John C Maxwell - The Laws of Growth
well regardless of where you're at in
life there's always room for personal
growth and to help you with some core
principles for being all that you can be
I have invited international speaker and
author John Maxwell well John you just
studied personal growth and written I
mean an amazing number of wonderful
books but now you've got another new
book coming out on the laws of growth so
tell us about it
well choice you've written a lot of
books also and although you write a lot
of books you know there are some that
you just know you were almost like
called to write and this is one of them
I'm passionate about growth and I'm
passionate about personal growth because
I know what it's done in my life it's
kind of like when I know what it's done
for me I can hardly wait to share with
someone else because I know what it will
do for them and I had a very interesting
encounter when I was in my 20s back in
1972-73 I was passionate in Lancaster
Ohio and I had a man have breakfast with
me one morning and he asked me a
question that just totally took me out
of where he said he looked at me said
John what is your plan for personal
growth and Jois I didn't have one yeah
that's exactly I was on and but but I'm
young enough as a leader to think you
know how we did when we were younger I
thought I had to have an answer I mean
when I started off as a leader I thought
I had to be mr. answer man yeah now that
I'm older I have more questions than I
have answers you know the astronomic
plan for personal growth is I'll never
forget I iced I started talking about
what I did and and what my minister was
all about and how hard I worked you know
and I was going to I was like a plane
circling the airfield just going around
around we weren't getting there and
probably after about 15 minutes of this
conversation I'm out of gas I land that
sucker yeah he knew and he looked at me
and he said you don't have a plan from I
mean 15 minutes later he could have said
time out look son I know I know you have
no plan and then here's where he just
helped me so much he looked at me and he
said John growth is not an automatic
process and Joyce for the first time it
dawned on me that if I was going to grow
I had to be intentional that's good that
it wasn't just going to happen to me
because I lived and I just want to just
stop for long enough I think a lot of
people think that
well if if I just go to church and and
if I just if I just go to work and if I
just you know take care of the family
I'll grow and I I've come to concludes
the only thing that's automatic after
we're born is death yeah we don't need
to read a book on it we don't need it
we'll need to take a course on it we
don't say hey do we have a mentor hey
hang it what I say is hanging around
long enough and you get to do that
that's the only thing automatic well
that day when he said growth is not an
automatic process my mind was turned I
went home to Margaret and I said I had a
conversation with a guy today and I
shared with her what I just share with
you and she said well we need to grow
and it worried God we're married we're
just 1c we need to go I said yeah and we
want to go together but I don't know how
to grow and I literally went on a
journey for the next six months I went
to all my friends I said do you have a
plan for personal growth and Joyce not
what um how and all of a sudden I
realized that if I was going to grow I
was going to have to develop a plan for
four how do I grow personally and so
this sounds very basic now but it took
me a long time to do this I realized
that if I develop a plan for growth
there's going to be something I had to
do daily because you and I both know
that you can't grow if it's spasmodic
and once a month I kind of go and read
the Bible or once a month I kind of pray
it's got it's got to be daily it had to
be simple and then I realized that it
had to be in areas of my giftedness and
strengths because we can learn a lot
about a lot of things but if it's not
what my calling is or if it's not where
I'm gifted although I may know it isn't
gonna really help me so thank you mange
on there's no point in me trying to
learn how to say there is trust me
there's no one that turned on the show
today to hear me say why I hope Joyce
breaks more than song today if she would
just break for the song I know there's
nobody waiting for me we're not gonna do
a debt we're not doing a duet so you
have any way that that got me on a
personal growth journey that literally
changed my life and as I look back today
at books are there right and things that
I say when I speak and teach it all
comes out of the fact that I have had
for now almost 40 years a personal
growth plan for myself and all of a
sudden it hit me
although I've been doing this for me
I've really never sat down and laid it
out in a simple form of how a person can
grow and so I wrote the books of 15 laws
of personal growth which basically are
our laws that they're they're the
regardless of gender regardless I mean a
law because that word confuses well what
I mean is they work they work sever they
work in every circumstances they were
Hey they were gravity that's like
gravity so the laws work it's not just a
good idea but it really works and you
have to apply them to if you apply them
to your life you're going to be better
if you don't apply them to your life
you're gonna you're gonna be without so
I literally woke up one morning about
3:30 in bed and and I put on my robot I
went down and I went down to my office
and I began to write and I wrote till
noon and by noon I pretty well had
formed these 15 laws of growth and
outline for it and I'm so and I'm so
excited for example and the first one is
looking I want to say something because
I just think that this is I want to make
sure they're clear before I go any
further I bet one you we first started
talking about growth a lot of people
thought well I want to grow I want my
business to grow yeah I want my personal
finances to grow I'd like to have bigger
house I'd like it to grow I'm watching
my kids grow but but the thing that I
want to establish is before really any
of that can grow you have to grow cool
it all begins with us so we can't we
can't try to yep you know you got to
start somewhere to get somewhere
absolutely when a pastor comes to me and
asked me how I could how I can grow his
church I said grow yourself yeah
you cannot give what you do not have
right it's when business in the business
community wind a small business from and
starts a business and he or she says I
want to grow my business grow yourself
so it all begins now tell us these laws
thank you and Joyce the 15 laws are all
about me growing me because if I do me
right take care of me right then all the
other good things will happen that's
really good law number one so this is
all so simple is the law of
intentionality we just basically say it
says growth doesn't just happen right
and I remember when I when I talked hold
into the ministry and I remember my dad
sitting down one day and said John
you've now got a calling on your life
now you just have to determine how great
you're gonna be in that calling if
you're gonna reach your potential that's
good
and he said if you're gonna reach a
