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 answers

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