Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book,  Talent Is Never Enough  (p. 37). HarperCollins Leadership.  Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book. John says, "One of my roles as a motivational teacher is to try to help people reach their potential. For years, I tried to inspire passion in audiences by going about it the wrong way. I used to tell people about what made me passionate, what made me want to get out and do my best. But I could see that it wasn’t having the effect I desired—people just didn’t respond. I couldn’t ignite others’ passion by sharing my own. "I decided to change my focus. Instead of sharing my passion, I started helping others discover their passion. To do that, I ask these questions:  What do you sing about? What do you cry about?  What do you dream about?" He goes on, "The first two questions speak to what touches you at a deep level today. The third answers what will bring you fulfillment tomorrow. The answ...

A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book,  Talent Is Never Enough  (p. 36). HarperCollins Leadership.  Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book. John says, "What carries people to the top? What makes them take risks, go the extra mile, and do whatever it takes to achieve their goals? It isn’t talent. It’s passion. Passion is more important than a plan. Passion creates fire. It provides fuel. I have yet to meet a passionate person who lacked energy. As long as the passion is there, it doesn’t matter if they fail. It doesn’t matter how many times they fall down. It doesn’t matter if others are against them or if people say they cannot succeed. They keep going and make the most of whatever talent they possess. They are talent-plus people and do not stop until they succeed." He later says, "Loving what you do is the key that opens the door for achievement. When you don’t like what you’re doing, it really shows—no matter how hard you try to pre...

A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book,  Talent Is Never Enough  (p. 26). HarperCollins Leadership.  Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Does that make sense? John says, "That may seem obvious in the physical realm. Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. However, in the human realm, many people don’t make the connection. They simply hope for good results. Hope is not a strategy. If you want good results, you need to perform good actions. If you want to perform good actions, you must have positive expectations. To have positive expectations, you have to first believe. It all goes back to that. Radio personality Paul Harvey observed, 'If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.' It all starts with belief." John continues, "A popular activity for tourists in Switzerland is mountain climbing—not the type of climbing that the world-class mountaineers do to s...

A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book,  Talent Is Never Enough  (p. 26). HarperCollins Leadership.  Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Our expectation can make such a difference in our life. John continues, "It just doesn’t happen. I once heard a story that I have not been able to confirm about an aviation pioneer who built a plane the year before the Wright brothers made their historic flight in Kitty Hawk. The plane sat in this inventor’s barn because he was afraid to fly it. Maybe it was because it had never been done before. Maybe it was because he expected it to fail—I don’t know. It’s said that after the news reached him about Orville and Wilbur Wright, the man flew his plane. Before then, he didn’t believe in himself enough to take the risk." John goes on, "There are two kinds of people in this world: those who want to get things done and those who don’t want to make mistakes. The Wright brothers were of the first type. T...

A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book,  Talent Is Never Enough  (p. 23). HarperCollins Leadership.  Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) John says, "If you want your talent to be lifted to its highest level, then you don’t begin by focusing on your talent. You begin by harnessing the power of your mind. Your beliefs control everything you do. Accomplishment is more than a matter of working harder or smarter. It’s also a matter of believing positively. Someone called it the 'sure enough' syndrome. If you expect to fail, sure enough, you will. If you expect to succeed, sure enough, you will. You will become on the outside what you believe on the inside." He continues, "Personal breakthroughs begin with a change in your beliefs. Why? Because your beliefs determine your expectations, and your expectations determine your actions. A belief is a habit of mind in which confidence becomes a conviction that we embrace. In the long r...

A thought by John C. Maxwell in his book,  Talent Is Never Enough  (p. 21). HarperCollins Leadership.  Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) John continues, "The more you believe in your potential, yourself, and your mission, the more you will be able to accomplish. If you keep believing, you will someday find yourself doing what you once considered impossible." He later says, "Do you believe in your mission? Are you confident that you can accomplish great tasks? Do you expect to achieve your goals? These are necessary ingredients to lift your talent from potential to fruition." He goes on, "I need to say one more thing about mission. It needs to include people. Only a life lived for others is worthwhile. As you fulfill your mission, will others around you say . . . 'My life is better as a result,' or 'My life is worse as a result.?" He then says, "One of my prized possessions is a simple crystal paperw...

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. 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 John C. Maxwell, from her book,  Leading in Tough Times  (p. 22). Center Street, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) This is so important to see. John says, "Just because you have the right to do something as a leader doesn’t mean that it is the right thing to do. Changing your focus from rights to responsibilities is often a sign of maturity in a leader. Many of us are excited in early leadership years by the authority we have and what we can do with it. That power can be exhilarating, if not downright intoxicating. But each of us must strive to grow up and grow into a leadership role without relying on our rights. If we can mature in that way, we will start to change our focus from enjoying authority for its own sake to using authority to serve others." He goes on, "Inevitably, leaders who focus on their rights develop a sense of entitlement. They expect their people to serve them, rather than looking for ways to ser...

