The Goal of Growth

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The Goal of Growth

+ Comprehension
– Confusion

40% of the
population

Inspiration

BY PHILLIP WITTMEYER

The Cardinal Inspiration Goal is Growth, and it is the optimistic Goal. This is a difficult Goal for the person who has it do deal with. It causes him to always want more, better, higher, greater. It causes discontent and unrest, what I call the "greener pastures" syndrome. He is never quite satisfied with the present situation. To some extent this can be said about all the Goals, since the nature of a Goal is such that one never fully achieves it. It is true of Growth in the sense that the person who has it is never satisfied to "leave well enough alone". He is always demanding so much of himself. Often he takes more upon himself than he can possibly handle. He likes feeling pushed to the limit of his capacity and beyond with challenging situations and relationships. The person in Growth does not want to let any opportunity slip by. Every life event is seen as a chance for further experience. He feels that the biggest sin one can commit is to not fulfill one's uttermost potential. All talents must be developed. Every situation must be explored. To a person in Growth, the world is a realm of never ending variety. He gets bored easily if there is not an unending stream of new experiences. The more that is happening, the more he is fulfilled. He thrives on challenging situations where many things are happening at once. Circumstances that others might find tumultuous, he finds stimulating. He "has his fingers in many pies" at once. He delights in juggling the numerous activities in which he is involved. He likes to be "in the thick of things."

Growth is the Complement of Reevaluation (Reduction). In other words, each avoids what the other seeks. People in Growth are normally very open about themselves. This is the opposite of -Withdrawal in the Complementary Reduction Goal. People in Growth have nothing to hide. Their lives are an open book -- they want to reveal themselves. They are not mysterious. They like to have people around — "the more the merrier". They are usually very gregarious and have no trouble revealing intimate things about themselves. If someone does not reciprocate by also "letting it all hang out", this is frustrating to them. They are uncomfortable with people who cannot openly and freely express themselves. Quite unlike people in -Withdrawal, they have a desire for an intense intimacy, even to the point of being nosy and prying. People in Growth want everything. People in Reevaluation (Reduction) want only what is truly necessary, and ignore the rest. Both Growth and Reduction, being Aspects of the Inspiration Processes, are concerned with values: Growth values everything — it is unlimited in its scope of quality. On the other hand, Reevaluation values only the necessary — it is very limited. People in Growth often feel that their lives are too restricted, and this is uncomfortable to them. They avail themselves of every opportunity for progress.

The Growth Goal and the Passion Mode are the Counterparts of each other. The Passion Mode has what the Growth Goal seeks — an uninhibited approach to life. The difference between the two is that a person in Passion behaves as if every wonderful experience resided within him already, so he has no need to seek this in the outer world as does the person in Growth.

The original name of the Positive Pole of this Goal is "comprehension". I do not think this meant intellectual understanding, since that is Ordinal Expression, and Growth is Cardinal Inspiration. I think the intention is the noun form of the adjective "comprehensive", meaning "all-inclusive" or "wide in scope". People in this Pole are interested in everything, and they want to get acquainted and involved with everything. They want to embrace everything, and become on familiar terms with it.

In order to avoid possible misunderstanding of this Pole as having to do with mental considerations, I enjoy using "+Unfoldment" rather than "comprehension." The meaning here is that a person in this Pole seeks personal development, evolution, revelation and intimacy in himself and in others and in the world. He wants things to be out in the open, in plain sight. He wants his experiences to be developed to their greatest potential, to their highest state, to the maximum degree. Such a person tends to be a gregarious extrovert.

The Negative Pole is -Confusion, which often results when the person in Growth tries to take too much upon himself or do too much at once. The seeking of challenging complications has degenerated into chaos. He has become prolific to the point of being wasteful. In the -Confused state, he still pushes for interesting experiences, but he is not sure where to push because he is bewildered. He gropes along with a hit-and-miss method that reveals his perplexity. He often mistakes intricacy or complexity for progress. He is disorganized, and feels befuddled, and confounded. His energy is scattered; he is disoriented, and his head is spinning.

Life presents a person with many and diverse opportunities, and it is quite impossible to fulfill them all. One simply cannot explore every avenue that is presented. If one tries to, he will not be able to concentrate on the most important matters at hand. The result of this can be the Negative Pole of -Confusion. The way to get out of this -Confusion is to consider the Positive Pole of the Complementary Goal of Reduction, which is +Efficiency. Make a priority list. Focus the attention on just one thing and apply your energy to it. There are so many things in the world that can distract one's focus of attention. It takes a concentrated effort for a person in Growth to set priorities because everything is important to him. He wants to experience it all. As a consequence, he may flit about from item to item, from one concern to another, without lingering on one thing long enough to fully appreciate it. This is not the most effective way to promote growth. To get out of -Confusion, people must realistically evaluate what needs to be done by comparing the relative merits of the items they seek to experience. at a time. People with this Goal often pare down their options so they can concentrate on one thing. They seek continually to narrow their range of involvements. They want situations such that they can cope with them easily and without stress and confusion. They avoid circumstances that are demanding or intrusive.

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Phil Wittmeyer is a longtime Michael student and scholar of the teachings. He can be reached at: wittmeyer@hotmail.com