Quotes from the book: Training Camp by: Jon Gordon

• There is a formula for success.
• This formula is predictable, repeatable, and simple to understand, but it’s a process and it requires initiative, dedication, focus, and loads of positive energy.
• When a player catches a coach’s eye, the coach tends to give him more opportunities to show his stuff.
• When speaking to the reporters, the coach’s answers were short, always positive, and focused on the future, not the past.
• How you train your mind is actually more important than how you train the body.
• How you deal with setbacks matters.
• Every battle is won before it ever fought. It starts in the mind.
• Just pray on it and remember you can’t do it on your own. You’re not that strong.
• It’s not how much you say. It’s what you say when you say it that counts. Those who have the most profound things to say often speak the least.
• How bad do you want to be great?
• Making the team is a goal. But striving for greatness is a life mission.
• What got you to this level won’t get you to the next. Are you willing to pay the price that greatness required?
• Talent isn’t enough anymore.
• Life is too short to be average.
• Striving for greatness doesn’t start on the field. It starts in your head.
• The best know what they truly want.
• For many who strive to be the best, there was a person before them who paved the way, who showed them that greatness was possible.
• Seeing it is important because to reach your destination you know you have to travel through the valley of hardship and struggle to get there. But your big picture vision will feel you during your journey and help you bear the struggle and overcome the hardship to reach your goal.
• Whatever you do, don’t be a 50 percenter. 
• The best want it more.
• We must also measure desire in terms of actions.
• When everyone else is sleeping, the best are practicing and thinking and improving.
• To settle for anything less than your past was a waste of the gifts and calling you have been given.
• To deny being your best was to deny the gift you were meant to give others.
• The best are always striving to get better.
• To be the best, you have to be willing to be uncomfortable and embrace it as a part of your growth process.
• The best are humble and hungry. They are lifelong learners.
• You are either getting better or worse but never staying the same.
• See everyone as a teacher.
• Coach Bill Walsh, one of the great football coaches of our time, would often say that he feared success, not failure.
• The fact is that pass success does not determine future success.
• He realized that sometimes a person striving for greatness needs someone to push them out of their comfort zone.
• Coaches need to treat each player differently based on what motivates the player.
• You know you’ve picked the right woman when she gives you strength.
• There is no such thing as an overnight success.
• Game day principle: 5% of a person’s life is made up of our performance on game day, 95% is made up of the time we are preparing, practicing, and waiting to perform.
• What makes Starbucks so great is that they do 100 things 10% better than everyone else.
• It’s the little things that separate the best from the rest.
• The best do ordinary things better than everyone else.
• There is simply no substitute for practice and hard work.
• Vision without execution is hallucination. (Edison)
• Zoom focus means that you are not just working hard, but working hard on the right things.
• Success is all about the fundamentals. And the fundamentals are little and ordinary and often boring.
• The key is to focus on improving each day and to take the necessary action steps. If you incrementally improve each day, each week, each month, each quarter, by the end of the year you’ll see remarkable results and growth.
• What are the three most important things I need to do today that will help me create the success I desire?
• If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy. We need to stop scattering hour energy and wasting our time on trivial things that have nothing to do with our vision and goals and start saying yes to our priorities into what truly matters.
• Tune out distractions. Don’t listen to what others say about you.
• Mental toughness is everything.
• Just as you build physical muscle by lifting weights, you can build mental muscle by doing exercises like positive self talk, visualization, breathing, meditation, and prayer each day.
• Weed and feed. Because our minds are like a garden, each day you need to weed out the negativity and feed it positivity.
• Pay attention to your thoughts. 
• When you want to complain, instead identify a solution.
• To overcome your fear, you have to know what you are up against.
• The best overcome their fear.
• Sometimes a man has to be isolated and have no way out before he is willing to look within and above.
• Make every moment of your life count.
• I realized how important it is to start your day off right. Instead of letting the world create you, you create your world.
• Love casts out all fear. 
• Love is more powerful than fear. 
• Pride keep you separate from the love of God.
• The best tap into a power greater than themselves.
• You can’t talk about greatness without talking about God.
• Resistors and conductors: In spiritual terms we can say that resistors rely on their own power so their power is limited. Conductors, by contrast, empty themselves of their pride and allow the ultimate power to flow through them.
• You don’t know God all you need until God all you got.
• Don’t ever lose your passion.
• God blesses us not for our own good, but so he can bless others through us.
• It’s not about you. (Rick Warren)
• The success you create now is temporary, but the legacy you leave is eternal.
• The best leave a legacy.
• You leave a legacy by moving from success to significance. 
• I need to live my life as if it were the fourth quarter. 
• The best make everyone around them better.
• One person in pursuit of excellence raises the standard of everyone around them.
• God will unload you and others will support you, but you must take the leap yourself.

