4 Personal Growth Lessons That I Learned Last Week

Hola, everyone! I hope all of you are doing great. After all, last week was payday. Yaaaay!!

The beginning of last week was relaxing for me (work-life). So, I spent my time consuming personal growth content from podcasts, videos and articles. Thankfully, they helped me to be more self-aware.

Here are 4 personal growth lessons that I learned last week:

There are 6 Human Needs

A few years ago, I discovered that I’m an ENFJ. But thanks to Tony Robbins, last week I discovered the core human needs that drive every decision I make.

According to the article, there are 6 human needs:

• Certainty — assurance that you can avoid pain and gain pleasure
• Uncertainty/Variety — the need for the unknown
• Significance — feeling unique, important, special, needed
• Connection/Love — a strong feeling of closeness/union with someone or something
• Growth — an expansion of capacity, capability, or understanding
• Contribution — a sense of service and focus on helping, giving to and supporting others

Can you guess which are my core human needs? Well, apparently mine are Growth and Contribution!

Growth means you’re always pushing boundaries, independent and are not attached to material things. Also, you find it difficult to connect with others and move on too quickly from relationships. I’m unsure about the difficulty to connect with others, but the latter part is definitely me – I guess it’s a blessing in disguise!

Contribution means you’re empathetic, compassionate, enjoy sharing and giving back. It also means you long to leave a legacy but easily burnout and could be taken advantage of by others.

Want to know what’s yours? Find out your core human needs here.

Life & Storytelling Lessons from Dr. A.J Minai

What started with one podcast ended up with many podcasts, videos and articles.

Dr. A.J Minai is an amazing brand storyteller, Best LinkedIn Influencer MSMW2019, 2x TEDx speaker, a member of Forbes Communications Council, an entrepreneur, an angel investor, etc. (just Google him)

As a writer, I gained a lot of insights from him about life, storytelling and digital marketing.

For example, brands used to control people but now it’s the other way round. With the disruption in digital marketing, people are inclined to quality content that brings value, rather than hard-selling or constantly shoving the images of the products to them.

Think of some ads that stir your emotion.

In Malaysia, you’ll notice big brands like Petronas, Maxis, Watsons and Julie’s use storytelling to sell their services or products. I personally enjoy watching those kinds of ads on YouTube, especially the ads from Thai companies ??

Great storytelling = memorable = sticks in the audience’s heart & mind

Dr. A.J Minai also motivates me to always stay true to myself in order to live my best life. Furthermore, I realized that I need to be more empathetic and cultivate a habit of proactive listening in order to be a great storyteller and connect with the audience.

I like the way he conveys his message, it’s honest and straightforward. By the way, apparently, both of us have the same role models – Gary Vaynerchuk and Tony Robbins!

The Joy of Budgeting

Ok, this one is subjective. It’s more like my own self-awareness.

Initially, I thought I like budgeting because it helps me to achieve my travel goals. But when everyone in my department, thankfully, received a bonus last month, I realized that it’s the act of budgeting itself that makes me happy.

Even before I knew the exact amount of my bonus, I got excited and started to make a rough draft of what I would do with the money. Not a shopping list, but budget allocation!?

• Savings & Investment — the biggest pie, because I need to catch up on my retirement & emergency funds.
• Travelling — to feed my wanderlust, and in case the price of flight tickets goes skyrocketing after the pandemic (I still have 2 pending trips and am already eye-ing Egypt + Jordan).
• Parents — because they deserve it, no doubt.
• Charity — ahh… the joy of giving!

Gen Z, you guys are lucky because you can start building your investment portfolio early. I wish robo-advisors exist in Malaysia when I was in my early 20s!

If you feel blessed and want to give back, here are some organizations that you can help: Charity Water, SPCA Selangor, UNHCR, UNICEF, World Food Programme, World Vision, WWF, Yayasan Tangan Pengharapan, Yayasan Team Action Amed.

What You Negatively Think of Yourself May Not Always be True

If there’s one thing that I can’t change about myself, it’s the fact that I’m short. On top of that, I look younger than my age.

Some people think I’m a college student. When I joined the company where I’m working, one of my colleagues asked if I was an intern! Fyi, I’m 30 years old this year!

Therefore, sometimes I feel less confident when hanging out in bars or attending social events because I don’t want to be seen as a kid. I can accept being called “cute” but to be seen as a young girl isn’t fun.

Like, when you realized someone is starring at you but he never approaches you because he thinks you’re too young for him…

Ok, back to the topic. Since the gyms are closed due to MCO, I always walk in the park every morning. In the park, I would see the same people and we greet each other when we meet.

So, one day, a random guy who I often meet lightly said that I looked sexy that day. I just smiled.

But actually, I couldn’t help to think which part of me that he found sexy. I was wearing my flower-power house pants and a boyish workout top:

How on earth does the look above = sexy??? I didn’t feel sexy at all!

I won’t lie that he made me happy. I’m not attracted to him, but the fact that he looked around my age and wasn’t shy to compliment me in public = I LOOKED MY AGE. Or at least, mature enough. Otherwise, you wouldn’t say that to a teenager in a public park, right?

YAAAAAS!!

Apparently, I don’t always look that young! And I could also ooze sexiness… though it’s subjective.

So, the moral of the story is that what you think negatively of yourself may not always be true. Accept what you can’t change, be confident and always BE YOURSELF.

Alright, amigos y amigas! Those are the 4 personal growth lessons that I learned last week. What about you? Could you share your favourite personal growth podcasts, videos, or articles with me??

Also read: “Globetrotters and ‘Macarons’, Is It True?”
Also read: “How Sharing While Travelling Makes You Happier”
Also read: “Tony Robbins’ Investing Rules of Thumb – Simplified”