A thought by John C. Maxwell, from her book,  Leading in Tough Times  (p. 14). Center Street, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And we want to be successful. So, take that first step! Earlier John said, "The first step you must take as you approach tough times is to prepare yourself as a leader. You need to make yourself ready for the challenge of leading others through adversity. Of course, you must lead yourself well and make good choices. But you should also think about what kind of leader you want to be as you lead your team forward. Knowing yourself as a leader, what works best and is most effective for you and your team, is important at any time. But when you face new challenges or significant change that impacts the work environment and your goals, you need to really think through who you are going to be to your team and make sure that you remain true to your values, no matter how difficult the journey gets or how much pres...

A thought by John C. Maxwell, from her book,  Leading in Tough Times  (p. 11). Center Street, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Having hope is so powerful. John says, "John W. Gardner, former secretary of health, education, and welfare, said, 'The first and last task of a leader is to keep hope alive—the hope that we can finally find our way through to a better world—despite the day’s action, despite our own inertness and shallowness and wavering resolve.' Hope is the foundation of change. If we continue to hold hope high, and we help others to do the same, there is always a chance to move forward and succeed." He goes on, "Productive organizations led by strong leaders are hard to beat. Their effectiveness is high, and so is their morale. Former general George C. Marshall said, 'Morale is the state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. It is confidence and zeal and loyalty.… It is staying power, the spir...

  A thought by John C. Maxwell, from her book,  Leading in Tough Times  (p. 8). Center Street, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) So true, so true. John says, "One of the most challenging tasks any leader faces is being a change agent and leading people through tough times. But it can also be one of the most rewarding. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith asserted, 'All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time.' He goes on, "In tough times the people we lead find out who we are, and we also find out what we’re made of. As author Jack Kinder says, 'You’re not made in a crisis—you’re revealed. When you squeeze an orange—you get orange juice. When you squeeze a lemon—you get lemon juice. When a human being gets squeezed—you get what is inside—positive or negative.' "The best way to approach tough times is to...

A thought by John C. Maxwell, from her book,  Leading in Tough Times  (p. 5). Center Street, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) It is a choice that will make a difference. John says, "The difference in the way they approach it depends on how they see it. Performance psychologist Jim Loehr says, 'Champions have taught us how to take an experience and essentially write the story of its effect. If you see a failure as an opportunity to learn and get better, it will be. If you perceive it as a mortal blow, it will be. In that way, the power of the story is more important than the experience itself.' " He goes on, "If you respond right to adversity, you see it as something that can help you to become better than you were before. I read a poem years ago by James Casey called 'Climb the Steep.' The first stanza says,  "For every hill I’ve had to climb  For every rock that bruised my feet  For all the blood and sweat ...

A thought by John C. Maxwell, from her book,  Leading in Tough Times  (p. 3). Center Street, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) It sure does. John says, "It causes us to stop and look at our situation. And at ourselves if we have the courage. Adversity creates an opportunity for self-discovery. As the great Egyptian leader Anwar el-Sadat said, 'Great suffering builds up a human being and puts him within the reach of self-knowledge.' This I believe is true—if we embrace it." "One of my favorite books is As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. My father required me to read it when I was in my early teens. One of the ideas that left the strongest impression on me as a youth was this: 'Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.' " John goes on, "Adversity comes to us as a teaching tool. You’ve probably heard the saying 'When the pupil is ready, the teacher will come.' That is not necess...

A thought by John C. Maxwell, from her book, Leading in Tough Times (p. 1). Center Street, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Well, it is, isn't it? John says, "This is particularly a problem in America today. We expect a smooth and easy road to success. We expect our lives to be hassle-free. We expect the government to solve our problems. We expect to get the prize without having to pay the price. That is not reality! Life is hard." "He goes on, " In Life’s Greatest Lessons , Hal Urban writes,  "Once we accept the fact that life is hard, we begin to grow. We begin to understand that every problem is also an opportunity. It is then that we dig down and discover what we’re made of. We begin to accept the challenges of life. Instead of letting our hardships defeat us, we welcome them as a test of character. We use them as a means of rising to the occasion." John continues, "This reality is especially importa...

A thought by John C. Maxwell, from his book, The Difference Maker (p. 47). HarperCollins Leadership. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Not outside but inside! John says, “Singer Roberta Flack recalls, ‘My mother had only gone as far as the tenth grade, and my father had a third-grade education, but they both were very literate. They spoke well, and their values were high. They drummed into our heads that the situation you live in doesn’t have to live in you.’ Our attitudes don’t come from our circumstances or personal history. Attitude does not come from outside ourselves. It comes from within.” John goes on, “The first rule of winning is don’t beat yourself. If your attitude isn’t as good as it could be, and you fail to take personal responsibility for it, then you are beating yourself. However, if you look in the mirror and can with honesty say, ‘The attitude I possess is my responsibility and no one else’s,’ then you’re ...