To purchase the book, click here.

Quotes from the book: Soar! by: TD Jakes

• It is the power of one transformative belief held firmly in place, that daring idea that says just because I haven’t seen it modeled in my past doesn’t mean I cannot create something that changes the trajectory of my future.
• Your business plan-whether conceptual or concrete-will serve as your flight manual for getting your vision off the ground and sustaining a successful flight towards a divine destination beyond your imagination.
• Attitude Affects Altitude. 
• You must also have a passion for adventure, for discovery, for new people and places if you want your vision to keep a balanced perspective and to reach new heights.
• Undeniably, many of us have created our own chaos. Some of us are so busy trying to survive that we don’t get a chance to rethink our goals and re-calibrate our practices so as to be more fruitful and effective.
• Taking responsibility for your own success must be foundational if you are to succeed as an entrepreneur.
• I want to challenge you to see tables in trees, boxes and bushes, and provision and problems!
• In fact, success with that process will leave you on qualified to rain over what you’ve built. It is the process that build your stamina, your insight, and most importantly your relationships, which are the lifeblood of any business.
• You see, many new businesses fail not because they weren’t well designed or didn’t have a good business plan but because their owners overlooked the external environment where their products and services would fly. Successful entrepreneurs check the economic, social, and cultural weather before they designed the business, let alone try to fly.
• No matter how much passion, hard work, and dedication you pour into your venture, if it doesn’t solve an identifiable problem for customer is willing to pay for your solution, it will never get off the ground.
• Start small in order to finish big.
• You have to start where you are.
• God basically told Moses to stop waiting and start walking! If you let it, your hesitation will only become a limitation.
• Struggle is to be expected.
• Success is a process that takes time.
• Delayed doesn’t equate to denied!
• Being an entrepreneur is a mindset, not a money set.
• Faith doesn’t mean that you ignore facts and figures or discount common sense.
• The word Inspiration itself comes from the Latin “inspirare”, meaning to blow or breathe life into something.
• Many times we feel inspired by a situation or opportunity and attempt to pour our energy into it before we have created a structure to support it.
• Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning. (Thomas Edison)
• Stress is about lacking the structural support for the weight you’re carrying. 
• The key is to listen but not necessarily to act.
• Start ups seldom start perfectly and often resemble the beginning of the marriage-making adjustments and accommodations for the new dynamic being together as a couple.
• Preparation facilitates liberation.
• I consider e-commerce a crucial part of any new entrepreneurial business plan, one that must be addressed, assesses, and expressed!
• There’s no such thing as failing. You’re learning by style and error!
• Quality branding is about paying close attention to details of functionality as well as sensory engagement.
• Remaining flexible and adaptable allows you to change in order to keep meeting customers positive expectations. You can’t assume that today’s means and methods will work tomorrow.
• Generally in business it’s better if you separate your personal relationships from your professional ones, but I’m convinced it’s absolutely crucial for entrepreneurs.
• The old “adage slow to hire and quick to fire” holds up in my experience.
• You can’t do mighty deeds by yourself in isolation. Drawing on your existing network of relationships as well as cultivating the new existing relationships you need insurance you have a flight crew you need to soar.
• If you try to do everything your business requires, then you’re guaranteed to crash and burn.
• Your ground crew will include supporters, advisors, and mentors.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for what you need in order to succeed! 
• So put your ego aside if necessary and enjoy the opportunity to launch your business with others as invested in it success as you are.
• Always have a contract, but when family or close friends invest in your business, it’s even more essential.
• Everyone longs to be treated like a person of value and respected as a fellow human being.
• If you can’t serve them with your business, then you can at least help them with your attitude and information.
• In fact, beginning with the end in mind will make many of your daily decisions for you.
• In many cases, anticipating what could go wrong before it happens allows you to prevent some of those conflicts from ever arising.
• Learning while you lead determines the kind of leader you will become.
