What are you doing to intentionally grow?

I became a big John Maxwell fan when I first read his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You.  I had never read anything that impacted my leadership as much as that book.  Since then I have bought most of Maxwell's books, but none of them had the same impact on me as that first book until I read his latest, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential.  Unless I am very surprised it will be the important book I will have read this year.

In my earlier years I was like many people who assume that we grow as we age.  That simply isn't true.  Getting older just happens.  If you stay on this side of the grass long enough you will get older.  However, growth requires intentionality.  We have to take certain steps throughout our lives if we want to grow as persons and as leaders.  We need to take those steps every single day of our lives if we want that growth to be persistant.  Maxwell would take that even further and say these are not merely steps we need to take; they are laws we must follow if we want to reach our potential.

For me, this book did two things.  It opened my eyes to some things I had not really considered before when thinking about growth.  For instance, he writes about the law of the rubber band.  A rubber band is only useful when it is stretched.  I have a pile of rubber bands in one desk drawer that are completely useless unless they are stretched over something I want to keep together.  As I read that chapter I realized that I am very similar to those rubber bands.  I am at my best when I am stretched, and the primary times that I have seen growth occur in my life is when I've been stretched by situations and challenges.  If I want growth to occur in my life I must put myself in situations where I will be stretched.

The second thing this book did was remind me of things I already knew but sometimes forget to practice.  The law of the mirror is one of those things.  The way we see ourselves has a huge impact on what we are able to accomplish and on our ability to grow.  Many years ago when I coached Little League baseball I used to tell my team to never let a mistake hurt you twice.  We would often see a player make an error on the field and in the next inning strike out because he was still thinking of that error.  Sadly, there are many times in my life when I forgot to take my own advice.  I would preach a poor sermon and beat myself up throughout the next week because of it.  I would make a poor business decision that cost my business needed profits and feel like a complete failure.  In this chapter Maxwell provides ten steps that will improve our self-image.  I know everyone of them, but I found it so helpful to be reminded of them.  Growth will occur as we implement these steps in our lives.

I just finished this book a couple of weeks ago and plan to read it at least once more before the year is out.  I can't give a book a higher recommendation than that.  I may be approaching retirement age, but that doesn't mean I want to stop growing as a person and as a leader.  I hope you feel the same way.  Too many people are counting on you for you to stop growing now.

Leaders are readers

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

One of my fondest memories growing up was going to our county library.  I grew up on dairy farms that did not provide a lot of extra money for things like books, but every summer my mother would sign up for a summer reading program at our local library.  I was usually at or near the top of the list for the most books read that summer by people my age.  We would go to town on Saturdays to shop and nearly every Saturday that involved going to the library so I could return the books I had read the previous week and pick up new ones.  That early love for reading has served me well ever since.  Most years I will average reading one book a week, and nearly all of them will be related to ministry, business, or leadership.  I seldom read more than one or two fiction books a year, but I will read an occasional biography or history book.

I recently read a stat that claimed that 42 percent of Americans never read another book after college.  I don't know if that is accurate or not, but studies do show that a large percentage of us read very few books, if any, during a year.  According to some studies 25 percent read no books last year and another 25 percent read between 1-3 books.  People age 63 and up reported reading at least 10 books last year while younger people admitted to reading the fewest number.

This makes no sense to me.  Knowledge is increasing at a rate that no one can really keep up with, but if one isn't reading new material on a regular basis they are falling even further behind regardless of their field.  Leaders are readers, and if they don't read they won't remain a leader for long.

I'm well aware of the excuses people give for not reading, but that is all they are... excuses.  The most common one is the lack of time.  We get done what we spend time doing.  If you want to succeed in whatever business you are in you must keep up with the most current information in that field.  If your competition isn't doing that then you are you have just achieved a major competitive advantage, but if you are the one who isn't reading and your competitor is, he or she will eat you lunch and one day own your business.

Electronic devices such as NOOKs can make it easier and cheaper for you to keep up with your reading.  You can save a few dollars over a NOOK book than if you bought it at the local bookstore, and it's easier to travel with an e-reader than to lug around several books.  Right now about 2/3 of the books I read are on my NOOK.  If even those books are too expensive right now, there is the public library.  With most libraries offering lending services you now have access to just about any book you could ever want to read at zero cost to you.

Even if you get your books from the library there is still the opportunity cost for reading.  Yes, you could be doing something else during the time you are reading, but I am convinced that reading good books will help you work smarter and make your efforts more efficient.  Reading is an investment in yourself, your leadership, and your business.  At the very least you should be committed to reading one good book a month.  Even at that rate, you will be far above the average American which will greatly improve the chances of success for your business.