This post originally appeared on the John Maxwell Team blog.
For 20 years, I had been using John Maxwell’s books, principles, and training programs with my team during my corporate career working for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Jerry Lewis Telethon. It always amazed me how people easily connected with John’s principles, which are powerful and yet simple.
In 2002 I started my own business, as an ActionCOACH master licensee, building my own team of business coaches in Iowa and Nebraska. I continued to use John’s programs as we added new people and helped them in their personal growth journey.
In March of 2011, one of my coaches saw told me about a Facebook post promoting that John was building a team. Because of my track record in using John’s programs, it was a no-brainer for me because I saw the immediate value it could bring to my team and to my coaching recruiting practice. I knew I would be able to use the resources the John Maxwell Team provided to help both my coaches and our clients.
As a founding member of the John Maxwell Team, I have been fortunate enough to watch it grow and expand into 149 countries. I am often astounded by the global impact John Maxwell continues to have, especially when we took a team of coaches to teach values-based leadership in Guatemala. So, when the team announced plans to visit Paraguay in 2016, I knew I needed to be a part of it. It was an incredible experience and opportunity to work with people from around the world as we taught John’s principles to nearly 35,000 Paraguayans.
One of my passions is to help better the lives of others, and John Maxwell Team members have had a huge impact on my own personal growth and development. As many of my friends know I am easily distracted and sometimes I struggle with maintaining the discipline to stay on track with my own personal growth plans.
Three years ago, a friend suggested that I read the book “The One Thing” to help me focus on formulating my own growth plan to be a part of my on-going business plan. That was a huge mind-shift for me and that one approach moved me to help many others in this area as well. Adding the personal piece to my annual business goals and being able to dedicate time to them both, has been key to remain consistent in my personal growth.
When people get busy, the personal growth piece is the first to go. It doesn’t matter what you want to do, but rather, what are you actually going to do. You must make the plan and then actually WORK that plan. When you do that, you will start to see many benefits that come with your own continued personal growth.