Category: John Maxwell

Growth & Success - They Go Hand In Hand

2/13/2018

“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.” ―John C. Maxwell

This is one of those truths that you certainly see a lot clearer as you get older. Well guess what?? I’m coming up on 52 years old, and my eyesight might be getting a little worse – but I can see this statement as clear as day!

There are two parts for me. First, I do see myself separating a little bit from others. I know it’s due to me working on my self-improvement and it’s coming from a few different areas. One of the things that is holding me back is me! The self-esteem / self-confidence component of all of this always is in play for me. It always has been, all throughout my life. It is on my long list of things to keep working on – that list is growing all the time.

Secondly, I see this fact in others as well. Not only am I very proud of the people I know and see them growing, but I’m also learning from them and it’s helping me – BIG TIME! Hanging around people that are going after new and exciting things in their lives, help those that are witness to it. Especially if you are asking them for advice and for them to share their stories with you, realize that is pure gold!!

This brings up the fact that there are so many pieces to our own “success” puzzle, we just have to look for them. It’s all up to us. We can’t blame this on others if we choose not to improve ourselves. It’s totally on our shoulders. Today more than ever before there are plenty of tools that we can use to do this. Just look at our smart phones. We have so many options to connect with self-improvement lessons. I also think that there has never been a better time to work on self-improvement than there is today. The upside has so much attached to it, more than ever before. The question is – will you do it?

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March 21st, 2017

3/21/2017

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"Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again." — Richard Branson

One of the many points that I am seeing over and over again recently is this one about how failure is directly tied into success. It’s a lesson that successful people have been sharing for so many years and it’s also the message that many of us are slow to grasp onto.

It doesn’t matter where you look in life as to who has had success – it can be in athletics, business, medicine, law, education, etc., the message is loud and clear: Failure is part of success!
Most of us look at failure as something to stay away from. Something to avoid at all cost like it is a bad thing that won’t help us out. Now, don’t get me wrong – we don’t need to go out looking to fail over and over again without learning the valuable lessons that are there within the failure event. Yes, sometimes the failures will indeed hurt and cause us problems that if given the choice, we would much rather not have to deal with. But if we can see the value of the lessons within failing, we can use that to propel us to getting things done that will lead to the outcomes that we want to have.

Another key in this – it’s a good idea to know what we want to have in life. We need the goals and dreams to go after every day. If we have those things that are burning inside of us, things we want to accomplish and spend our time doing; that is a tremendous factor that is needed to view failures as necessary to accomplish those things.

I heard a great podcast this morning on my way into work from John Maxwell. He said there is a distinct difference with those people that are working in a career and making a living, compared to those that are chasing after things tied into their passion and purpose in life. I agree. When failures and tough times hit someone who is just making a living, it’s very easy to see why people give up in life. On the flip side, when people hit failures, challenges, and difficulties in life while chasing their passions, dreams and purposes in life; that’s a whole different ball game! Many times the failures, challenges and difficulties are fuel for the fire for building a life of significance and not just making a living.

Which side do you want to be on? What are the failures, challenges and difficulties in your life? Are they leading you to lessons that you can learn and get better from? Are they helping you to get inspired to continue to chase after those things that are in your heart and keep you up at night with excitement? Or are just like the many of people that are ticked off at life, blaming others for your circumstances and you don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel that at least is not an oncoming train? With hearing this message about failures so often recently, I know I need to ramp up my learning that’s for sure. How about you?

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Having A Purpose In Life - We All Have One, We Just Have To Find It

10/30/2016

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"When you are bigger than your purpose you have a career. When your purpose is bigger than you, you have a calling." — John Maxwell

I got back to a John Maxwell quote because I heard him say something this morning in my car ride into work. I listen to his podcast “Minute with Maxwell” and I know there is probably not a more valuable 60 seconds around.

Something he said got me thinking about success and purpose. He mentions that most people have different ideas of what success is. There are so many definitions and ideas for all of us. The thing he said that out of all the successful people he knows is that each one of them has purpose in their lives. That has been on my radar for awhile now in my life. The purposes that I have are many, but they all come down to making a difference with people.

Obviously it’s one of the main reasons why I became a teacher. People who get into teaching and at the top of their list of reasons why, is for summers?? That is one thing that I quickly tell people to remember that summers don’t last! It certainly isn’t for the money, although is not horrible. People last and relationships last (at least some of them do), that’s the reason to get into teaching. It’s all about making a difference and the younger the people we can do that with, the better they and others will be. If you think of all the people that will come into contact with our students throughout their lifetimes, and the difference they will make with them because of something you did in the time you worked with them, that’s powerful stuff!

We need more people figuring out what their purpose is. We also need more people to do things and live life with passion! That has become one of my main messages over the years to my students and now I’m getting braver to make sure it’s my message to adults too. It’s never too late to find your purpose and passion and to make changes to go after those. The only time when it’s too late is when you take your last breath. Which remember, we all are going to do at sometime. That’s a driving force in my life now not to leave with “any of my music inside of me” that still has to be played.