• I went on to explain how mature leadership is not really about hitting a particular chronological age as much as it is about taking responsibility for your life, your business, and going on the hunt for yourself. When you stop relying on others or blaming others or waiting on others to go kill something and bring it back for you to eat, you right you realize you have to go hunt and kill for yourself. You don’t complain about what you lack or let setbacks get in the way of finding a way to make your dreams happen. You just go do it.
• Perseverance refined our character and makes us stronger and wiser leaders.
• Success requires talent and time and tenacity.
• Experienced pilots know they must adjust course all the time. Just because they change course doesn’t mean they lose sight of their destination.
• Entrepreneurial leadership is ultimately measured in your ability to influence those around you and constructive, consistent, and coherent ways.
• You don’t get to control what you confront, but you do control your response to it.
• It’s amazing how easily some problems can be avoided if some simple precautionary measures have been taken.
• Improvisation requires preparation, engagement, resourcefulness, and creativity to come up with solutions when your new business faces potential disaster.
• Problem-solving is essential to being an entrepreneur.
• I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the nonsuccessful one is pure perseverance. (Steve Jobs)
• A blessing too fast is no blessing at all. You have to know your capacity.
• Don’t be distracted by what your business is not; be fully engaged with exactly all that you intend your business to be.
• Our blindspot is to think that our effort replaces the efficiency of contemporary technology!
• Social media or forward you the luxury of identifying your constituents, connecting with their interest, and building long-term relationships that can be used to sustain your business and expand your vision.
• You need to fail boldly if you want to succeed extravagantly!
• If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone. (John Maxwell)
• My purpose refused to be incarcerated by others perceptions.
• Uniqueness is seldom understood in real time.
• Purpose, power, and profit each play a role in accomplishing what I like to call impact.
• How much is 24 hours of your life worth at this point? In business just as in life, time is our most precious commodity-irreplaceable and irretrievable.
• Impact looks at the results of the energy, emotions, and effort expended to accomplish the work.
• Most people are happy to live their lives based on the superficial glimpses and cosmetic glances of success.
• Impact determine success.
• Without accountability, there is no path forward growth and profitability.
• We must understand our success isn’t a measurement to be compared to the success of others.
• God expects us to be faithful with what he’s given us.
• The parable of the talents remind us that risk is necessary for growth to occur.
• Whether you have to move away from where you are physically or move away from where you are mentally, it will be an exercise in faith as you go after the dreams and desires that God has placed inside of you.
• Doing something new and different means that you will have to step out of that box; you’ll have to move away from how you define yourself, but especially away from how others have to find you.
• The key is never allow the crowd to define you or confine you.
• Shifting into a higher altitude often requires creating consistent operating systems for optimum functional growth.
• So much growth comes back to simple, obvious practices like sticking to your budget and investing some of your profits back into your business.
• I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. (Maya Angelou)
• Marketing makes the magic that can transform your airplane into a rocketship!
• Learning to market effectively is an ongoing educational process and requires keen attention to cultural trends, exact timing, and customer relations.
• In reference to when Jesus fed the 5000, his impact was in the miracle and that became his message.
• Your brand image should reflect your company’s message.
• Remember: you’re messaging begins with the name of your business. You’re not just naming a business; you’re establishing your brand.
• Your company’s name and logo should be a central part of everything you do-from your business card, your storefront design, your interior Decour, your website, and social media, to your advertising and promotional materials.
• Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell. (Seth Godin)
• Purpose driven marketing is critical, particularly for nonprofit organizations. People like to get behind a worthy cause and back it as ambassadors spreading a message of awareness and support.
• Connectors love networking, making introductions, and providing relational blue among the many people they know and encounter.
• Mavens differ from connectors, in that they provide information about various products, services, and businesses.
• It’s time to excuse your excuses and make some decisions that can change the rest of your life-and change the impact your business could have on your family for generations to come.
• Building your legacy as an entrepreneur requires faith, and faith requires active participation.
• Teach, reach, and glean. 

