Stuff You Should Know Part 2

Stuff You Should Know: part 2 Self-Improvement

Last week we began a series of conversations around the idea of: “Stuff You Need to Know”

1 Peter 5:6, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, NKJV

Rom 12:3-8, 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. NIV

Brother Jones asked me a question some years back that actually caused me to be introspective, maybe to a degree that I have never been.  The question was, “How did you get from the shy, unconfident guy in Pleasanton, to where you are now…outward and very assured of who you are.”

First off, the thing that caught me off guard was the assumption that I see myself as outward and very assured of who I am…most days, I’m not.  But none the less, I began to examine my development and growth process and that is what I am going to share today.

The Scripture I just read to you in 1 Peter is my life pursuit verse…for me I had to realize I didn’t know it all, so I had to humble myself often times before people, circumstances, and books to learn…to grow. Without Humility…you are a dead man walking…you have become the most ignorant person to have ever lived.

Some of this will just be testimony and some is stuff I’ve learned over the years.

Leadership isn’t about Titles, Positions and Degrees…Leadership is about serving.  LEADERSHIP ISN’T A DESTINATION BUT A JOURNEY OF PERSONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT!

You have to ask yourself a series of questions:

  • Are You Leading Yourself?
    • When it comes to leading people the first person you ever learn to lead is yourself.
    • Likewise, the hardest person you’ll ever lead is yourself!
  • Would You Follow You?
    • Why or Why not?
  • If people were to follow you…where will they end up?
  1. Growth must be intentional – nobody improves by accident
    • Lance Abate, a mentor of mine, told me something when I was 17 years old that didn’t register until I was a bit older…”If you are not growing…you are dying”
    • If we do not change, we do not grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living.  Growth demands a temporary surrender to security.  It may mean a giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe but un-rewarding work, relationships that have lost their meaning.
    • Dostoevsky put it this way, “taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what most people fear most.”
    • The real fear should be the opposite…not changing.
  2. Growth is a Choice
    • Pat Riley said, “The only constant in life is change…”
    • You have to choose to grow…it doesn’t simply happen.
    • Growth and maturity are a choice based on what you do with information, experiences, and life.
  3. Principles for Self – Improvement
    • Choose a Life of Growth
      1. George Patton said, “There is one thing I want you to remember. I don’t want to get any messages saying we are holding our position.  We are advancing constantly.”  Patton’s motto was: “Always take the offensive…never give in.”
      2. The only way to improve your leadership, to improve your children, to grow your organization…YOU MUST GROW YOU
  • If you want people to treat you better and more kindly…you need to improve your people skills.
  1. Honestly the only thing in life we can change is ourselves…
  2. I realized this more so in the early 90’s so I went on a quest to grow myself everyday…(I’ll give you something I do that may help in this area)
  • Start Growing Today
    1. At a conference in 1991 John Maxwell made a statement about Personal Growth and having a plan for personal growth as a leader…He challenged us to start growing today and it resonated in me
  1. Am I investing in myself?

This is a personal growth question.

  1. Am I Genuinely Interested In Others?

This is a motive question.

  1. Am I Doing What I Love and Loving What I Do?

This is a passion question.

  1. Am I Investing My Time with the Right People?

This is a relationship question.

  1. Am I Staying in My Strength Zone?

This is an effectiveness question.

  1. Am I Taking Others to a Higher Level?

This is a mission question.

  1. Am I Taking Care of Today?

This is a success question.

  1. Am I Taking Time To Think?

This is a leadership question.

  1. Am I Developing Leaders?

This is a legacy question.

  1. Am I Pleasing God?

This is an eternity question.

James 1:22-25, 22 Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! 23 Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, 24 walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. 25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God — the free life! — even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. (THE MESSAGE)

