Growth must be intentional— nobody improves by accident.
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If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we
don’t grow, we are not really living. I can’t think of anything worse than
living a stagnant life, devoid of change and improvement. Most people don’t
realize that unsuccessful and successful people do not differ substantially in
their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential. And
nothing is more effective when it comes to reaching potential than commitment
to personal growth. If you want to be successful, you have to keep growing. The
happiest people I know are growing every day.
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1.
CHOOSE A LIFE OF GROWTH: The people who reach their potential,
no matter what their profession or background, think in terms of improvement.
If you think you can “hold your ground” and still make the success journey, you
are mistaken. The only way to improve the quality of your life is to improve
yourself. If you want to grow your organization, you must grow a leader. If
you want better children, you must become a better person. If you want others
to treat you more kindly, you must develop better people skills. There is no
sure way to make other people in your environment improve. The only thing you
truly have the ability to improve is yourself.
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2.
START GROWING TODAY: Napoleon
Hill said, “It’s not what you are going to do, but it’s what you are doing now
that counts.” The old English proverb
says, “One of these days means none of these days.” The best way to ensure
success is to start growing today.
Growth is not automatic: The
road to the next level is uphill, and it takes effort to keep growing. The
sooner you start, the closer to reaching your potential you’ll be.
Growth today will provide a better
tomorrow: Everything you do today builds on what you did
yesterday. And altogether, those things determine what will happen tomorrow. Oliver
Wendell Holmes offered this insight: “Man’s mind, once stretched by new ideas,
never regains its original dimensions.” Growth today is an investment for
tomorrow.
Growth is your responsibility:
When you were a small child, your parents were responsible for you—even for
your growth and education. But as an adult, you bear that responsibility
entirely. If you don’t make growth your responsibility, it will never happen.
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3.
FOCUS ON SELF-DEVELOPMENT, NOT SELF-FULFILLMENT: Self-development
is a higher calling; it is the development of your potential so that you can
attain the purpose for which you were created. No matter how it makes you feel,
self-development always has one effect: It draws you toward your destiny. Rabbi
Samuel M. Silver taught that “the greatest of all miracles is that we need not
be tomorrow what we are today, but we can improve if we make use of the
potential implanted in us by God.”
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4.
NEVER STAY SATISFIED WITH CURRENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Rick
Warren says, “The greatest enemy of tomorrow’s success is today’s success.” Charles
Handy remarked, “It is one of the paradoxes of success that the things and ways
which got you there are seldom those things that keep you there.” No matter how
successful you are today, don’t get complacent. Stay hungry. Sydney
Harris insisted that “a winner knows how much he still has to learn, even when
he is considered an expert by others; a loser wants to be considered an expert
by others before he has learned enough to know how little he knows.” Don’t
settle into a comfort zone, and don’t let success go to your head. Enjoy your
success briefly, and then move on to greater growth.
- 5.
BE A CONTINUAL LEARNER: If you want to be a continual learner
and keep growing throughout your life, you’ll have to carve out the time to do
it. Henry Ford said, “It’s been my observation that most successful people get ahead
during the time other people waste.” Frank A. Clark stated, “Most of us must
learn a great deal every day in order to keep ahead of what we forget.”
Learning something every day is the essence of being a continual learner. You
must keep improving yourself, not only acquiring knowledge to replace what you
forget or what’s out-of-date, but building on what you learned yesterday.
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6.
DEVELOP A PLAN FOR GROWTH: Earl Nightingale says, “If a person will
spend one hour a day on the same subject for five years, that person will be an
expert on that subject.” I recommend that you make it your goal to read twelve
books and listen to fifty-two tapes (or read fifty-two articles) each year.
Exactly how you go about it doesn’t matter, but do it daily. That way you’re
more likely to follow through and get it done than if you periodically put it
off and then try to catch up.
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7.
PAY THE PRICE: A trade-off of growth is that it is
sometimes uncomfortable. It requires discipline. It takes time that you could
spend on leisure activities. It costs money to buy materials. You have to face
constant change and take risks. And sometimes it’s just plain lonely. That’s
why many people stop growing when the price gets high. But growth is always
worth the price you pay because the alternative is a limited life with
unfulfilled potential. Success takes effort, and you can’t make the journey if
you’re sitting back waiting for life to come along and improve you. President
Theodore Roosevelt boldly stated, “There has not yet been a person in our
history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.”
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8.
FIND A WAY TO APPLY WHAT YOU LEARN: Jim Rohn urged, “Don’t
let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.” The
bottom line when it comes to personal development is action. Successful people
develop positive daily habits that help them to grow and learn. I also make an
effort to apply information as soon as I learn it. I do that by asking myself
these questions anytime I learn something new:
Where
can I use it?
When
can I use it?
Who
else needs to know it?
These
questions take my focus off simply acquiring knowledge and put it onto applying
what I learn to my life. Try using them. I think they’ll do the same for you.
Whatever
you do, don’t allow yourself to stay on a plateau. Commit yourself to climbing
the mountain of personal potential—a little at a time—throughout your life.
It’s one journey you’ll never regret having made. According to novelist George
Eliot, “It is never too late to be what you might have become.”
Culled from Self Improvement 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know by JOHN C. MAXWELL
Other Chapters include:
JOHN
C. MAXWELL is an internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, and
author who has sold over 16 million books. EQUIP, the organization he founded
in 1996 has trained more than 2 million leaders worldwide. Every year he speaks
to Fortune 500 companies, international government leaders, and audiences as
diverse as the United States Military Academy at West Point, the National
Football League, and ambassadors at the United Nations. A New York Times, Wall
Street Journal, and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell was named the
World’s Top Leadership Guru by Leadershipgurus.net. He was also one of only 25
authors and artists named to Amazon.com’s 10th Anniversary Hall of Fame. Three
of his books, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Developing the Leader
Within You, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader have each sold over
a million copies.
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