To purchase the book, click here.

Quotes from the book: The Social Media Makeover by: Tisha Holman

• If your business or organization is not playing competitively in the social media arena, then you’re leaving money on the table. 
• Social media affords you access to a multitude of clients the average small business owner or organization would not usually be able to tap into.
• It is estimated there are approximately 2.3 billion active users on social media. 
• Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. (George Shaw)
• You have to take an honest look at the type of content you are posting, how it is performing and whether or not it is yielding the desired results. 
• Each social media platform has its own rules of engagement.
• Conduct a social media audit. 
• It is a must that you figure out who you are talking to on social media.
• Attitude is everything; if you want to succeed above and beyond.
• Have S.M.A.R.T. goals.
• What differentiates your business or organization from others in your industry?
• Having consistency in these areas gives you credibility, and will increase customer loyalty.
• Content is king and consistency is key!
• Developing a social media content calendar will be one of the best ways you can begin to organize your social media plan.
• Document and develop standard operating procedures for your social media.
• You do not have to have big money to be an effective business that leverages the power of social media to reach potential clients-just be strategic.
• There should always be a “why” behind everything you post on social media.
• you have to call your audience to some sort of action with every post.

To purchase the book, click here.

Quotes from the book: Crisis at Santa's Workshop by Richard Weaver & John Farrell

• Facilitation is defined as helping people get their work done and improve the way they work together.
• The three basic steps of facilitation: 1. help others take responsibility; 2. help others focus on what they need to get done; 3. help improve working relationships.
• Facilitation values the contributions of all. 
• Facilitation believes that collaboration creates better results.
• Facilitation assume that differences among individuals is a required part of collaboration.
• Facilitation helps others achieve results by expressing themselves productively and taking action. 
• The challenge with taking on all of the responsibility is that you own the solutions that are created. 
• You and the rest of your team are definitely going to have to start thinking differently about what it means to be ‘in charge.’
• Trying to work harder using current and effective methods is going to cause your team to have a meltdown. 
• As a leader you need to provide the tools to your team to get the job done right. 
• If the leaders set good examples, then the rest will follow suit.
• The key to thriving in a changing environment is to become more flexible and adaptable. 
• Help create solutions rather than sitting on the sidelines complaining about every new thing that is been tried.
• As leaders we do not take the easy way out. In moments when we do not know what to do, we should not leave our team to figure it out for themselves. Don’t abandon them when they most need you.
• We might not be able to solve the entire problem today, but we can’t focus on the next step.
• Rephrase questions so they do not sound so much like attacks.
• One of the most important things we can do is listen to one another. 
• The key to our productivity is the quality of our work in relationships. It’s about making a commitment to one another’s success.
• Create a variety of ways for people to participate when asking for feedback.
• Encourage everyone to share their constructive opinions, even if you don’t agree with them.
• The change process happens at a very personal level.
• Help people discover their own truth not prescribe it.
• Have production meetings weekly to review progress and make any revisions necessary.
• Plan celebrations.

To purchase the book, click here.

Quotes from the book: You Have What It Takes by: John Eldredge

1. Every boy wants to be a hero. Every boy wants to be powerful, he wants to be dangerous, and he wants to know: Do I have what it takes? And every boy looks to his dad to answer it.
2. Every little girl wants to know: Am I lovely?
3. Answer these questions a thousand times and in a thousand ways over the course of your son's or daughter's life, and you will have a done your job.
4. Your son or daughter, no matter how old, will always want and need to hear those words from you.
5. What's your worst fear as a man? Isn't it some version of failure?
6. A woman's worst fear is abandonment.
7. You, dad, are the most powerful man in their world... at least in their world. 
8. How you handle your children's hearts will shape them for the rest of their lives.
9. Mothers teach about unconditional love, and she teaches us about mercy. She is a comforter. She is a picture of the heart of God. But identity, especially gender identity, is the bestowed by the father.
10. Until a man knows he's a man, he will forever be trying to prove he is one.
11. Research data show that sexual promiscuity among teenage girls is almost always directly related to an absent father.
12. Most fathers find it hard to validate their children, because they have a wound in their soul.
13. How can you first find the healing of your wounded heart? It begins with surrender.
14. Abiding in the love of God is our only hope, the only true home for our hearts.
15. As someone has said, forgiveness is setting a prisoner free and then discovering the prisoner was you. You must understand that forgiveness is a choice.