  1. Growth is not automatic
    1. Just because you grow older doesn’t mean you are growing…
      1. Not everyone grows better, some grow bitter…
    2. You need to understand the road to the next level…is uphill all the way because often the hill you are fighting is yourself
  • Growth today will provide a better tomorrow
    1. Better opportunities
    2. Bettering yourself
    3. Oliver Windell Holmes said, “Man’s mind, once stretched by new ideas, never regains its original dimensions.”
  1. Focus on Self-Development; Not Self – Fulfillment
    1. Self-development is a higher calling…self – fulfillment is very limited its course
    2. Self-development will help you obtain and understand your potential and your purpose for which you were created.
    3. Self-development will always pull you toward your purpose in Christ.
  2. Never Get Satisfied with Current Accomplishments
    1. I have taken this to an extreme because I also fail to celebrate accomplishments…I’m always looking for what is next
    2. To assume you have arrived it extremely dangerous…especially to those who are in ministry…to me this is very scary.
    3. You cannot get complacent…
      1. They tell us that you must reevaluate your vision every 7-10 years
      2. You must adapt your methods every 3-5 years
      3. You must evaluate yourself everyday…
      4. So you cannot afford to get complacent
    4. Sometimes success is more dangerous than failure…
      1. If we fail, we can learn from it…but when people succeed they often times don’t continue to grow…they just keep repeating the cycle that brought them success and that process may not work anymore.
    5. Be a Continual Learner
      1. This means you have to make time to Learn
      2. You’ll notice if I go anywhere…I carry a book with me or podcasts I’m listening to…
      3. I listen to leadership podcasts and shorts
      4. There was a time in my life… really up until I got here at this church…I read a book a week and listened to at least one leadership lesson a week
      5. My mentors are on my book shelves…
  • Develop a Plan for Growth
    1. Earl Nightingale said, “If a person will spend one hour a day on the same subject for five years, that person will be an expert on that subject.”
      1. I wonder if that is the reason why Jesus said to His disciples, “could you not tarry one hour.”
    2. Maxwell rolled this process out the day I heard him teach and I implemented it
      1. Monday: Spend one hour with a devotional to develop your spiritual life
      2. Tuesday: spend one hour listening to a leadership lesson
      3. Wednesday: Spend one hour filing quotes and reflection on the content of Tuesday’s lesson
      4. Thursday: Spend one hour reading a book on leadership
      5. Friday: Spend half an hour reading the book and the other have making notes about what you are reading.
    3. As you begin to develop the growth areas in your life, identify the areas you choice to grow in…
      1. In 1997 I won a grand prize at a golf tournament and that was an all expense trip to the Bethesda Event in Palm Springs California. I sat there will some of the who’s who in Christendom…men and women of God I never thought I would meet.  I was humbled, blown away, yet very comfortable around that group of people.  I had dinner at the same table with John Maxwell, Alton Garrison, and many others that if I mentioned you would know their names.
      2. When I got on the plane for the trip home…I made meticulous notes of the person I wanted to become…
      3. Now I hang out with those guys all the time and I get invited to be in their circles…but I chose to grow
      4. What areas do you want to grow in…list them and then get busy.
  • Pay the Price
    1. Remember self-fulfillment focuses on making a person happy, whereas self-development proposes to help a person reach potential….which will lead to fulfillment.
    2. The trade off is comfort
    3. See when I say Pay the Price…let me list some cost because people stop growing when the cost gets to high
      1. Discipline
        1. May have to turn off the TV to read
        2. May have to come in to work earlier to learn
        3. Take lunches in your car listening to podcast and eating chick fil a.
  1. Money
    1. Leadership books, conferences, subscriptions, assessments are costly…
  2. Lonely
    1. Sometimes people don’t understand, and you are lonely in your growth process because you have to distance yourself from people who are killing you
  3. Risk
    1. It’s risky and risk means you must face your fears
  4. Pride
    1. Sometimes you have to swallow your opinions and remain silent…
    2. This is where Humility must come into play
  5. Comfort
    1. Stay with the plan even though it is uncomfortable…
    2. I have had to work for some real task masters…and at times I wanted to cuss them out and walk away…But I kept the course…and instead of getting bitter I got better

Roosevelt stated, “There has not yet been a person in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.”

  1. Find a Way to Apply What You Learn
    1. The difference between a scholar and a leader is in the execution of knowledge
    2. It is easy for the academia to tell the worker how to do it, but if the academia never gets in the field and puts his theories to work he’ll never know
    3. If you don’t apply what you learn…you become an educated idiot
  2. Last thing…It takes time!!!
    1. Be patient with yourself
    2. Be consistent
    3. It is going to take time

None of these things matter for eternity if you don’t know Jesus…You’ll just be a more refined sinner, who is lost and will spend eternity away from God…

 

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