PERSONAL GROWTH
By Dr. John C. Maxwell
I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974,
which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was
sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he
asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I
didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.
Up until that point, the best term for my growth would be
“accidental growth.” I didn’t grow on purpose, but I loved
people and worked hard so that I caught a few things along the
way.
That night with Kurt, I realized that to grow like I wanted, my
personal development couldn’t be hit-and-miss. I needed to
initiate and activate. I made a decision to devote myself to
personal growth. I literally made personal growth my personal
mission.
In my book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, I talk about
the Law of Process, which says, “Leaders develop daily, not in a
day.” Our natural inclination is to overestimate the event and
underestimate the process. We wait for a special occasion or an
intense experience to boost our growth instead of appreciating
the process. In the words of my friend Kevin Myers: “Everyone is
looking for a quick fix, but what they really need is fitness.”
We don’t mature momentarily, but over the long-term. As we
continue on our quest to become more skillful as leaders, let’s
look at seven statements about the growth process.
1. Growth is not automatic. Paul Harvey said it best: “You can
tell you’re on the road to success; it’s uphill all the way.”
You can’t coast uphill. Growth doesn’t happen by itself; it
requires an active investment of time.
Earl Nightengale said, “If you’ll spend one hour a day, every
day for five years on a given subject, within five years you’ll
become an expert on that subject.” In 1974, I made that
decision—to set aside one hour per day for personal growth. Over
thirty years later, I find that the more I learn and grow, the
more precious that hour is to me.
2. Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and
those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate
themselves from the pack, it’s almost always due to personal
growth. As Bennis & Nanus say, “It is the capacity to develop
and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from
followers.”
When I went to college, there was no gap between me and my peers,
none at all. Since 1974, I have diligently followed through on
my commitment to grow an hour every day, and now the gap, in
most cases, is wide. Am I smarter than my former classmates? Not
at all. Many of them danced circles around me academically. The
growth factor—my long-term commitment to personal development—
made the difference.
3. Growth takes time, and only time can reveal certain lessons
to us. We’ve all heard, “Experience is the best teacher,” but it
never has been and never will be. Evaluated experience is the
best teacher. Reflective thinking is required to turn experience
into insight. If you’re a young LW subscriber without a wealth of
personal experience, borrow the experience. Ask questions,
listen, and learn from a successful leader that has gone before
you.
4. The more we grow, the more we know we need to grow. In other
words, when you start developing yourself, instead of feeling
wise, you’ll be struck by how much you don’t know. Alvin Toffler,
in “Future Shock”, once observed, “The illiterate of the future
are not those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot
learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
5. Growth equals change. To develop, we must step away from
comfort and welcome fresh and challenging experiences. Growth
demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean giving up
familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work,
values no longer believed in, and relationships that have lost
their meaning.
6. Growth inside fuels growth outside. The highest reward of our
toil is not what we get for it, but what we become by it. At the
age of 17, I decided to read extensively, file my favorite
articles, and prepare lessons. Little did I realize that out of
the simple discipline of reading, filing, and preparing lessons,
I would receive content, develop creativity, begin to speak, and
eventually author numerous books.
7. Choose to grow in the areas of your strengths, not in the
areas of your weakness. There are only four things I do well,
just four, and I focus exclusively on them. I lead, communicate,
create, and network. That’s it. I spend all of my time on one of
those four strength zones. The secret of successful people lies
in their ability to discover their strengths and to organize
their life so that these strengths can be applied.
Benjamin Franklin personifies the spirit of inventiveness of the
modern world. His accomplishments read like an almanac of
greatness:
Inventor; poet; philosopher; pamphleteer; distinguished member
of three national academies of science; America’s first
Postmaster General; founder of Philadelphia’s first police
force, lending library, and the academy later to become the
University of Pennsylvania; founder of the first fire insurance
company; delegate to the Constitutional Convention; Drafter of
the Declaration of Independence; one of America’s most effective
statesmen and ambassadors.
Yet for all of his achievements, the epitaph that Franklin wrote
for himself simply reads, “Here lies the body of Ben Franklin,
printer.”
In honoring his humble roots as a printer’s apprentice, Benjamin
Franklin reveals the mystery to his greatness. It was in the
world of printing where Franklin was first exposed to new books,
writers, and ideas. His fame, accomplishments, and accolades
would never have been possible without the love of learning and
habits of growth imprinted in his life during his early days as
a printer.
“This article is used by
permission from Dr. John C. Maxwell’s free monthly e-newsletter
‘Leadership Wired’ available at www.INJOY.com.”