To purchase the book, click here.

Quotes from the book: Defining the Executive Pastor Role by: Phil Taylor

1. Who is in charge backstage?
2. The idea of "coming along side of" in a subordinate manner is at the core of the Executive Pastor role. 
3. It is incredibly freeing to know exactly where you fit best in the church.
4. My role as Executive Pastor is to oversee the effective implementation of the vision of the church. The vision and direction of the church are cast largely by the Lead pastor.
5. It takes another person with a pastoral heart and mind to keep his eyes, hands, heart and soul and every part of the ministry at all times in some sense.
6. The Executive Pastor becomes the guy who not only implements the vision but also protects it.
7. The Executive Pastor has to be able to take a pile of ideas and aspirations and reverse engineer them into a plan of attack.
8. I can't do the vision of the church if I'm not in the vision conversations early on.
9. Understanding why you were hired really does drive the direction of your role and even how you manage your schedule.
10. Risk is not something that comes naturally to me, but I've learned that I need to take a risk-at least calculated risk-because it forces me to rely on God instead of my well thought out plans.
11. Obedience is never a failure. 
12. Give developing pastors added responsibility, but limited authority.
13. Guard the Elders/Pastor title carefully because it is much easier to increase the authority and leadership level of someone on staff then it is to reduce it.
14. I've never regretted going slow with someone in leadership development, but I have regretted going to quickly.
15. I believe that leadership development is one of the most important things to get right in a church.
16. Most of what we find in scripture for elder qualifications is character-based, not ability based. 
17. Most Executive Pastors will either be an EXECUTIVE pastor with a capital E and lowercase P, or, they will be an executive PASTOR with a lowercase E and a capital P. 
18. I suggest that the first chair and second chair should have a unique symbolic working relationship-different and more critical than any other staff relationship.
19. Staff to your weakness. 
20. God has made you exactly the way he wanted you, then he has called us to do life in community. It's called the "body of Christ" you don't have to be every part on that body. Nor should you even try.
21. Don't be afraid to hand off key roles in the church by building your top volunteer team.
22. If you find yourself serving in the Executive Pastor role of a smaller church, do not hesitate to call or email the another Executive Pastor serving in a larger church.
23. If you know who you are, then you know who you aren't!
24. Executive Pastors are the men/women who take the raw material of a visionary's hazy dreams and form it into a movement.
25. I'm the guy who takes a great idea and makes it even better by wrapping it up all snug and warm with systems, structures, and strategies to ensure that the great idea makes it into the real world, which benefits real people throughout the church and beyond.
26. Simply put, I mean I don't really do much, I just make sure that a lot gets done.
27. Executive pastors need to have a high tolerance for both complexity and ambiguity. 
28. I spend most of my time leading the leaders, who in turn lead to doers. 
29. Over manage the details that everyone else under manages. 
30. Lean on your trusted direct reports and then get the heck out of their way.
31. Implementation inherently involves continual clarification.
32. Saying no is usually harder than saying yes, but it often has a far greater impact on the success of the church.
33. Some people are called to be a voice, and some people are called to be an echo, and that's OK.
34. This is the hallmark of a good Executive Pastor: the ability to jump into just about any role and do it moderately well.

Purchase the book, click here.

