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Companies benefit from having well-developed, growing, open-minded leaders. Your children (members of a different kind of company) should also benefit from having leaders who pursue personal development, understanding and growth.Taking time for personal growth might seem selfish, but it’s not. Many self-improvement practices like keeping a journal, meditating, practicing optimism and reading come with a long list of mental, emotional and physical benefits. And when you put time and effort into becoming a better person, your children reap the rewards.How?1. Give your child a better primary influence.A parent’s influence is the first and arguably the most influential relationship in any child’s life. On a daily basis, parents influence how their children interact socially and what habits, views and preferences they form. In the long-term, they influence everything from religious beliefs to physical development, from emotional well-being to hygiene habits to anxiety levels.No pressure, huh? Of course, as a parent, you know you don’t have it all figured out. You do the best you can.Pursuing personal growth can help you do better.You can’t choose whether you will influence your child. You will. That’s a given. You can choose, however, whether you’ll be static, stuck at one level of ability, or whether you will <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-4-straightforward-steps-to-success" target="_blank" title="Rohn: 4 Straightforward Steps to Success | SUCCESS.com">continually seek to grow into a better person</a> who can be a more positive influence.2. Gain tools you can share with your child.When did your interest in personal growth begin?Maybe it came from a time of grief or helplessness. Perhaps you started seeking personal growth to overcome a specific issue in your life; along the way you’ve gained tools and techniques to help you deal with that issue.Every tool, every piece of wisdom, every helpful technique or healthy method you gain is one you can share with your child. When your child loses a beloved pet, you’re better equipped with tools and language to help your child cope. When your child faces a bully at school, you can coach with ways to set limits and express anger in a healthy and respectful way.<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/growing-old-is-mandatory-growing-up-is-optional" target="_blank" title="'Growing Old Is Mandatory; Growing Up Is Optional' | SUCCESS.com">You’re trying to figure out adult life</a>, and, as you do, you are learning how to help your kids navigate the unavoidable turbulence of childhood.3. Teach your child to value self and ongoing growth.Childhood is full of arbitrary measurements and endpoints. They aren’t universal standards; they’re simply invented measures that we put in place so we can compare and figure out if our kids are developing the way they should.But every child is unique and has his or her own pace of development in a thousand different areas. But all these standards, tests, check-ins and milestones can cause our kids to feel that they’re not good enough. It can foster a sense that the self isn’t valuable enough unless it meets some social measure. And it can create the idea that particular points in life are the “endpoint” of growth and development.We don’t teach these lessons on purpose, but children receive these messages even when we don’t agree with them.Your personal growth, however, teaches a different message. When you value yourself, flaws and all, by putting time and effort into personal growth, you teach your children to do the same: to value themselves as people, actively, by giving time and energy to who they already are. Your children see that growth and learning are ongoing, a continual part of life, not a certain point to reach and then leave behind.Both lessons—to value self, and to continually seek to improve oneself—counteract the disheartening messages about living up to arbitrary standards or viewing invented checkpoints for some sort of endpoint to growth, <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/bored-6-ideas-to-embrace-your-curious-side" target="_blank" title="Bored? 6 Ideas to Embrace Your Curious Side | SUCCESS.com">curiosity</a> and learning.How do you pursue personal growth? If you’ve viewed it as a selfish endeavor, one that takes you away from your child, think again. An active pursuit of personal growth can help you live a healthier, happier life, and those benefits improve the life your child has, too. That’s the best kind of leader you can be.<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/rohn-why-personal-development-is-critical-to-success" target="_self" title="Rohn: Why Personal Development Is Critical to Success | SUCCESS.com">Jim Rohn says personal development is critical to success. Find out why. &nbsp; </a>

Companies benefit from having well-developed, growing, open-minded leaders. Your children (members of a different kind of company) should also benefit

Companies benefit from having well-developed, growing, open-minded leaders. Your children (members of a different kind of company) should also benefit | SUCCESS

Why You Should Be Chief Growth Officer of Your Family

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Why You Should Be Chief Growth Officer of Your Family | SUCCESS

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Annie Mueller is a freelance writer who covers all things small business, productivity and personal growth related. Find her online at AnnieMueller.com.

