Improving our lives is something we could safely say everyone wants to do. Do you know anyone who would turn down a better life if you offered it to them? (If you do… please make sure they’re okay!)

In order to improve our entire lives, first we must answer one question: what is the one thing that everything in your life has in common?

Among all your primary relationships, your family, your hobbies, your errands and appointments, your spirituality…

…your team members, your professional results, your title, your projects, your meetings, your organization…

…what’s the one thing that connects them all?

…Did you see the pattern? It’s you!

The only common factor among all the things in your life and your leadership role is you. That means, if you want to improve your life, a good place to start would be improving yourself.

You see, there are things that add value, and there are things that multiply value. Giving a man a fish is adding value. Teaching a man to fish is multiplying value.

Growing yourself goes beyond improving your life in a linear fashion – you open yourself up to making a better, more aware, more efficient, or more creative contribution in every area of your life – including in your leadership role.

When you get serious about personal growth, you experience multiplied value.

If you already have a growth agenda in place, you may be feeling the early stages of exponential return. There is no more powerful motivator to keep growing than results! As you grow, endeavor to make – or keep making – these perspective shifts…

From outward growth to inward growth.

Many leaders are spurred onward by the thought of a promotion, a raise, or a level of results. They are invested in “outward” representations of growth. These representations are not bad in and of themselves. But they have a fraction of the value-adding power of inward growth.

Only when we grow in ways that people can’t see on the surface do we gain visible growth of substance. But in the end, growth is its own reward.

From wide growth to focused growth.

When we start growing, we get excited – we see potential everywhere and we want to put plans in place to develop all of it. This was one mistake I made early on in my leadership career. I wanted to know everything about my organization, but there is only so much one can learn if they are spread thin.

John Maxwell has been one of the world’s foremost leadership and personal growth experts for many years now. One of his 6 simple steps toward intentional growth is to identify the areas where you’d like to grow – at least 2, but no more than 5. Focusing your efforts on a few areas of improvement lets consistency compound.

From “how long will it take” to “how far can I/we go?”

Growth takes effort, asks us to be uncomfortable, and cannot happen right away. This is one of the reasons we resist it.

But still, “How long will it take?” is a bit of a funny question.

It’s not as if we could save the time if we chose not to grow. There is nowhere for us to save it and no other, better way for us to use it. The time will pass anyway. You may as well leverage it to Become Your Best Version.

As you go about your week, continue to search for opportunities to grow intentionally. Consider which parts of you you’d like to develop and then look for chances to grow today and plan growth for tomorrow.

And prepare to make friends with uneasiness. Growth will take you outside of your comfort zone. Developing a growth-friendly mindset will help you manage the dissonance.

1. Embrace change. Growth and change are one and the same.
2. Adopt a teachable spirit. We cannot learn without recognizing that there are things we do not yet know and becoming willing to listen.
3. Love learning more than you fear failure. Failure can be a stepping stone to success if you use it to improve your next attempt.
4. Surround yourself with growing people. You can only grow as much as your environment will allow.

That’s all for now,

Florin