Quotes from the book: Finish by: Jon Acuff

1. According to studies, 92% of New Year's resolutions fail.
2. The less people aim for perfection, the more productive they become.
3. The day after perfect is what separates finishers from starters.
4. Finishing something you care about is the best feeling in the world.
5. The problem is that perfectionism magnifies your mistakes and minimizes your progress.
6. In the middle of a goal, perfectionism gets real chatty. The first thing it says is that if you won't be able to do something perfectly and you shouldn't even start. 
7. Cut your goal in half. Those who cut their goals in half increased their performance from past similar goal related challenges on average by over 63%.
8. Goals are a marathon not a sprint. 
9. Some goals are difficult to cut in half. For those, don't cut them in half; give your self more time.
10. The only way to accomplish a new goal is to feed it your most valuable resource: time.
11. You only have two options right now. Attempt more than is humanly possible and fail OR choose what to bomb and succeed at a goal that matters.
12. The most powerful word in the English language is: No.
13. Perfectionism believes that the harder something is, the more miserable something is, the better it is.
14. Another lie perfectionism tells you is: fun doesn't count.
15. Motivation falls into two rough categories: reward motivation or fear motivation.
16. Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.
17. Perfectionism offers us two distinct distractions: hiding places and noble obstacles. A hiding place is an activity you focus on instead of your goal. A noble obstacle is a virtuous sounding reason for not working toward a finish. Both are toxic to your ability to finish. 
18. Perfectionism loves isolation.
19. "What's next" will always look more interesting than "What's now".
20. Perfectionism always makes things harder and more complicated. Finishers make things easier and simpler.
21. At the core, perfectionism is a desperate attempt to live up to impossible standards.
22. Find someone with an amazing diploma and then borrow it. Perfectionism persist unless we ask questions.
23. Progress is quiet and it whispers. Perfectionism screams failure and hides progress.
24. Emotions lie, data doesn't. If you don't review the progress you can't make adjustments.
25. If you don't learn what makes you work best and repeat it, you'll never get better.
26. Talent you don't claim turns into bitterness eventually.
27. Every kid is one caring adult away from being a success story. We don't ever age out of needing someone to believe in us.
28. Goals you refuse to chase don't disappear-they become ghost that haunts you.

Purchase the book, click here.

Quotes from the book: No Excuses by: Brian Tracy

1. It has been said that if people put as much energy into achieving their goals as they spend making up excuses for failure, they would actually surprised themselves.
2. I discovered that you can achieve almost any goal you set for yourself if you have the discipline to pay the price, to do what you need to do, and to never give up.
3. Self-discipline is the ability to do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.
4. The lack of self-discipline is the major cause of failure, frustration, underachievement, and our happiness in life.
5. Superior people have the ability to throughout their lives make sacrifices in the short term, both large and small, so as to assure greater results and rewards in the long term.
6. Successful people make a habit of doing the things that unsuccessful people don't like to do.
7. If you do what other successful people do, over and over again, nothing can stop you from eventually enjoying the same rewards that they do.
8. Stop engaging in activities that lead nowhere. 
9. Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself and being lenient to everyone else.
10. You demonstrate your values in your behavior.
11. By the law of concentration, whatever you do well on grows in increases in your life.
12. Accepting responsibility is one of the hardest of all disciplines, but without it, no success is possible. 
13. It takes tremendous self discipline for you to except complete responsibility for everything you are, everything you've become, and everything that happens to you.
14. Excellence requires a definite decision and a lifelong commitment.
15. Happiness is a byproduct that comes to you when you are engaged in doing something that you really enjoy while in the company of people who you like and respect.
16. There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important things.
17. Time management is really life management, personal management, management of yourself rather than of time or circumstances.
18. Dedicate yourself to continuous learning as if your future depends on it-because it does.
19. The primary reason for success is persistence, and, likewise, the primary reason for failure is lack of persistence, quitting too soon. 

Purchase the book, click here.

What's your one?

I love the topics of self development & personal growth. When I say love them, it’s not just like an occasional hobby but a daily habit. Not ONE day goes by that I don't watch, listen, or read something that betters, teaches, and/or inspires me in some way. But it wasn’t always like that.

I was blessed to have parents and a mentor, instruct me and model a life of self development and personal growth. At a very young age they taught me Dr. John Maxwell’s Law of the Lid: Leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness.They taught me that not only in classroom could you learn. They taught me not to depend solely on anyone else for MY growth but to go after it on my own. And I will forever be grateful to them for that.

This blog isn't necessarily for the person who already has their five year growth plan outlined or list of the next 20 books they want to read, but rather the person who knows they should be growing, wants to grow but doesn't know where to start. 

And honestly it could be overwhelming with all the resources available today. I did some quick searches and here is what I found:

• There are 260,251 book titles on Amazon when I searched ‘self development’.
• There are 2,930,000 videos on YouTube when I search ‘personal growth’. 

