Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book,  Talent Is Never Enough  (p. 18). HarperCollins Leadership.  Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) It really is. John continues, "It doesn’t matter what others might think. It doesn’t matter where you came from. It doesn’t even matter what you might have believed about yourself at a previous time in your life. It’s about what lies within you and whether you can bring it out." He says, "There’s a story about a farm boy from Colorado who loved to hike and rock climb. One day while climbing in the mountains, he found an eagle’s nest with an egg in it. He took the egg from the nest, and when he got home, he put it under a hen along with her other eggs. "Since he hatched among chicks, the eagle thought he was a chicken. He learned chicken behavior from his 'mother' and scratched in the chicken yard along with his 'siblings.' He didn’t know any better. And when he sometimes felt...

A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book,  Talent Is Never Enough  (p. 11). HarperCollins Leadership.  Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And that is so true. John continues, "Once people figure out where their sweet spot is (the area where they are most gifted), what often hinders them isn’t lack of talent. It’s lack of trust in themselves, which is a self-imposed limitation. Lack of belief can act as a ceiling on talent. However, when people believe in themselves, they unleash power in themselves and resources around them that almost immediately take them to a higher level. Your potential is a picture of what you can become. Belief helps you see the picture and reach for it." Later John says, "Your potential is a picture of what you can become. Inventor Thomas Edison remarked, 'If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves.' "Too often we see what is, not what could be. Peopl...

A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book,  Talent Is Never Enough  (p. 9). HarperCollins Leadership.  Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)  Have you found that to be true? John says, "You see, people who neglect to make the right choices to release and maximize their talent continually under-perform. Their talent allows them to stand out, but their wrong choices make them sit down. Their friends, families, coaches, and bosses see their giftedness, but they wonder why they so often come up short of expectations. Their talent gives them opportunity, but their wrong choices shut the door. Talent is a given, but you must earn success." He continues, "In contrast, talent-plus people come as close as humanly possible to achieving their potential. They frequently overperform. People see their giftedness and are amazed at how they continually rise above expectations. Their talent gives them opportunity, and their right choices open the d...

A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book,  Talent Is Never Enough  (p. 6). HarperCollins Leadership.  Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)  John says, "Some people seem to be blessed with a multitude of talents. Most of us have fewer abilities. But know this: all of us have something that we can do well." He continues, "In their book Now, Discover Your Strengths , Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton state that every person is capable of doing something better than the next ten thousand people. And they support that assertion with solid research. They call this area the strength zone, and they encourage everyone to find it and make the most of it. It doesn’t matter how aware you are of your abilities, how you feel about yourself, or whether you previously have achieved success. You have talent, and you can develop that talent." He goes on, "If I asked you who would be more successful, the person who relies on his talent ...

A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book,  Talent Is Never Enough  (pp 2-3). HarperCollins Leadership.  Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) John continues, "A wonderful, simple illustration of the importance of talent can be seen in a sports event like the high jump. Winning the high jump requires one person who can jump seven feet, not seven people who can jump one foot. Such an example may seem obvious, yet don’t we often believe that we can accomplish more by throwing more people at a task? That isn’t always the right solution. In fact, there are many tasks that call for talent more than numbers. Like high jumping, they require the extraordinary talent of one person, not the mediocre talent of many." But later he notes, "We should separate what they can do from who they a re. "Fred Smith, author and former president of Fred Smith Associates, shared a bit of wisdom with me many years ago. He said, 'The giftedness is usual...

A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book, Talent Is Never Enough (p. 1). HarperCollins Leadership.  Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) John says, "French poet and dramatist Edouard Pailleron pointed out, 'Have success and there will always be fools to say that you have talent.' When people achieve great things, others often explain their accomplishments by simply attributing everything to talent. But that is a false and misleading way of looking at success. If talent alone is enough, then why do you and I know highly talented people who are not highly successful? He continues, "Many American business leaders are obsessed with talent. Some think talent is the answer to every problem. Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink , notes that many companies and consultants put finding people with talent ahead of everything else. He says, 'This "'talent mind-set'" is the new orthodoxy of American m...

A thought by Touré Roberts in his book,  Balance ,  (p. 17). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Toure says, "The more I grow in Balance, the more I recognize how noisy life is and is increasingly becoming. ... one of the reasons why self-awareness and mindfulness are such coveted goals is because, among other things, people are trying to manage the noise. It seemingly gets louder than we can manage, because the world’s population is constantly growing while technology is making the world smaller and smaller. Consequently, our lives become more and more crowded. We are increasingly exposed to the life, thoughts, opinions, issues, comments, passions, and preferences of strangers simply by logging on to the internet and our social media accounts, with new platforms vying for our attention every day." He continues, "As a result, the noise of strangers adds to and amplifies our own noise, and with each day and each log-on th...

A thought by Touré Roberts in his book,  Balance ,  (p. 9). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) He continues the thought, "it’s the place where the sun always shines!" He says, "I share my fascination with the midnight sun in order to illustrate the concept of balance. While I explored various other analogies to help describe my understanding of balance, none of them captivated my attention as did the vivid particulars of what it would be like to enjoy sunshine 24-7. Although I’ve experienced balance in the way that I want to share with you, it can be challenging to explain. Once you get it, your own internal light begins to shine, but getting it requires insight, revelation, and practice. "As we begin our journey to balance, we must first realize that balance is not a discipline, an activity, or an exercise. Balance is a place. That’s right, Balance has a location, and going forward, when I refer to Balance—the plac...

A thought by Touré Roberts in his book, Balance ,  (p. 4). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Toure earlier said, "Balance will teach you how to align with the highest version of yourself in any given moment. A version of you that, among many other things, replaces anxiety with peace, dysfunction with progress, and stagnation with unlimited creativity." He continues, "That’s what this book is all about. You will discover throughout these pages that life uses every moment in our existence—especially the chaotic ones—to nudge us toward a greater version of ourselves, which in turn produces extraordinary experiences. My belief is that the message in these pages will unlock that ability within you to discover a new method of balancing all the areas of your life. "We will explore in detail that idea that Balance is actually a spiritual location and requires spiritual means and spiritual insights to get there. We’ll get i...