Archive for goals
A Wonderful Christmas Gift
Posted by: | CommentsLast week I got a big surprise at the Christmas lunch given for the John Maxwell Company.
John Hull, the CEO of EQUIP, and Mark Cole, the CEO of the John Maxwell Company, asked me to tell the story of what got me started on a lifetime of personal growth. It’s a story I’ve told many times before, so I gladly complied.
It began in February of 1974 when I met a man named Curt Kampmeier for lunch and he asked me an important question. I had just told him about all of my dreams and goals—all of which would be a real stretch for me—and he asked, “Do you have a plan for personal growth?”
After hemming and hawing for a few minutes, I had to admit that I didn’t have a plan. Curt’s response? “John, personal growth doesn’t just happen.” He went on to explain the value of a personal growth plan, and he offered to sell me a kit that would cost the equivalent of a month’s salary.
Though it took Margaret and me six months of scrimping and saving, we came up with the money. We skipped lunches and did without some things, but I bought that kit. My lunch with Curt is what connected the dots for me between personal growth and success. It changed my life.
At the lunch, I told the story as they requested, and then I started to go on about how I was disappointed that I had never seen Curt again, even though I’d told the story so many times over the past 37 years.
I cannot tell you how shocked I was by happened next. They invited Curt Kampmeier to step into the room!
Somehow members of my team had found Curt and invited him to join us for lunch. He had traveled down from Ohio to be with us!
Few things take me by surprise and I’m rarely speechless, but this was one of those times when words didn’t suffice to express what I was feeling. This man’s question long ago changed my life! And now I would finally get the chance to thank him for it.
Seeing Curt was one of the best Christmas gifts I’ve ever received. Why? Because personal growth changed my life. Since my meeting with Curt back in 1974, I’ve planned it into my daily life, reading books, listening to great teachers, and developing measurable goals and plans to make it happen. I believe the consistent discipline of growth has made it possible for me to add value to people and achieve many of my goals.
I believe it can do the same for you.
And I’d like to help you in the same way that Curt helped me. So in January and February, I’m going to offer a growth opportunity with a group study of my latest book, The 5 Levels of Leadership.
Each week, participants will be invited to read a section of the book, read my current thoughts on those concepts, enter into the discussion by answering questions I provide, and take action to grow.
You can join and participate at any time. If you want to experience the whole study, pay attention to upcoming posts for details on when and how we’ll launch. Also, you’ll get the most out of this if you learn with others – ideally, your friends or colleagues, your team, or a group of like-minded leaders – so now is a good time to start thinking about gathering a group. The comment section here will also be a good place for discussion. I’m hopeful that it will generate lots of interaction. So even if you have to study alone, the blog can serve as your group.
I’m looking forward to growing in 2012. I hope you are too.
What does your daily agenda say about you?
Posted by: | CommentsHow would you describe your life? Are you achieving what you desire? Are you accomplishing the things that are important to you? Do you consider yourself a success? How do your prospects look for the future?
If I could come to your house and spend just one day with you, I would be able to tell whether or not you will be successful. You could pick the day. If I got up with you in the morning and went through the day with you, watching you for 24 hours, I could tell in what direction your life is headed.
When I tell this to people at conferences, there’s always a strong reaction. Some people are surprised. Some get defensive because they think I would be making a snap judgment about them. A few get ticked off because they think my claim sounds arrogant. Others are intrigued and desire to know why I make such a statement.
Here is why: I believe that the secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda. If you make a few key decisions and then manage them well in your daily agenda, you will succeed.
You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. You see, success, doesn’t just suddenly occur one day in someone’s life. For that matter, neither does failure. Each is a process. Every day of your life is merely preparation for the next. What you become is the result of what you do today. In other words…
You are preparing for something.
The question is, What are you preparing for? Are you grooming yourself for success or failure? As my father used to tell me when I was growing up, “You can pay now, and play later, or you can play now and pay later. But either way, you are going to pay.” The idea was that you can play and take it easy and do what you want today, but if you do, your life will be harder later. However, if you work hard now, on the front end, then you will reap rewards in the future.
Think about it: What are you preparing for today? Success or failure? Does your daily agenda indicate that you make a habit of paying before you play? Answering these questions is a good predictor of what you will become tomorrow and in the future.
From Today Matters
If at first you do succeed, try something harder
Posted by: | CommentsThe willingness to take greater risks is a major key to achieving success, and you may be surprised that it can solve two very different kinds of problems.
The problem of hitting ALL of your goals,
AND
The problem of hitting NO goals… because you never make any.
Let’s look at #1: You’re not afraid to set goals and commit to a course of action. That’s the good news. But the goals you set are not hard to meet. In fact, you achieve success in them with little effort or time invested. That’s the bad news, because the road to success is uphill. You can’t coast and climb at the same time. Your solution: Take more risks; set more challenging – even frightening – goals. No, you probably won’t achieve all of them. But you will have stretched yourself and grown in the process. And the successes you have will be that much sweeter.
Now, on to #2: You may work hard and keep busy, but your labor lacks direction. Your successes are haphazard and unrepeatable. You’re like an archer without a target: sending arrow after arrow off in some general direction. Your avoidance of goals probably means you’re afraid to fail. “If I don’t set any goals, then I can’t fail at meeting them,” is your mantra. Again, you’re not taking any risks. Your solution: Paint some targets, in a variety of sizes. Give yourself big, medium and small goals, so you can start succeeding and develop momentum.
For today: Think about something you’d like to achieve. Make it big enough to scare you a little. Now write down a plan for moving toward it. Create mini-goals within the big goal, to set yourself up for continual progress. And include some risks. Find parts of the process where you can push the envelope, take more chances, and increase your opportunity for success.