That’s not including podcasts, life coaches, conferences, leadership programs, etc…

I don’t want you to misinterpret what I’m about to say, I’m all about having a vision and goals for your life. But when starting something new, many times it’s ok to start small and with one thing at a time. It’s like a person who never goes to the gym, all of a sudden they show up on January 1st expecting to lift a crazy heavy amount. It doesn't work like that. You grow into it.

If your the type of person that gets easily overwhelmed, I would like for you to consider the following: just focusing on one. That’s either one podcast, one chapter, one class, one goal, one hour, one day, one step forward. 

When I started picking up the habit of reading books, honestly I set myself up to win. How? I picked books about my favorite subjects, by my favorite authors, and the shortest books I could find. Why? Just so I could finish one book. And then I would begin another and another. 

Similarly, when I began keeping my personal planner, I did not plan out months in advance but often times one week or even one day. I was young, it was new, other than school and church, I didn’t have much going on. But I knew it wouldn't always be like that. So I would write down what I was going to do tomorrow or when I had an upcoming test. I included events we had coming up at church and then services I was invited to speak at. Next thing you know I’m planning and reading more and more. 

What’s your one? What’s one thing you can start doing right now that will move you forward in the right direction?

I have always found it interesting how some people say, “I just don't have enough time.” As if some people get more hours in a day than others. Equally interesting, it’s funny how people have time for NETFLIX but not for their NEXT STEP. Nothing against Netflixs, I enjoy a good tv show as well. But can you imagine what would happen if we took the time we spent on lesser important things and focused them on things that really did matter? Imagine how many books, courses, or videos we could have completed? Imagine how much further you would be in accomplishing your goal. Time management and productivity is another passion of mine. But here is the summary: Don’t be so focused on two or three years form now that you miss out on TODAY. 

When I skim through the Bible I see the the theme of TODAY throughout the scriptures beginning from page one. Two examples: Creation happened day by day and in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread. Could God have created everything in one moment, of course. Could He provide for our weekly, monthly, or yearly bread, yes! But I really believe that He is trying to teach us something, which is: Today matters. It’s ok to start with one. You can break this into smaller pieces. Things that last often were made or built over time. 

Psalm 119:105 includes the statement: Your word is a LAMP to my feet. Not a spotlight. The difference? The spotlight reaches and shows you the end and long distance. A lamp doesn’t. A lamp shows you only your next step. 

Again if you already have a rhythm for self development and personal growth, then keep at it. But if you don’t and are ready to take responsibility for it, what’s your one? What one goal you want to work on? What’s one podcast you can start listening to? What’s one speaker you would like to learn more from? What’s one subject that you would like to grow in? Start with one but don't stay there.

What happens as you make these small (one) wins? They begin to add up. And one win plus another win plus another win is how momentum and forward movement is produced. 

Don’t fear learning or attempting new things, fear being the same person you are today exactly one year from now. A long time ago, I committed to not allowing that happen to me. I refuse to stay the same person, when it comes to my knowledge and skill. To this day, although I reading and taking in more information than ever before, I still catch myself at time focusing on my one. I read one chapter a day, I watch one video from youtube, I sign up for one webinar, etc…

So now it’s up to you. What’s your one?

Chasing Skinny Rabbits

I'm currently reading reading a book titled: Chasing Skinny Rabbits by Dr. John Trent. It's about what leads you into emotional and spiritual exhaustion... and what can lead you out. 

You might be asking ok but what's a Skinny Rabbit. Thank you for asking, the book defines a Skinny Rabbit as anything that pulls you away from a path of purpose &  life and leads you into a forest of separation, exhaustion, and even (if you don't stop the chase) the death of a dream, relationship, or chance to reach God's best.

Each of us have a God given purpose, let's stop wasting time and focus on reaching our fullest potential. 

I'm not completely done with the book yet but it definitely has my attention. So far it has mentioned specific Skinny Rabbits that sometimes we're after, such as: wanting to be liked by everyone, having the perfect body, getting into debt just to live the nicer life, extreme perfectionism, delayed satisfaction, and many more. 

The tragedy is that  most of us won't realize we're pursing a Skinny Rabbit until it's too late- until we've lost precious months or even years in the chase.

Stop and ask yourself what's your motivation in life, what are you after, what do you feel God has called you to do, make adequate changes and live life to the fullest. 

Have an amazing day!