Each milestone of growth and accomplishment for a young child involves leaving an existing comfort zone. The first crawl, first step, many new, first experiences all push from familiar into unknown. For child process of pushing through their area of comfort leads to increasing independence and formation of their unique personality and character.

This foundational principle continues into adult life. In order to enrich our life, it is necessary to step out of our present comfort zone. Personal growth occurs when a person moves out of their area of comfort and into unknown and challenge of a fresh experience. There is a stage of risk and discomfort before any significant growth in our life. For each of us there comes a point where we hold back and resist. It becomes easier to remain static and comfortable than to keep moving forward.

What holds us back?

Of course, everyone's a critic, too! This means that there are plenty of opportunities to heighten our awareness of words and how we use them.

Words create pictures, and just as a painter uses a combination of colors and strokes to express a concept, we offer an artistic rendering of thoughts through carefully chosen words.

Our linguistic intelligence is what allows us to both recognize and generate vivid word vignettes. Whether you enjoy novels, biographies, mysteries, sonnets, haiku, song lyrics, conversations, soliloquies, or newspaper stories, you can develop greater word awareness by focusing on descriptive phrases.

In our everyday speech, we tend to speak in phrases and punctuate these with expressions, pauses, gestures, or laughter. Although words themselves convey meaning, total picture we create is a combination of inflection, context, juxtaposition, and even eye contact.

Don't think you have your own personal poetry style? Think again. You use words in your own way, and it's likely that, given an assignment to express a particular concept, your version would have recognizable elements.

Try this test: describe a birthday cake.