Five Habits of Personal Growth
A few years ago, I took my oldest grandson to a traditional circus show passing through our hometown. We had such a great time. It reminded me when I was a little boy, and my dad would take me to the circus. I have such fond memories of those days that when our three boys were young, I took them as well.
I have always been amazed by the overwhelming size and raw power of the elephants. How is it that these enormous animals have succumbed to a simple chain that they could easily break?
The Power of the Past
It turns out that when an elephant is born into captivity, it is chained to a post that prevents it from escaping. Early on, the infant elephant attempts to test again and again the chain that binds them but continues to learn they are no match for the hardiness of the chain. Finally, they give up to any further attempts to free themselves.
As an adult elephant is conditioned by past experiences, they are now effectively bound by the thinnest of ropes or no rope at all. And they do not attempt to wander because now they "believe" that they possess no power to break the ties that bind them, and true freedom is no longer available to them. Then they relegate themselves to a tamed life within just a small circle and nothing like the powerful creature they were born to be.
Unleash Your Chains
Now is the time to unleash the chains of the myths to personal growth for yourself and for your people, and to experience exponential business growth. The key is to work ON, not just IN, your business.
Recently, I've been writing about the ON/IN principle that encourages us to
Work ON the business while we work IN the business.
-Bobby Albert
So, what is working ON, not just IN, the business? It involves a three-part strategy:
- Grow yourself
- Grow your people
- Grow your business
Every leader can achieve exponential business growth by adopting the following five habits of personal growth.
Each day you need to challenge yourself to get a little better and build on the previous day's progress. And the same is true for growing your people.
Personal growth is a process over time and not a single event. So, start paying the price now, and someday you, even people with natural talent, will experience the successful effects of your daily training AND development.
"The secret of our success is found in our daily agenda."
-Tag Short
Five Habits of Personal Growth
The following are five habits, which when adopted, will fuel your personal growth:
1. Set personal growth objectives - Plan to learn something every day so you will become a lifelong learner and make your growth intentional, strategic, and effective.
Then focus on growing in the area where you can add value to your greatest strength, not your weakness. Once you start to learn, you will begin to realize how far you still need to go, and you will gain a hunger to learn more.
"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."
-Earl Nightingale
2. Apply what you learn - Personal growth is an uphill climb all the way and applying what you learn is the most difficult part. The real test is putting into practice what you learn. Then use it in ways to help and improve yourself and other people. It will be worth the effort when you know what you learn so well that you teach others.
3. Reflect on what you learn - Have a daily discipline to spend time reflecting on what you learned today. Your reflection on today will motivate you to look forward to tomorrow.
"The greatest of all insights is that we cannot be tomorrow what we do not do today."
- John Maxwell
4. Associate with like–minded people - The people you spend the most time with greatly impact your outlook and pursuit of personal growth. If those closest to you are hungry for personal growth and are striving to reach their potential, they will rub off on you. If they have no desire or interest for personal growth, their negative influence will pull you down. Make sure that you're among like-minded people who will encourage and challenge you to reach your full potential.
5. File what you learn - Start by being on the lookout for anything that you hear or read that you want to learn and file so that you can use it in the future.
Begin filing quotes, stories, and ideas that you find as you learn. This habit will yield a great harvest of material for your future use. It will keep you highly focused to go for the good stuff that will stimulate you and help your personal growth.
As we grew our company, I developed specific strategies and plans to stimulate the personal growth of our people. I've developed a one-page printable sheet that details these strategies with recommendations on how to begin your employee growth plan. You can download it by clicking <here>.
Let's get going to unleash the chains of the myths to personal growth and experience exponential business growth. The first step is to start working ON, not just IN, your business.
Has your personal growth been bound by chains? What are you doing to unleash those chains? Please share your thoughts <here>.