one to affirm my beliefs, now one to defer to when life starts confronting me the hard decisions.
No more scaffolding, only my internal structure standing against the test of time.
“Is my foundation solid?”
“Will I crack under the pressure of my own weight?”
Where (Brand) Thinking Belongs
A mature brand doesn’t ask, “What should we do?”, it asks, “What do we stand for and what does that require of us now?”. It knows what to say yes to, but more importantly what to refuse. (It doesn’t try to do it all, all at once.)
Life, as it turn out is the same. Instead of looking in all the wrong places for the answers (especially the ones that validate my beliefs) I’m having to build my own decisions frameworks. Instead of outsourcing clarity from the next teacher, coach and guru, I’m having to define it for myself, even if it means it looks nothing like what I had envisioned.
“What behaviours do I align myself with now?”
“What pattern do I no longer negotiate with?”
“What trade-offs am I no longer willing to make in the name if success?”
These aren’t just reflective questions for your January social media update. These are fundamental, life-operational ones that will decide how and if, you can stand on your own when your scaffolding is removed.
This is the phase where both brands and people are tested not by how eloquently they articulate their values, but by how consistently they live them under pressure.
Standing Tall
No more hiding behind, “I’m still learning” or “I’m in the process”. No more chasing insight and knowledge as a substitute for embodiment. We can attend every class, read every book, say all the right things. But when scale strips that all away, it asks a simpler question:
“Who am I?”
Not “Who am I becoming?”, not “Who was I told I could be?”
“Who am I, now?” When things are moving fast, when things are uncertain, when resources are thin, when old patterns offer and familiar and easier way out.
THIS, is built in living with what I already know, in restraint, in consolidating it all.
This is no longer growth. This is scale.
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