Growth

Growth

The Zone of Proximal Development

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, June 4 2025

Everyone wants to grow into their ideal future state. Regardless of whether you want to be an athlete, a musician, or a family man, you want to get the best outcome out of as little effort as possible. (Unfortunately, outcomes are often correlated with effort) But how do you actually do that? How do you optimize your growth and development to...

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Growth

It Doesn’t Matter What You’ve Done; It Only Matters Who You’re Going to Become

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, May 28 2025

One of the hardest parts of life is letting go of your past. They call it “baggage” for a reason: it weighs you down and holds you back. Yes, there are things that definitely do legitimately restrict your behavior: owning a home, holding a job, having a spouse, having children, and similar responsibilities and obligations. But that’s not what...

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Growth

The Better You Are, The Better We Are

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, December 25 2024

Many people look for ways that they can contribute to the success of a cause, a group, or even society. Yes, there are plenty of examples of getting involved in ways that benefit others: volunteering, joining a support group, and fundraising are examples of options that people often choose from. But there’s one thing to keep in mind: taking care...

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Growth

Growth Does Not Equal Effort

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, September 11 2024

Just a quick reminder that growth does not equal effort (or, at least, the feeling of strenuous effort). As The Secret famously said, grass doesn’t strain to grow. Most humans spend their lives eating, drinking, sleeping, and eliminating waste—not much effort at all, and they grow a lot. Even if you exercise heavily, the muscle growth occurs...

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Meaning

What If You Don’t Find Meaning in Your Growth?

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, May 15 2024

The Meaning of Life discusses the eight driving factors that cause a person to find meaning in their life. The first—because it is essentially the meaning of life—is growth. Granted, you need all eight, so it’s a slight oversimplification, but it is the primary point. So that naturally leads to the question of growth without meaning. So let’s...

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Growth

Cooperation, Competition, and Growth

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, May 1 2024

We all want our lives to be better tomorrow than they are today. That is the nature of life. Life is growth. But how do you get better most effectively—or how do you get to be the best that you can be? The obvious answer is work/effort: to become more fit, you have to exercise. To improve a skill, you have to practice. To get a higher education,...

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Growth

On Challenge

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, March 6 2024

Everyone thinks they just want to live the easy life: being waited on hand and foot, eating junk food and playing video games all day, or living a life without work. People say they want that—no matter how much evidence you provide to the contrary: people who hit the lottery are often miserable or lose it all; animals sit around all day and eat...

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Growth

The Truth and Ethics of When Life Begins

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, February 7 2024

Note: This blog touches on a hugely controversial topic and is not meant to persuade anyone to change their minds but is rather meant to discuss the various factors in people's understanding of the issue and ethical/legal conclusions that they draw from said understanding. One of the seemingly toughest questions that is actually one of the...

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Growth

What Sports Can Tell You about Meaning

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, November 22 2023

Sports are one of the most popular activities for human connection. Millions—or even billions—will watch the most famous games in the world, such as the Super Bowl or World Cup. Yet, when you break it down, people are literally just watching a bunch of people run around a field trying to get a ball across a line or in a net. If there were...

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Growth

How Good Do You Want to Be? (How Much Do You Want to Grow?)

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, November 15 2023

One of the most important things in life is picking a direction and a destination. If growth is the point, then you need to determine what areas of your life you wish to improve and by how much. Since we all only have 24 hours per day, we have to choose how we spend that time to realize our dreams. In short, we need to determine how good we want...

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