Personal growth
doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not an automatic process. If you want to
guarantee growth, then you need a plan—something strategic, specific, and
scheduled. Motivational speaker Earl Nightingale said, “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.” Isn’t that incredible? It shows how far we are able to
go when we have the discipline to make growth a daily practice.
A plan for growth
requires you to…
1) Set aside time to
grow.
For 13 to 20 years,
depending on how long we stay in school, the educational system challenges us
to learn. Yet upon graduation, many people almost never pick up a book. Going
to the next level in your career demands that you take responsibility for
continuing your personal growth.
The secret to success
is determined by your daily agenda. You will never change your life until you
change something you do daily. Be practical about personal growth—literally put
it on your calendar. Never rely on enthusiasm to replace rigorous discipline
and a detailed plan. Oftentimes, we get hyped up to learn something new, and
then quickly abandon the project as soon as our initial excitement subsides. To
sustain growth, we need to schedule it.
2) Identify your areas
of growth.
Choose to grow in the
areas of your strengths, and NOT in the areas of your weakness. Making this
commitment requires us to swim against the prevailing cultural current. We’re
taught to be well-rounded and to improve our weaknesses. However, in many arenas
of life, we naturally perform poorly. Even with hard work, we will never become
better than average in them. The reality is that people don’t pay for average.
No one gets excited to dine out at an average restaurant, to spend two hours
watching an average movie, or to hire someone with average abilities.
Success comes when we
identify our natural talents, and then work diligently to develop them into
extraordinary skills. Concentrate on fine-tuning your strengths, on climbing
from above-average to excellent in an area, rather than on shoring up your
weaknesses. When you stray from your strengths, you not only limit yourself,
but you also negative impact your team.
3) Find resources in
your area of growth.
People keep a poker
close to the fire so that they can stir the coals and keep the fire hot. In the
same way, stay close to passionate people who stir up your curiosity. Associate
with fellow learners who will challenge your thinking and inspire you to grow.
In addition to finding
people who will encourage your growth, track down great content and file it
away for future reference. Leaders are readers. They’re hungry for insights and
when they come across knowledge, they have a system for storing it up for
eventual use.
4) Apply what you have
learned.
The whole exercise of
seeking knowledge is fruitless unless you find a way to apply what you have
learned. One helpful practice is to follow the 24-hour rule. Every time you’ve
learned something significant, share the lesson with someone else within 24
hours. If you do not practice or pass along what you have learned, then it will
not become part of your life and you’ll lose it.
