Evolving, changing, and growing are essential aspects of life. People assume that when you grow up, change and evolution stop. That’s wrong. People are constantly growing, changing, and evolving; opinions are continuously proven right or wrong. Essential parts of your identity keep changing as well. And one of the vital parts of growing and evolving in this way and finding out more about yourself is autonomy.
Autonomy is something not everyone has, but should have, and I’m explaining how it affects our growth as a person.
What is autonomy?
Personal growth autonomy involves making choices and taking actions aligned with your values and interests without external interference. It encompasses various types: bodily, medical, and personal autonomy.
But it’s crucial as it should stop other people from controlling us and enable us to act how we want when we want to.
Why is autonomy essential to us?
Autonomy is vital as it enables us to make our own choices and not have someone else talk over us or say what is suitable.
It enables us to have agency over our choices and not have somebody else talking for us as people.
Not having autonomy makes us feel controlled, lowers our self-worth, and makes us incredibly angry because we cannot act out on what we need/want.
The benefits it has for growth
Having autonomy is one of the essential elements of personal growth. Here’s why!
Autonomy helps boost confidence
Whenever we don’t make decisions for ourselves, we feel worthless, like our opinions, wants, and needs don’t matter.
It also reinforces the idea that we don’t know what we’re doing. And having to feel like that can make us feel insecure and lack confidence.
But if we allow people to have a voice. Let them make the decisions, see how it plays out, and learn from it. Then it will help them learn to trust their own decisions. Reinforce that their opinions are worth listening to! On top of that, it will help them learn from mistakes and become more confident in approaching situations and making future choices.
Helps boost individuality
When someone takes our autonomy, it takes away our voice and ability to do what we want. And so when someone does try to control us, it isn’t us finding things out about ourselves or reacting to situations.
It’s someone else's reaction.
And so we don’t learn anything else about ourselves, or what we do know gets pushed down, and we do what other people want.
Giving people the ability to choose and letting them do that will enable them to live the way they want and make them tailor their lives the way they want. Promoting individuality and allowing them to know what they like and dislike clearly!
It helps boost a sense of self-worth
When we allow people to assert their autonomy, it makes them feel respected. This is because you’re trusting them to do what they need to do. And giving them this respect reinforces confidence in a person and their decisions. It makes them feel worthy and raises their self-esteem because they can see the outcome of their choices and be happy they made it, or grow from it.
Plus, because you haven’t tried to control them and let them be themselves, it doesn’t push their boundaries into a place they don’t want and makes them feel more valued.
Why do we need to grow as people?
I know we all have this idea of freezing time and staying the same forever. But growing and changing as time goes by is a natural part of life. We can’t stop it. But we need autonomy and boundaries to do it, so we grow into the person we want to be, not what others want.
And when we have autonomy and boundaries, individual growth becomes easier to establish - but not easier to find.
Moreover, as we mature, autonomy allows us to understand and evaluate the reasons behind our decisions, enabling us to enhance them.
It also enables us to help others adapt to change and growth more easily.
Ultimately, personal autonomy is an essential way for us to grow throughout our lives as it has a direct link to our self-esteem, confidence, and self-worth.
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