Growth begins with a (sub)conscience desire to learn, a willingness to be vulnerable, and arguably a need for change. Over the next year, once a week, I will publish a series of articles to serve as a repository for the personal and professional life hacks that have allowed me make leaps into the direction of self-development.

The primary goal is to reflect and learn from my day-to-day occurrences, but also with the objective of adding enough contextual framework to satisfy my second goal: external application. This outlet will serve as my platform and opportunity to divulge weekly learnings for the benefit of an audience of people who share the same desire to learn and need for change.

My journalistic utopia will be marked when I accomplish the third and final goal. That achievement being to aid in inspiring readers to share their seemingly “common” reflections with their peers. The result? A swelling outward bow wave of learnings and best practices that will encourage the advancement of our communities. In 2013, Sherry Hamby, Ph.D. wrote Resilience and…4 Benefits to Sharing Your Story which illustrates the value proposition behind sharing your experiences. Although the setting of her benefits is centered around victims of violence and abuse, the principle’s hold significance when analyzed through various lenses, especially the first listed benefit she describes. “Realizing That Sharing Your Story Can Help Others”. This is the notion that your stories are single drops into a large body of water, transpiring into ripples that can either go noticed or unnoticed, dependent on the audience’s desire to understand and be influenced.

Enjoy my next 52 and The Past 52.

-JO