Have you figured out what your purpose is? What are you passionate about? The bigger question is if you don’t know, what are you doing to find out what they are?

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Life’s Too Short To Be Bored and Unfulfilled

10/24/2015

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"Life’s too short to be bored and unfulfilled. Find your passion and use it to light up your life." — John C. Maxwell

Time and time again – there have been way too many examples about life being too short. John Maxwell is right, there is not any room for living a bored and unfulfilled life during the short time that we have. All too often most people don’t find their passions in life. Maybe even worse, they do find their passions but don’t do anything to go after them.

Les Brown tells the story about a man on his death bed and all of a sudden there are all these figures standing around his bed. He asked one, what are you all doing here? The mystical figure said that they represented all the dreams and ideas that he never did anything about. That because of him not doing anything about making them real, they are going to die with him. All the people that could have had their lives changed due to his ideas and dreams, will never have it happen. Of course he felt horrible at that moment. I’ve always pictured that story with me – and it is indeed very scary and sad to me. I guess that is one thing I’m trying harder to avoid in my life.

It’s one of my many issues that I try and get my students to think about as they go through high school and the fact that they are setting the table so to speak for the their journey through life. It’s become one of my many callings to bring this out so that students can start on this journey of going after a life of making a difference and one of fulfillment with their dreams and goals.
The same goes for adults too as we need to figure out our lives, no matter what age we are. It’s a lot more difficult for adults to make changes, to step out of our comfort zones and to find the time and courage necessary to do those things. One thing for sure is that we need to do it as we don’t want to end up at the end our lives, looking at all those faces of our dreams and ideas looking back at us with tears in their eyes, wondering why we didn’t choose to make things happen.

We also need to remember the faces staring at every day in our lives, our loved ones and friends. When we don’t go after our goals and dreams, we are making it much more difficult for them to go after theirs. It’s one of my many personal battles I need to take on because I know I have many people in my life that need me to step up and show them how to do things like this along with helping them to see the importance of the opportunities in their lives to make it happen for themselves. They too have others that they can influence and help, and so on and so on. A very familiar question should be asked by all of us. If not me, then who will step up and make a difference? Do you want to face all those figures at the end of your life??

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There Is Power In Our Present By Having Hope In Our Future!

6/29/2015

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“If there is hope in the future, there’s power in the present.” – John Maxwell

As I was at the gym over the weekend, I was listening to my usual podcasts while I was there. From Zig Ziglar’s podcast there was something that struck me as connecting with me right now. There are most day and most time throughout each day that I do have hope in the future and John Maxwell is right on – that does make me feel there is power that I have in the present.

There are also those few times where I don’t feel very hopeful about the future and I do feel less powerful, less confident, more negative, more down, etc., towards the present moment. But I also have remembered that I cannot stay in that feeling for very long. I’ve made a conscious choice in the past that when these sad, negative, down feelings take over, I first tell myself that they will not last and then second, I try and put myself right into the middle of those feelings. I want to wrap my arms around them, and almost taste what those negative feelings are all about. Knowing that the quicker I can connect with them, the quicker I can learn and make adjustments from them along with quickly moving on towards feeling better and moving forward.

Looking back throughout my life there have been plenty of moments that I stayed stuck in them and thereby giving up control to those negative, sad, depressing feelings. I have learned (through reading a few books, listening to some podcasts, etc., that I need to get connected with those sad, hopeless feelings and thoughts to be able to dissect them, learn from them and become better and move on. When those feeling hit me, I’m not feeling too hopeful about the future and that robs me of my today. I am working hard at not letting that happen.

John Maxwell also mentions about the size of our hope will determine how far we go in life. From these episodes that I have been through, I totally agree with that idea. As Kevin Miller puts it – “You need more hope. You need to increase it and enhance it and establish it.” We all need more hope for sure. We do need to increase it and establish more of it in our lives and in the lives of those that are around us. That is a very powerful and life-changing thought. The more we can have hope for others, the more they can have it for themselves. There are so many people around us that are looking for an example of finding hope in themselves. Sometimes it’s up to us to have faith in a person, believe in them, stick with them and thereby transferring our hope in them into themselves where they can latch onto to it and start believing in themselves and thereby changing their futures and those people around them.

I find it so awesome and inspiring the ideas and thoughts that can come to me with a cup of coffee, some fresh air coming in the house next to where I’m sitting, time relaxing and focusing in on a thought (or in this case a quote), and then all the ideas that come rushing into my head during this time of solitude. Just another thought – maybe you can try it out for yourself? As always, let me know how it goes.

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Growth & Success - They Go Hand In Hand

March 21st, 2017

Having A Purpose In Life - We All Have One, We Just Have To Find It

Life’s Too Short To Be Bored and Unfulfilled

There Is Power In Our Present By Having Hope In Our Future!

Coach John Daly

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