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Annie Mueller

A tall, wobbly ladder&ndash;and you at the top. A black spider with eight hairy, spidery legs. A clown&mdash;any clown.Fear can be a great survival tool. But as a way of life? It has some nasty side effects.In every stressful or threatening situation, your brain starts logging details and adding warning labels. You may not notice at the time&mdash;you&#39;re too busy dealing with the situation&mdash;but later, whenever you encounter one similar detail to that threatening situation, you&#39;ll find yourself with sweaty palms and a racing heart. Once triggered, fear manifests in one of two primary ways: as a continual low-level fear or as a high-level, intense fear.Anxiety is the low-level, everyday, garden-variety type of fear. It&#39;s an alertness to potential danger rather than a response to present danger. When you&#39;re anxious, your brain releases stress hormones and shuffles your priorities. Instead of focusing intently on one thing, you go into <a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/how-our-brains-transform-remote-threats-crippling-anxiety" target="_blank" title="How Our Brains Transform Remote Threats Into Crippling Anxiety | AlterNet.org">a vigilant scanning mode</a>.This is really useful if, say, you&#39;re on the savanna and need to notice that clump of bushes swaying before the lion jumps out. It&#39;s not so useful if the anxiety is triggered by deadlines, strained relationships, financial pressure or an overloaded inbox. In those cases, hyper-alert mode keeps you from concentrating, which is precisely what you must do to solve those anxiety-inducing problems.The full fear response is intense, usually short-lived, and has profound effects on your body and mind. The first major effect is energy redirection. When fear kicks in, survival&mdash;rather than health&mdash;becomes paramount. Your brain reroutes energy to necessary survival skills, like <a href="https://healthland.time.com/2013/04/16/how-terror-hijacks-the-brain/" target="_blank" title="How Terror Hijacks the Brain | Time.com">eyesight and muscle response</a>. Other functions, such as your digestive system, get put on hold.Fear also redirects your thinking. Normally, sensory inputs take a long, leisurely route through your prefrontal cortex, where they are evaluated. Logical, abstract moral, and creative thinking all happen here. Fear gives your sensory inputs a short-cut, straight to your emotional, instinctive center: the amygdala. Here you get quick, concrete, reactive, specific thinking and emotionally or instinctively-driven decisions.You can probably see how emotionally driven decisions might not be helpful when the fear you face is, say, an angry boss or an unhappy spouse.Fortunately, there are some actions you can take to keep fear from controlling how you think. Here are three:1. Recognize fear with body check-ins.Perform a simple, hourly body check-in by asking yourself, What am I feeling right now? and then scanning your body, head to toes. When you find something off, such as strained vision, tense shoulders, heartburn or shallow breathing, ask yourself, Why am I feeling this right now? If you can identify the source of the fear, you can then face it consciously and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/blog/is-your-fear-worth-fearing-how-to-find-out" target="_blank" title="Is Your Fear Worth Fearing? How to Find Out | SUCCESS.com">determine if it is a real threat or not</a>.2. Reduce fear with buffers.Everyday situations can cause unending anxiety that literally disables your brain from doing concentrated, creative work. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/11-strategies-for-managing-stress" target="_blank" title="11 Strategies for Managing Stress | SUCCESS.com">Ease your anxiety</a> by building buffer into your work and personal life. Set up soft deadlines a few days before the real deadlines. Add transition time between meetings, clients or events. Schedule extra commute time. As much as you can, space out your obligations and projects so your brain can relax and do its work well.3. Face fear with controlled experiences.For defined triggers, those distinct fears you know you have, you can slowly train yourself to handle them better. Nothing extreme; just decide on a simple action you&#39;ll take instead of freezing the next time you encounter the trigger. Freezing is the body&#39;s initial, automatic response. When you force yourself to take a different action instead, you slowly <a href="https://discovermagazine.com/2003/mar/cover" target="_blank" title="Fear in the Brain | DiscoverMagazine.com">retrain your brain</a> to respond to that particular fear in a different (more productive) way. Over time your brain learns that this trigger is not an unpredictable danger, but a manageable, if unpleasant, situation that you can handle.Being unaware of fear can keep us locked into it. But when you know what fear feels like, looks like and does to your brain, you can start taking control.<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/article/the-upside-to-stress" target="_self" title="The Upside to Stress | SUCCESS.com">A little stress is good, too much stress is bad, and understanding it can be everything. There&rsquo;s no escaping everyday anxiety, so learn how to harness it.</a>

[node:summary] - Why fear is the biggest threat to your success

A tall, wobbly ladder&ndash;and you at the top.A black spider with eight hairy, spidery legs.A clown&mdash;any clown.Fear can be a great survival tool. | SUCCESS

How Fear Warps Your Thinking—and 3 Ways You Can Fight Back

How Fear Warps Your Thinking—and 3 Ways You Can Fight Back | SUCCESS

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Annie Mueller

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Why You Should Be Chief Growth Officer of Your Family

How Fear Warps Your Thinking—and 3 Ways You Can Fight Back