Hi Group,
Would like to share this commendable article with you all.
Happy Reading!
SmartLeaders are passionate about personal growth they thrive on it. Leaders understand that the moment you stop growing you have stopped leading. A leader's growth plan has seven steps: 1) Plan to grow; 2) Accept responsibility for your growth; 3) Study purposefully; 4) Share what you learn; 5) Initiate new experiences; 6) Organize your 'leadership lessons'; 7) Network with others. Investing time in personal growth stretches you, strengthens you, sharpens you, stimulates you and catapults you an investment any SmartLeader is willing to make!
SmartLeaders are passionate about personal growth they thrive on it. Leaders understand that the moment you stop growing you have stopped leading. Likewise, the more you grow the more effectively you can lead. Investing time in personal growth stretches you, strengthens you, sharpens you, stimulates you and catapults you an investment any SmartLeader is willing to make!
PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL GROWTH
A great baseball coach once quipped, "Baseball is simple, after all it's just a game of running, hitting, throwing, and catching. Who can't do those things??" He was joking, but he was also making a point: the game can be played well if one masters a few basic principles. The same applies to personal growth. Most of what we need to understand about the current talk surrounding personal growth can be catalogued under three BIG principles:
1. The Principle of Intentional Action: Personal growth doesn't just happen. While anyone can grow, not everyone does because it requires specific and concrete actions. Seven of those specific actions will be discussed below.
2. The Principle of Intrinsic Value: Personal growth is it's own reward. While growing certainly will help you with others (see Principle #3) there is also an intrinsic value that comes from knowing that you are stretching, strengthening, and sharpening yourself for a better future. Hyrum Smith talks about this in his 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management: "You must believe that there is an intrinsic value to be gained from reading a book that is unrelated to work."
3. The Principle of Influence: Personal growth is required for effective leadership. Can you lead without growing? Yes, but not for long! Your circle of influence is determined and delineated by your level of growth. Really, you have only two options: grow or die. And let's face it, the walking dead have very little influence.
These BIG principles of personal growth are offered to you both to help you understand this BIG idea called personal growth and to give you some handles for stirring your passion for personal growth.
THE PARADOX OF PERSONAL GROWTH
When you think about personal growth you most likely find that you become excited (I can't wait to grow!) or exhausted (Growth is hard!). Such thoughts may occur within the same day or even the same hour. Congratulations! You've just discovered the paradox of personal growth, namely, that it is both exciting and exhausting. At times your desire for personal growth is exciting it's as if you can't grow fast enough. You are devouring every book, magazine and leadership lesson in sight. At other times you find personal growth difficult it's as if you just can't get started. You procrastinate. You waste your time on trivial pursuits. Sound familiar?
When your passion for personal growth is high, take advantage of the exciting desire. Don't let a peak learning time pass you by. Your already lit passion can turn into a great bon fire of learning, growing and stretching. When your passion for personal growth is low, take time to examine yourself. Ask if your desire to refrain from growing is from something legitimate or from a self-induced laziness. If you're just being lazy (now be honest!) remember that your mind is often like a child at play, which must be called in to focus on a specific task. At first it will resist the call to growth but once engaged it looses all track of other distractions. When laziness attacks, initiate growth and you will soon find the energy and enthusiasm to continue! Over time, as you continue to reap the rewards of initiating personal growth, you will gain the habit of initiative , and it will become more natural to read that book than to watch that nighttime soap opera or football game.
STIRRING YOUR PASSION
Like any good fire, your passion for personal growth must be stirred. Here are seven practical steps that, if taken, will take you to consistently higher levels of personal growth.
1. Plan to grow. Set goals, and put them on your calendar. As Tom Peters says, "what gets scheduled gets done." (See The Professional Service Firm 50)
2. Accept responsibility for your growth. They don't call it 'personal' growth for nothing! It's up to you.
3. Study purposefully Although meandering minds sometimes randomly strike a worthy insight, purposeful study will more often hit the bull's eye.
4. Share what you learn It's a simple fact: you don't really know it until you share/teach it.
5. Initiate new experiences. Worn paths hold few surprises, take a new route to discover a new insight. But remember to be intentional and purposeful with new experiences, seek the reward of the novel.
6. Organize your 'leadership lessons.' Write it down, and write down where you wrote it down.
7. Network with others. Network not only to share what you've learned, but also to share where/how you learned what you learned.
These principles should stir you to action, but don't let all seven overwhelm you. Take a few, maybe two or three and start putting them into practice right now. Then, over time, add the others. These seven steps will form a framework upon which you can eventually build your own personal growth routines. As you make your way in this journey, soon your personal growth will be in overdrive and your leadership capabilities growing exponentially!
