The Chinese bamboo tree can grow to be nearly 100 feet tall—but it's how it achieves that growth that makes it even more interesting.

After being planted in the ground, it requires daily watering and nurturing.

And then, nothing happens: Despite the effort, days, weeks, months, and even years go by with no signs of any growth.

Two years, three years, four years pass, with continued daily inputs and not so much as a break in the surface to show for it.

But suddenly, in the fifth year, everything changes:

The Chinese bamboo tree breaks through the surface, and in the span of just six weeks, grows up to 90-feet-tall.

The story of the Chinese bamboo tree's growth offers a powerful lesson for life (from an unlikely source):

Your growth can be hard to see. It occurs silently, under the surface. You make the daily investments in yourself, but are completely unaware of their impact.

Growth often happens slowly, and then all at once.

The challenge is that if you don't recognize your own growth in its most subtle, hidden forms, you may become discouraged on the journey, lose your motivation, and stop marching forward.

But rest assured, the growth is happening—you just need to look in the right places to find it.

In today's piece, I'd like to highlight 9 hidden signs of personal growth.

If you see these, you're headed in the right direction...

1. You start embracing the embarrassment of being a beginner

This is a life hack it took me 33 years to learn:

The only way to accomplish something meaningful is to endure days, weeks, months, or even years of embarrassing failure.

Most people are so afraid of looking or sounding “stupid” in a public setting. They don’t ask the simple question. They don’t share the piece of writing. They don’t build the v1 prototype.

But if you can train yourself to endure that, you’ll find gold on the other side.

The most successful people I know actually love the feeling of being an embarrassing beginner. They thrive on that feeling of newness. They love diving into something with a child-like curiosity. The beginner’s embarrassment is actually a positive signal.

Embrace that beginner's embarrassment and you will change your life.

2. You stop concerning yourself with how your growth makes others feel

When you're on your journey to growth, some people won't like it. They'll tell you to be realistic, laugh at your ambitions, and say things behind your back.

Recognize one truth: This is fundamentally not about you.

Your growth, focus, and improvement are exposing something in them: Their insecurities, their fears, their lack of ambition.

You can show them empathy and love, but ultimately, you are not responsible for how your journey to self-improvement makes others feel.

3. You start setting (and enforcing) healthy boundaries

Here are a few important reminders:

• You don't have to attend every event you get invited to.
• You don't have to be friends with everybody.
• You don't have to say yes to every request.
• You don't have to make everyone happy.

Establishing healthy boundaries and getting comfortable with saying NO is a cheat code for life.

4. You start feeling scared of the things you're working on

One thing I’ve learned: The self-doubt never goes away, you just get a little bit better at moving forward in spite of it.

Reframe self-doubt as a positive indicator. It means you’re pushing yourself beyond your perceived current capability. If you aren’t feeling that twinge of self-doubt, you probably need to scale up your ambitions.

Being strong doesn’t mean masking your self-doubt behind arrogance and bravado. Being strong means opening up about it and continuing to march forward into the unknown.

The latter also encourages others to do the same—a positive chain reaction in the world.

5. You stop focusing on sounding impressive to others

A few months ago, I had a conversation with Chris Pronger, a dear friend and Hall of Fame hockey player. When I asked him about his most important lesson from his storied career, he dropped a gem of wisdom:

"Being impressive to others is overrated. You know what’s much more important? Being impressive to yourself."

We spend far too much time worrying about impressing others and not enough time focusing on impressing ourselves.

We exaggerate our accomplishments to prop ourselves up externally, even if it means sacrificing our integrity internally.

Focus on the internal, not the external, and everything will fall into place.

6. You stop complaining about things outside of your control

When you complain, you’re giving too much power to the thing you complain about. Your entire life will change when you take back that power.

One of my favorite ancient proverbs:

He who blames others has a long way to go on his journey. He who blames himself is halfway there. He who blames no one has arrived.

When you stop complaining about things you can’t control, you start focusing your energy on the things you can.

7. You start embracing the changes in your identity

Many of the greatest struggles in life are the result of identity dislocation:

• A desire to cling to an old identity that no longer serves or applies.
• A gap between who you think you are and who the world thinks you are.
• A misalignment between a present identity and a desired identity.

​The Paradox of Change says that the only constant in life is change. Instead of fighting it, start embracing the change—be dynamic, be adaptable.

There is no Past You to cling to, there is no Future You to worry about. There is just the Present You to take action.

8. You start embracing being wrong

I used to assume that the most successful people had all the answers—that they just knew more than the rest of us.

But as I spent more time with these individuals, I came to realize that this simply wasn’t the case:

The most successful people don't have the best answers—they ask the best questions.

They realize that finding the truth is much more important than being right.

In fact, they legitimately enjoy being wrong. They embrace new information as software updates to their brain.

9. You start cringing at yourself from six months ago

The "cringe" you feel when you look back at your old output, mindsets, beliefs, behaviors, and actions is a positive indicator.

It means you've learned, changed, developed, and grown.

If you’re ever feeling stuck in a rut, look back at yourself and your work from six months ago.

If you feel that urge to cringe at where you were, consider it a nice reminder of your progress, even when you can’t feel it in the moment.

When in Doubt, Zoom Out

Rule for Life: When in doubt, zoom out.

You live most of your entire life zoomed way, way in. But being perpetually zoomed in creates one major challenge: Growth always feels less significant than it really is.

The 10,000 foot view provides perspective—on the manageable nature of your struggles and the impressive nature of your growth.

On a regular basis, zoom out and use these hidden indicators of personal growth to reset on your journey.

Change your perspective, change your life.

Remember: You are the Chinese bamboo, prepared to explode through the surface and shoot up to new heights.