Our Wednesday night Men’s Class has been studying through the book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by respected leadership author John Maxwell. He writes from a deliberately Christian perspective on leadership and personal growth, and we have used specific Biblical applications each week in considering his very practical, helpful counsel on how to grow personally. We’re about halfway through. I thought this week I would share some of the book’s great quotes.

• To reach your potential you must grow. And to grow, you must be highly intentional about it.
• If you focus on goals, you may hit goals—but that doesn’t guarantee growth. If you focus on growth, you will grow and always hit goals.
• You must know yourself to grow yourself. Knowing yourself is like reading “You Are Here” on a map when you want to find your way to a destination.
• There are two great days in a person’s life: the day you were born and the day you discover why.
• Self-esteem is the single most significant key to a person’s behavior. Few things impact a person’s self-esteem more than the way they talk to themselves on a day-to-day basis.
• Do not let this be true of you: “When it comes to believing in myself, I’m an agnostic.”
• Reflection turns experience into insight. Experience is not the best teacher—evaluated experience is.
• Motivation gets you going. Discipline and consistency keep you growing.
• The successful person has the habit of doing the things that failures don’t like to do. The successful person doesn’t like doing them either, but his dislike is subordinated to the strength of his purpose.
• Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.
• “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.” (Prov. 13:20)
• It’s possible to change without growing but it’s impossible to grow without changing.
• The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.
• Move forward despite criticism. Growth always comes from taking action, and taking action almost always brings criticism. Move forward anyway.
• Life is very simple but keeping it that way is very difficult.
• Designing your life is more important than designing your career.
• Life is not a dress rehearsal.
• Develop effective systems. A system is a process for predictably achieving a goal based on specific, orderly, repeatable principles and practices. Without systems one must face every task and challenge from scratch.
• Life is not the way it’s supposed to be. It’s the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.
• Embrace the value of bad experiences. JFK on how he became a war hero: “It was quite easy. Somebody sunk my boat.” Facing difficulties is inevitable. Learning from them is optional.
• Take responsibility for your life.