Personal Growth: The Right — And Wrong — Way to Share It With Others

Dude, this is a ring, huh?

Whoa.

You could do some damage. Would they even let me fly with this?

Hey, it's Marie Forleo, and you are watching Marie TV, the place to be to create a business and life you love. And this is Q&A Tuesday. And today's question comes from a lovely lady named Tammy.

And she writes, "Hey Marie, thank you for doing what you do. I am grateful for your Q&A Tuesdays. Here is my Q. I find myself growing by leaps and bounds, but it seems that I have the urge to share it with everyone around me. I seem to feel as if everyone should listen to me and learn with me. This is not always appreciated, and it seems to be alienating some people. So my question is, how do I resist the urge to make everyone around me see the light?"

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on, Tammy. You want to help everybody see the light? Have you never seen Poltergeist? Girl, the light is bad.

Tammy! Do not go into the light! The light is bad! Don't go into the light, do not go into the light. Tammy!

Tammy, Tammy, Tammy. This is an awesome question, I've certainly experienced this firsthand. When you first start learning about personal development and all these cool philosophies, of course you want to share with everybody you know.

Hey, Papa Smurf. Did you know that if you were more in the moment, your whole life would transform? Grouchy, you're using your grouchiness to hide your brilliance. I really think you're dialing an upset. Smurfette, you really need to claim your feminine power, and really own your divine goddessness.

But as you're seeing, this approach doesn't always go over so well. I mean, think about it. You're trying to push self-help on people, and it may actually tick them off. Because essentially what you're saying is they don't know how to do their life, they're pretty screwed up, and they need you to come help them out. Essentially, they're going to say to themselves, "Who asked you?"

So here's what you need to do. Don't talk about it. Be about it. As the saying goes, and this is a pretty good tweetable, "Others will follow your footsteps easier than they will your advice." What that means is, be an example of what you're learning, really embody the ideas and the principles.

You want to be a living demonstration of all the good stuff. You want to be a role model, you don't want to preach. What you'll find is that people in your life are really going to take notice. And they're going to ask you, what's your secret? Or if they're really into it, they'll say...

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

I'll have what she's having.

And that becomes the perfect opportunity to share and see if they want to learn more.

Next, you got to find your PDP, or your Personal Development Posse. Tammy, you really need to hang out with some like-minded people who love talking about this stuff just as much as you do. Because here's the thing, people who like personal development tend to be really into it. We're kind of like personal development zombies. We're insatiable, and we gobble up books, and audios, and programs kind of like zombies gobble up brains.

More self-help. More self-help.

Here's the best part, there are tons of us around. We hang out on blogs like this, and book clubs, and seminars. And we're always signing up for another program. We may be an odd bunch, but we're out there, and our numbers are growing every day. Just like zombies.

Once you find people who actually want to talk about this stuff, you'll feel less compelled to force it on people who don't. Tammy, that is my A to your Q, thank you so much for asking. And of course, let us know how it goes.

Now, I would love to hear from you. Have you ever tried to show people the light? How did it go? Did they resist you, or did you need to change your approach and try something different? As always, the best stuff happens after the episode in the comments over at marieforleo.com. So go there and leave a comment now.

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Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams. The world needs that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next time on Marie TV.

Me like orzo. Get it, Elsa. Elsa, get it.

Well, if Smurfs are kind of small...

How small?

Three apples high.

Okay.

This is so fun for me.