In high school math, we were taught that a number series could be expressed in two forms. These forms are Arithmetic Progression and Geometric Progression.
In an arithmetic progression, the difference between any two consecutive numbers in the sequence is constant. For instance, in the number series 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24…, the next number in the series is gotten by adding 3 to the previous number.
On the other hand in a geometric progression, the numbers follow a pattern such that the next term is found by multiplying by a constant called the common ratio. For instance, in the number series 3, 9, 27, 81, 243, 729, 2187, 6561…, the next number in the series is gotten by multiplying the previous number by 3.
‘Great example’, you might think, ‘but how does this relate to growth?’
It’s simple. Some people are going through life in an arithmetic progression where there is no difference between where they were 8 years ago, and where they are right now. On the other hand, there are people whose lives are marching forward in a geometric progression. The fruits their lives are able to produce in just one year trumps what their peers are able to achieve in 10 years. As it were, the only constant in these people’s lives is predictable progress.
Do you feel like you are trudging through life in an arithmetic progression Well, the good news is that you are not condemned to a lifetime of mediocrity. I will be sharing with you some lessons I got from American bestselling author, speaker, and coach, John Maxwell, in his bestselling book: The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential
Growth is Impossible Without Deliberate Intention
‘To reach your potential, you must grow. And to grow, you must be highly intentional about it’ – John Maxwell
I’ve come to understand that we don’t have a potential problem. In fact, once you have a glimpse of the potential you have bubbling within and around you right now, you will never think of yourself as a small person anymore.
Unfortunately, for all the potential we have within and around us, many people will lead mediocre lives.
Why? They lack intentionality.
It’s just like the person who is extremely hungry, but goes to a buffet with a table spoon and a saucer, while others are piling up food on large plates and even going for second and third servings.
In my analogy, the problem is not the availability of food. The problem is the lack of intentionality on the part of the hungry man. There’s nothing or nobody stopping him from picking up his larger plate and stockpiling it with assorted cuisines. He exercised his own power of choice to play a smaller game.
Similarly, unless you’re intentional, you would appear very busy and hardworking with very little to show for it. Why? Because you’re showing up to God’s abundance party called life with nothing more than a thimble to pick your blessings.
You need to be intentional!
You Have to Commit to Growth Now
“The greatest danger you face in this moment is the idea that you’ll make intentional growth a priority later” – John Maxwell
A quote I’ve come across countless times in the past weeks is this: ‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time to plant a tree is now’
Stop waiting for all the planets to align before you take a first step. Take intentional steps towards your growth right now. Your goal is not perfection in the beginning.
You will fail. Yes, you will fall. But you will also find out what does not work in the process, even as you home in on the processes and systems that work.
Remember, the successful don’t think in terms of failure. They only see feedback, make iterations with the feedback and then they act again.
That’s why John Maxwell said, “One of the greatest obstacles to curiosity and learning is the reluctance to look foolish in the eyes of other people. There are two easy ways to tell if this is a problem in your life: The first is being afraid to fail. The second is taking yourself too seriously. The cure is to take what I call “learning risks.” Sign up to do or learn something that takes you completely out of your comfort zone…”
The comfort zone is a safe zone. No stress. No stretching. No challenges. Just the same old limited life day after day.
If you want to stand out, you need to be confident enough to introduce new dimensions to your daily experiences.
An example of how you can do that?
Talk to that stranger in the taxi. Who knows, the life-changing information you need might sprout out of that conversation.
Ask questions. More often than not, wisdom is unleashed when questions are asked. And besides, if you don’t ask the stupid questions, you will never get round to asking the questions that matter.
That’s why one quote that I’ve repeated again and again is this,
“The quality of your life is governed by the amount of uncomfortable conversations you’re willing to have”
Form the habit of having uncomfortable conversations. Yes, it’s outside your comfort zone. Yes, the vast majority of people will rather keep mute and fuddle with their phones. But those kinds of conversations are exactly what you need to grow and become that 1% of the population that the Aggregation of Marginal Gains work for, instead of against.
Growth is Impossible Without Direction
“You have to know who you are to grow your potential. But you have to grow in order to know who you are. So what’s the solution? Explore yourself as you explore growth” – John Maxwell
There’s a reason why I have a passion for helping people crystallize the potentials trapped within and around them.
Many people cannot grow because they are totally oblivious to who they are capable of becoming.
Their minds are constantly fixated on the mistakes they made in the past, or their fears and concerns for the future.
True growth begins with identity.