potential he said you're gonna have to
spend time every day with God and I
remember going to college as a freshman
and on the back of a campus was an old
block house right by the railroad tracks
right by the general electric plant
nothing to look at just a little block
little block room and every day at one
o'clock after lunch I take my Bible and
take my pad and I go back there to spend
an hour that's good
I was intentional that's great and very
quickly I began to begin to learn that
because I blocked that time out and I
was intentional it was beginning to make
some wonderful spiritual changes in my
life that's awesome and so what I teach
and what I teach all the laws of growth
is that growth isn't just going to
happen because you want it to happen or
you would certainly like to be like
someone one time I read that it was
William James who said that he said we
but most people are really desirous of
changing their situation but they're not
near as excited about changing exactly
and this is all about say one of our
biggest problems yeah oh of course it is
and this book is all about
let's change me and the law of
intentionality just says it's not going
to be an accident it's you can't wish it
to happen it isn't going to happen
because you get around other people that
do grow you're going to have to
determine within yourself that you're
going to you're going to make my
decision and I start that is I don't
think that one law is more important
than any other law but here's what I
know if you don't start off with the law
of intentionality and say I am going to
do this and I'm going to do this on
purpose
all the other laws will not work well I
know we're not going to get to all 15 on
this program but so tell us two more
what are what are the some of the most
important out of the 15 because the law
the law of awareness yeah I have to know
myself to grow myself that's very good
and you and I know God created us he
gave us gifts and and I have to know
what those are I have to know what my
passion is and what I teach is here's
how you find your passion in this
chapter and in here's how you find your
gift mix and here's how you find your
strengths and those are the areas you
want to feed you want to feed your
passion and you want to feed your gift
mix your people when they think about
growth they think about overcoming their
weaknesses and I teach the opposite I
I really because God I heard you say
this once Joyce you said this once
God's not gonna hold us accountable for
gifts that he didn't give us that's good
and so my weak areas are my weak areas
and I'm never if even if I work on them
I'm never gonna be as strong as I need
to be you're not we're not talking about
moral weakness not trying to overcome
moral weakness but we're talking about
not trying to do things that just I mean
I tried to learn how to play the guitar
once because I just so much wanted to be
I wanted to be a worship leader and a
preacher I didn't want to just be a
preacher so it to it well I have short
fingers my hands are really little and I
couldn't get him around the neck of the
guitar plus I failed music in school
plus I can't sing other than that no
problems than that there was no problem
what I tell people to do is you have to
you have to grow in your strengths and
your gift it is and you want to grow in
choices yeah choices such as my attitude
choices such as discipline my life so
the thing and the great thing about the
the things that I can choose that I have
choices over I can grow very quickly in
those I mean a person can literally
almost overnight change an attitude
because that because that that's a
choice but in our strengths and our
giftedness and so what I'd basically say
is before you start growing you've got
to start knowing who you are very good
so get it so get in touch with yourself
for that okay and I think that's very a
lot of people just don't like themselves
so much that they don't even want to
know themselves so they won't even
bother trying to get in touch with
themselves and growth is impossible than
- until we deal with ourselves all right
and then another one is and I'd love
this one is that is the law of
reflection that says reflection allows
growth to catch up with us and basically
Wow to teach them there is we all have
experiences every day we all go through
different things every day why is it
that some people grow out of their
experiences and some people don't
yeah and we hear that we hear people say
well experience is the best teacher I
said no it isn't because if experience
was the best teacher then then as we got
older we don't be getting better and
Joyce you and I know a lot of people
they're getting older and they're not
getting better at all you know what I'm
saying so experience isn't the best
teacher evaluated experience is the best
teacher and that's where we're learning
and that's where a reflection comes in
because because what happens is we all
have our losses the question is not did
you what did you fail or did you mess up
the question is what did you learn and
what I discovered a long time ago is
unless I stop and and call timeout on
purpose and say there are times in my
day there are times in my week where I
just have to go and review and reflect
and think about what I've learned from
it from the word I've got a technical
but if I stop long enough and I evaluate
that and reflect on that method on it it
allows that growth to catch up with me
and then I learned from that yeah and
the end the question is always what did
you learn from what you've gone you know
how I learned how to treat people good
how'd you learn by being in situations
where I was treated bad okay literally
being in situations even within the
church world where I was treated bad not
appreciated talked down to
disrespected you know not paid what I
probably should have I mean just a lot
of different things and you know I
determined because I really felt like
God was calling me to manage a large
ministry myself and I knew we'd have a
lot of people and I determined through
learning how that felt
but I was never gonna treat people that
way yeah and that's a classic example of
people say well that was a bad
experience I have all I've had as bad
experiences what you're doing say take
all those bad experiences reflect and
learn and pull the good out of it I
could have just let it make me bitter
absolutely it's a choice it and it would
have really just knocked me out of the
ball game I would have never even got to
do what God wanted me to do if I would
have done that here's what I know in
closing on this as I look at my life
today and where I am God has done so
many more wonderful things for me that I
could have ever imagined I couldn't even
do a goal-setting seminar with integrity
Joy's I couldn't and I look and I say
why it has this happened it's because
when I started off and I set my goals I
was in a very small world but if you
grow and you keep growing you pass those
goals and you just automatically reach
out and expand and keep going and as I
look back the goodness of God and my
commitment to personal
there I think are the two main reasons
why I am where I am today and I'm very
grateful and what I love is it's a
simple book which people can take those
laws apply to themselves and start
growing
