Growth Gap Traps

Posted on May 11, 2025 by Mohammed Hashmatulla khan, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

Growth Gap Traps
Do you have a plan for your personal growth? This was the question that change my life?
It was something I had never considered before, and it exposed a major flaw in my approach to work and success. If you want to transform your life and wanted to change the way you think and act, ponder & look for insight on below questions.
How do you get better at what you do? How do you improve your relationships?
How do you overcome obstacles? Work harder? Work longer? Wait for things to get better?
People are anxious to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. you could see the gap between where you were and where you wanted to be—where you needed to be! It is a growth gap, and you need to figure out how to bridge it.
Growth Gap Traps
If you have dreams, goals, or aspirations, you need to grow to achieve them. But if you’re like I was—and if you’re like most people—you have one or more mistaken beliefs that create a gap that keeps you from growing and reaching your potential.
Take a look at the following Eight misconceptions about growth that may be holding you back from being as intentional as you need to be.
1. The Assumption Gap— “I Assume That I Will Automatically Grow”
When we are children, our bodies grow automatically. A year goes by, and we become taller, stronger, more capable of doing new things and facing new challenges.
I think many people carry into adulthood a subconscious belief that mental, spiritual, and emotional growth follows a similar pattern. “A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be.”
No one improves by accident. Personal growth doesn’t just happen on its own. And once you’re done with your formal education, you must take complete ownership of the growth process, because nobody else will do it for you.
As Michel de Montaigne observed, “No wind favors him who has no destined port.” If you want your life to improve, you must improve yourself. You must make that a tangible target.
www.renovatemind.com
2. The Knowledge Gap— “I Don’t Know How to Grow”
If you are clear with what you want, the world responds with clarity. Juggling mind thought would be, I knew what I wanted. I wanted to grow into the new job I was taking. I wanted to become someone capable of accomplishing the big goals I had set for myself. I just needed a way to do that. Many people learn only from the school of hard knocks.
Difficult experiences teach the lessons “the hard way,” and they change—sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. The lessons are random and difficult. It’s much better to plan your growth intentionally.
You decide where you need or want to grow, you choose what you will learn, and you follow through with discipline going at the pace you set. Below quote might help to combat with knowledge gap. “Outside of my faith, the decision to grow has impacted my life more than any other”.
3. The Timing Gap— “It’s Not the Right Time to Begin”
Story of FIVE: Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left?
The first time he asked me, I answered, “One.” “No,” he responded. “Five. Why? Because there’s a difference between deciding and doing!”
“The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds that you will never actually do it.”
The Law of Diminishing Intent says, “The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds that you will never actually do it.”
You may be under similar personal or professional pressure right now. If you are, you’re probably anxious to start growing and developing. But what if you’re not?
Whether you feel prompted to or not, now is the time to start growing. “Life lived for tomorrow will always be a day away from being realized.”
4. The Mistake Gap— “I’m Afraid of Making Mistakes”
Growing can be a messy business. It means admitting you don’t have the answers. It requires making mistakes. It can make you look foolish. Most people don’t enjoy that. But that is the price of admission if you want to improve.
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you wouldn’t fail?” Those words encouraged me to try things that I believed were beyond my capabilities.
“A mistake is simply another way of doing things.”—Warren Bennis
www.renovatemind.com
5. The Perfection Gap— “I Have to Find the Best Way Before I Start”
Similar to the Mistake Gap is the Perfection Gap, the desire to find the “best” way to get started in a growth plan. It’s similar to driving on an unfamiliar road at night. Ideally, you’d like to be able to see your whole route before you begin. But you see it progressively.
As you move forward, a little more of the road is revealed to you. If you want to see more of the way, then get moving.
6. The Inspiration Gap— “I Don’t Feel Like Doing It”
I had thousands of reasons not to do it. I didn’t have the time, the money, the experience, and so on. I had only one reason to do it. I believed I should do it because I hoped it would make a difference.
You may not feel inspired to aggressively pursue a growth plan if you haven’t started yet. If that’s the case, please trust me when I say that the reasons to keep growing far outweigh the reasons to start growing. And you discover the reasons to stay with growth only if you stick with it long enough to start reaping the benefits.
So make a commitment to yourself to start and stick with it for at least twelve months. If you do, you will fall in love with the process, and you will be able to look back at the end of that year and see how far you’ve come.
7. The Comparison Gap— “Others Are Better Than I Am”
I attended an idea exchange with three other leaders in leadership workshop. I went because at the time I realized that I needed to be exposed to bigger and better leaders outside of my own small circle. At first when I arrived, I was intimidated.
As we talked and shared ideas, it became clear very quickly that I was not in their league. Their organizations were six times the size of mine, and they had many more and much better ideas than I did. I felt like I was in over my head and trying to swim. Despite that, I was encouraged. Why? Because I discovered that great men were willing to share their ideas. And I was learning so much. You can learn only if others are ahead of you.
The first few years that I was intentionally pursuing personal growth, I was always behind trying to catch up. I had to get over the comparison gap. I had to learn to become comfortable with being out of my comfort zone. It was a difficult transition, but it was well worth it.
www.renovatemind.com
8. The Expectation Gap— “I Thought It Would Be Easier Than This”
I don’t know any successful person who thinks growth comes quickly and climbing to the top is easy. It just doesn’t happen. People create their own luck. How?
Here’s the formula: Preparation (growth) + Attitude + Opportunity + Action (doing something about it) = Luck
It all starts with preparation. Unfortunately, that takes time. But here’s the best news. As Jim Rohn said, “You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.” If you want to reach your goals and fulfill your potential become intentional about personal growth. It will change your life.
Hence let’s gear up and defy the odds and set a new growth-based standard to self and which will lead us to sky, sky is limit…. Best of luck in your future………….