Your identity doesn’t stop with who you think you are right now. Neither does it end with your nationality, tribe, biases and prejudices. Rather, your identity extends to the desirable future ‘you’ that you’re capable of becoming.
The more you are aware of this future ‘you’, the easier it would be to grow into that identity. I talk about the exact steps you can use in changing your identity here: Identity-Based Motivation: The Problem Isn’t Habit, It’s Identity!
You Don’t Have a Growth Problem, You Have an Identity Problem
Zig Ziglar once said, “It’s impossible to consistently behave in a manner inconsistent with how we see ourselves. We can do very few things in a positive way if we feel negative about ourselves”
If there’s anything I’ve hammered on again and again, it’s this: You don’t have a faith, or power, or purpose problem, you have an identity problem.
Character and behavior arises from your most dominant identity.
That’s why the Chinese will continue to be excellent in math.
It’s the same reason Indians will continue to be drawn towards computer science, engineering and technology.
That’s why the Igbos would continue to be successful in commerce.
These identities resonate with these groups of people and you eventually find their behaviors and career choices being influenced.
To change your behavior in pursuit of growth, you need to change your most dominant identity. I discuss how to go about that here
Growth is Incomplete Without Reflection
John Maxwell said, ‘If we pause to allow growth to catch up with us, it makes our lives better, because we not only better understand the significance of what we’ve experienced, but we can implement changes and course corrections as a result’
There’s so much information in the environment that is constantly bombarding our consciousness.
Without deliberate reflection, we miss out on the variables that influence our actions, behaviors and results. Consequently, we’re trapped by the same faulty mental models and we make the same mistakes again and again.
Spending time on reflection is an action that is important, but not urgent. And as result, it gets overlooked every time by the vast majority.
If you want uncommon results, you must engage in uncommon actions.
“It does little good to see something new without taking the time to think about it. It does no good to hear something new without applying it. I’ve find that the best way to learn something new is to take time at the end of the day to ask yourself questions that prompt you to think about what you learned… Remember, experience is not the best teacher, evaluated experience is” – John Maxwell
A lot of people are stuck in their current phase because they have not learnt the lessons attached to that circumstance. As a result, that keep on repeating the same ‘class’ year after year. Unfortunately, you cannot learn if you don’t reflect. And you cannot reflect if you’re not deliberate with making out time to do it.
That’s why you’d see the average person leading a mediocre life. They have formed a faulty hypothesis about life, and in spite of all the feedback, they do not take the time to reflect and make iterations.
Understand: Reflection is a lost art in this generation. If you want to grow, reflection needs to be a vital part of your life. Do this consistently and you’d be pleasantly surprised with the results
Growth Will Have Boring and Mundane Stages
“The successful person has the habit of doing the things that failures don’t like to do. The successful person doesn’t like them either, but his dislike is subordinated to the strength of his purpose” – John Maxwell
One myth of success that is peddled by the gurus is following your passion.
The problem is that even when you follow your passion, you won’t feel goosebumps and butterflies in your stomach every minute you’re at it. Yet, the gurus don’t sell that part of the story to their followers.
Following your passion involves doing what you hate. For instance, everyone wants to write a book, but not everyone enjoys the pain and bleeding of writing. There’s a price to pay for every prize. There’s a painful process behind every successful event.
In addition, following your passion involves taking the lonely path of mundane routines. The successful understand this and they follow through with their course until they attain their objectives. The unsuccessful, on the other hand, are easily bored by routine and end up on Facebook for their next dose of dopamine-fueled entertainment.
Understand: the path to your desired results would be boring and lonely. When that happens, stick with it because your destination is now closer than before
That’s why John Maxwell went on to make the following remark: ‘If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then someday you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them‘
Sometimes ago, two people in my circle of influence told me that they are disillusioned with their jobs and were considering quitting.
And one of the guys had a wife and two kids!
Naturally, I advised the two guys to stay put in their jobs until their “dreams” or “passions” can become a stable source of income. Anything other thing is simply irresponsible.
In every sincere success story – whether in the Bible, or in the history books – you’d find that there’s a period of boring routine.
For instance, between the ages of 12 – 30, there’s nothing written about Jesus, even though His Destiny was to be the Savior of the world.
For the 13 years that Joseph was in prison, there was nothing written about him, except for the dreams he interpreted. Yet, his destiny was to become the prime minister of Egypt.
Before Michael Jordan won his first of 6 NBA championships in 1991, he had been a routine loser for the nearly 7 years leading to his first title.
What’s my point in all of these?
