What do people mean when they say personal growth?

I've been thinking about what Personal growth means lately. Truthfully, although I've been told I've been pursuing this I'm not quite clear on what it means exactly. It seems that every person who I ask has a different definition. In my more cynical moments, I think that personal growth simply means becoming more like the person using the phrase.

So, it wouldn't be the first time a human has embarked down a road without a clear idea of where the road might lead or where the journey might take him or her along the way, but it seems to me that I should have a clearer idea of what I'm trying to achieve.

I think it should be more than just some New Age almost Wiccan answer that "it can mean whatever you want it to mean." Perhaps there are areas that I may need to work on for this elusive personal growth thing -- whatever that may mean -- that others may not, but it does seem that there should be some sort of goal overall with the various roadsigns along the way dependant on the path we are taking.

I don't know. Maybe there's a reason why it remains vague. It seems that the self-help authoring industry is a growing field. Perhaps they've decided to keep it vague because they themselves can't decide what personal growth must mean and make more money by arguing amongst themselves about it. Sometimes we can let organizations define it for us, but that ultimately means become more like the members of the organization.

I have yet to come to any real conclusion about this. I've asked several people and they all came up with different answers.