Best Regards,
Upasna Kaushik
Would like to share this commendable article with you all.
Happy Reading!
SmartLeaders are passionate about personal growth they thrive on it. Leaders understand that the moment you stop growing you have stopped leading. A leader's growth plan has seven steps: 1) Plan to grow; 2) Accept responsibility for your growth; 3) Study purposefully; 4) Share what you learn; 5) Initiate new experiences; 6) Organize your 'leadership lessons'; 7) Network with others. Investing time in personal growth stretches you, strengthens you, sharpens you, stimulates you and catapults you an investment any SmartLeader is willing to make!
SmartLeaders are passionate about personal growth they thrive on it. Leaders understand that the moment you stop growing you have stopped leading. Likewise, the more you grow the more effectively you can lead. Investing time in personal growth stretches you, strengthens you, sharpens you, stimulates you and catapults you an investment any SmartLeader is willing to make!
PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL GROWTH
A great baseball coach once quipped, "Baseball is simple, after all it's just a game of running, hitting, throwing, and catching. Who can't do those things??" He was joking, but he was also making a point: the game can be played well if one masters a few basic principles. The same applies to personal growth. Most of what we need to understand about the current talk surrounding personal growth can be catalogued under three BIG principles:
1. The Principle of Intentional Action: Personal growth doesn't just happen. While anyone can grow, not everyone does because it requires specific and concrete actions. Seven of those specific actions will be discussed below.
2. The Principle of Intrinsic Value: Personal growth is it's own reward. While growing certainly will help you with others (see Principle #3) there is also an intrinsic value that comes from knowing that you are stretching, strengthening, and sharpening yourself for a better future. Hyrum Smith talks about this in his 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management: "You must believe that there is an intrinsic value to be gained from reading a book that is unrelated to work."
3. The Principle of Influence: Personal growth is required for effective leadership. Can you lead without growing? Yes, but not for long! Your circle of influence is determined and delineated by your level of growth. Really, you have only two options: grow or die. And let's face it, the walking dead have very little influence.
These BIG principles of personal growth are offered to you both to help you understand this BIG idea called personal growth and to give you some handles for stirring your passion for personal growth.
THE PARADOX OF PERSONAL GROWTH
When you think about personal growth you most likely find that you become excited (I can't wait to grow!) or exhausted (Growth is hard!). Such thoughts may occur within the same day or even the same hour. Congratulations! You've just discovered the paradox of personal growth, namely, that it is both exciting and exhausting. At times your desire for personal growth is exciting it's as if you can't grow fast enough. You are devouring every book, magazine and leadership lesson in sight. At other times you find personal growth difficult it's as if you just can't get started. You procrastinate. You waste your time on trivial pursuits. Sound familiar?
When your passion for personal growth is high, take advantage of the exciting desire. Don't let a peak learning time pass you by. Your already lit passion can turn into a great bon fire of learning, growing and stretching. When your passion for personal growth is low, take time to examine yourself. Ask if your desire to refrain from growing is from something legitimate or from a self-induced laziness. If you're just being lazy (now be honest!) remember that your mind is often like a child at play, which must be called in to focus on a specific task. At first it will resist the call to growth but once engaged it looses all track of other distractions. When laziness attacks, initiate growth and you will soon find the energy and enthusiasm to continue! Over time, as you continue to reap the rewards of initiating personal growth, you will gain the habit of initiative , and it will become more natural to read that book than to watch that nighttime soap opera or football game.
STIRRING YOUR PASSION
Like any good fire, your passion for personal growth must be stirred. Here are seven practical steps that, if taken, will take you to consistently higher levels of personal growth.
1. Plan to grow. Set goals, and put them on your calendar. As Tom Peters says, "what gets scheduled gets done." (See The Professional Service Firm 50)
2. Accept responsibility for your growth. They don't call it 'personal' growth for nothing! It's up to you.
3. Study purposefully Although meandering minds sometimes randomly strike a worthy insight, purposeful study will more often hit the bull's eye.
4. Share what you learn It's a simple fact: you don't really know it until you share/teach it.
5. Initiate new experiences. Worn paths hold few surprises, take a new route to discover a new insight. But remember to be intentional and purposeful with new experiences, seek the reward of the novel.
6. Organize your 'leadership lessons.' Write it down, and write down where you wrote it down.
7. Network with others. Network not only to share what you've learned, but also to share where/how you learned what you learned.
These principles should stir you to action, but don't let all seven overwhelm you. Take a few, maybe two or three and start putting them into practice right now. Then, over time, add the others. These seven steps will form a framework upon which you can eventually build your own personal growth routines. As you make your way in this journey, soon your personal growth will be in overdrive and your leadership capabilities growing exponentially!
Best Regards,
Upasna Kaushik