Eric Butterworth - Don't go through life; grow through life

Welcome to the Daily Quote – I'm Andrew McGivern. Today's quote comes from Eric Butterworth, a Unity minister and author who spent his life teaching about human potential and spiritual growth.

He said:

"Don't go through life; grow through life."

Seven words. Two completely different approaches to living.Going through life means you're just surviving. Days are happening to you. You wake up, handle what comes at you, go to sleep, repeat.You're present, but you're not learning.

You're busy, but you're not evolving. You're alive, but you're not growing.Growing through life means something different. It means you're extracting lessons from everything that happens. The wins teach you. The losses teach you. The mundane days teach you. Going through is passive. Growing through is active. Going through life, you experience a setback and say, "That was terrible." Growing through life, you ask, "What can I learn from this?" Going through life, you repeat the same patterns for years. Growing through life, you notice the patterns and break them. Going through life, you're the same person at sixty that you were at twenty, just older. Growing through life, you're constantly becoming someone new – wiser, stronger, more capable.

The difference isn't what happens to you. It's what you do with what happens to you. Butterworth understood that life gives you the raw material. Growth is what you build from it. So here's the question: Are you going through life or growing through life?

Because the same experiences that make one person bitter can make another person better. The difference is whether you're learning or just enduring. Don't just go through it. Grow through it.

That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern – I'll see you in the next one with another Daily Quote.