Behind every success event, there’s usually a boring process that is in no way glamorous. If you feel that your job is getting in the way of your purpose, how about waking up an extra hour everyday to work on your purpose? If it’s as important as you say, then you should be able to make out the extra time for it!
Growth is Stimulated by the Right Variables
‘Do not wait for a change of environment before you act. Cause a change of environment through action‘ – John Maxwell
There are variables that determine the results you get out of life. And when the variables are obscured, you’re liable to continue getting the same poor results out of life.
However, irrespective of how aware of the variables you are, there’s always one constant that you have control of.
That constant is You!
You might be born into lack. You don’t have any control over that. However, you can choose to learn how to get out of lack and follow through with action.
You always have a choice. And when you are deliberate with your choices, with time those choices compound and you’d find yourself translated to more optimal environments!
“Most people allow their lives to simply happen to them. They float along. They wait. They react. And by the time a large portion of their life is behind them, they realize they should have been more proactive and strategic” – John Maxwell
If there’s anything I drummed on again and again in my book, The Aggregation of Marginal Gains, it’s how easy it is to stand out from the crowd, because the crowd has made the standards very low. All you need to do is a little more than the average person and you’d see phenomenal results.
One area where you can do this is strategic, proactive planning. In your regular day, there are factors that you can control, and yes, there are factors that are out of your control. Focus on those that are in your control and follow strategic planning with ruthless action.
Do this over the course of a month, and you’d be pleasantly surprised with your results.
Growth Maintains the Right Perspective for Life Experiences
‘No one likes it when they’re in the middle of a bad experience. It’s usually just painful. But if they manage the experience well, then they enjoy talking about it afterwards. It becomes a great war story’ – John Maxwell
If you study the annals of history, you’d find that there’s always a period of pain and intense hardship at the cusps of breakthrough.
In instances when you’re passing through bitter times, you can always decide to be as bitter as your circumstances, or make the decision to come out of the other side better. Everything ultimately comes down to perspective. Would you keep your gaze on the inevitable light at the end of the tunnel? Or would you throw in the towel at the slightest inkling of pain.
Remember, when all is said and done, tough times really don’t last at all – for both tough people and soft people. What differentiates the two categories of people is their perspective.
John Maxwell shares an insightful story that buttresses this point:
“There’s a story about a chicken farmer whose land was flooded every spring. He didn’t want to give up his farm and move, but when the water backed up onto his land and flooded his chicken coops, it was always a struggle to get his chickens to higher ground. Some years he couldn’t move fast enough and hundreds of his chickens drowned
“After the worst spring he’d ever experienced and losing his entire flock, he came to the farmhouse and told his wife, “I’ve had it. I can’t afford to buy another place. I can’t sell this one. I don’t know what to do”
“His wife replied, “Buy ducks“”
Everything ultimately comes to perspective. If you train yourself to identify pain and failure as feedback, you would be able to make course-corrections as you progress in this journey called life. And as I mentioned earlier, your ability to interpret failure and pain as feedback puts you in an elite category of individuals who will escape the gravitational pull of mediocrity.
Understand: Sometimes your success is hidden behind your areas of pain and failure. Stay sensitive. Listen to feedback. Make course-corrections. And it’s only a matter of time before you lay hands on the prize.
Growth is a Process, Not an Event
US politician Dan Coats is reported to have once said, “Character cannot be summoned at the moment if crises if it has been squandered by years of compromise and rationalization. The only testing ground for the heroic is the mundane. The only preparation for that one profound decision which can change a life, or even a nation is those hundreds of half-conscious, self-defining, seemingly insignificant decisions made in private. Habit is the daily battleground of character”
Here’s another example of process vs event.
Everybody loves celebrating the big win. The fireworks and sound effects that accompany success.
But when you peel back the layers, there’s nothing more than the boring, mundane process of showing up everyday.
Consistency is boring. But when it compounds over time, it’s really attractive.
So, this is 2019 and I’m currently following the build up to the US Presidential elections. This is the period where people who intend to run are making their intentions clear.
One of the presidential hopefuls is Bernie Sanders. And while I don’t agree with everything he’s saying, he earned my respect, and that of millions of people because of the consistency of his stand on issues.
Here’s an example:
Recently, a 20-year-old video clip of Bernie Sanders made the rounds on the internet. And guess what? The only difference between him back then and him now was that he had more hair on his head back then!
The man showed that he’s consistent because his stand on his values are largely unchanged and that is winning him a lot of fans at the moment!
Understand: There’s power in consistency. It would always compound and you can determine whether it becomes a liability or an asset in the future
