One of our core values at Cohd is growth in community. Not because you cannot grow on your own, but because the ceiling on your growth is meaningfully higher when you are doing the work alongside other people.
You can absolutely sit with yourself, reflect, journal, read, learn, and make progress. These are all skills and principles we build into the Elevate Program.
What I see again and again, though, is that people grow faster, more sustainably, and with a lot less unnecessary pressure when they are not doing it alone.
That belief sits at the center of why we use a cohort model.
You Are Not Going to Do This Perfectly
Yesterday, in a team practice, we were discussing fixed versus growth mindsets. As often happens, the conversation drifted toward a familiar question:
If we care about learning and improvement, doesn’t that mean we’re growth-minded?
What I offered in response was this: it is not a question of whether we are growth-minded or fixed-minded. We are all going to be both.
That is not a failure of mindset. That is called being a human being.
It is easy to turn this work into a binary. This is how I want to be. This is how I do not want to be. Having ideals matters, and intention matters. Of course, we want to operate from a growth mindset most of the time.
But the idea that we will never slip back into a fixed mindset again is unrealistic.
You will feel defensive when you get tough feedback.
You will feel challenged when something you care about does not go the way you hoped.
You will hit moments of self-doubt, limiting beliefs, or old internal narratives.
You will sometimes rely too heavily on past expertise and resist a new way of thinking.
That does not mean you are doing the work wrong. It means you are under pressure, stretched, or human.
The goal is not to eliminate a fixed mindset entirely. The goal is to recognize it faster and pivot more intentionally.
That is the unlocking move.
Growth is not about never slipping into old patterns. It is about shortening the amount of time it takes to notice what is happening and choose a different response.
And when we try to do all of that alone, the bar quietly becomes really daunting. If we expect ourselves to be endlessly self-aware, perfectly objective, and consistently regulated… that’s a lot to carry by ourselves.
This is where community starts to matter in a very real, very practical way.
Shared Language Changes the Equation
When a group of people works with the same language and tools, personal growth stops being a solo pursuit.
Other people can notice patterns you miss.
They can reflect things back to you more quickly.
They can help interrupt cycles before they become deeply entrenched.
The onus is no longer on you to create self-awareness in a vacuum. Instead, you are surrounded by people who understand how you are trying to grow and who have the language to support that process.
This does not remove accountability. It distributes it in a way that is more realistic and far more effective.
Progress accelerates when you are not relying solely on your perspective to guide you.
Your Team Is Part of the Toolkit
Last week, in a team practice, a participant said, “One of the tools I am appreciating the most right now is the team.”
That landed because it is exactly right.
Your team can be a tool.
When people share a common vision for how they want to work together, and when they have clear language for how to give feedback and support growth, they become part of the practice itself.
There is also something important about being on the other side of that equation.
Supporting someone else’s growth feels good. It builds trust. It strengthens relationships. It creates cultures where people are invested not just in outcomes, but in how those outcomes are achieved.
When there is a shared toolkit, helping one another becomes easier and cleaner. Feedback feels less personal. Conversations become more productive. The work feels more human.
Reflection Needs Perspective
Self-reflection is an important part of growth, but it is not sufficient on its own.
You can spend hours thinking about how you are showing up and still miss key pieces of the picture. The people around you, especially the people who feel the impact of your behavior, hold information you simply cannot access alone.
Community adds perspective.
Not because you cannot grow without it, but because it expands what is possible when you are willing to learn with and from others.
That is why we care so deeply about doing this work in community. Not as an abstract ideal, but as a practical approach to growth that actually works.
Growth is a practice. Practices are easier to sustain, refine, and deepen when you are not doing them in isolation.
