how far can I go?

Jun 26, 2020

Hi, I am Jeff of Drummonds Leadership and Personal Development.

The law of Intentionality states that "Growth doesn't just happen."

The definition of Intentional is "Done on Purpose, deliberate."

My friend and mentor John Maxwell states “that an average person with passion and a way-above-average desire to grow will always be more successful than a mega gifted person who has no desire to grow”. Let me repeat that, an average person with passion and a way-above-average desire to grow will always be

more successful than a mega gifted person who has no desire to grow.

 

Man, that sure makes me feel better, because I know I am not Mega Gifted. But just as the law states, growth doesn't just happen.

 

In my first leadership position after the Marine Corp, I was blessed and started having some good success. But I knew that if I wanted to continue to grow both personally and professionally, I needed more education even if it was just for the ability to have that college degree listed on my resume.  So, during the critical years of my career while working at least 10 hours each day and raising a young family, I went to The University of Alabama in Birmingham for 7 years at night and graduated CUM LAUDE. Imagine that, a guy that barely squeaked out high school graduating CUM LAUDE. All the credit goes to my wife Cyndi. I could never have accomplished this without her support.

 

But when I first started working on being intentional in my life, my wife got her feelings hurt. She thought my being intentional to show her and tell her how much she meant to me should come naturally. I had to set her down and explain, Hello, I am a man.

 

But really, to reach our full potential, we have to be intentional about it. James Allen stated, "People are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves. They therefore remain bound." Growth doesn't just happen - not for me, not for you, not for anybody. You have to go after it. You have to be intentional!

 

The first time that I was ask if I had a growth plan..... I had to admit that I did not. I reflected back on my life an knew that I had done OK and that I had been blessed with a great family and a good career, but I didn't really have a plan. I had worked hard, but that was no guarantee that I would be successful. I just always assumed or hoped that everything would turn out OK and luckily..... for the most part it had. But it made me start to wonder.......what if I had really planned my life, what if I had started at a young age with the end in mind and worked my way backwards with where I wanted to be and what I wanted to accomplish. Man, there is so much more I could have accomplished. But you can't go back, can you.

 

I heard a great saying, "only a fool trip over what's behind him." You have to keep moving forward, but The Law of Diminishing Intent say's, "The longer you wait to do something you know you should do now, the greater the odds that you will never actually do it." I knew that I could start right where I was and begin planning to learn and grow each and every day from that point forward. That I could focus on living up to my full God given potential every day.

If you want life to improve, you must improve yourself. You have to make that a tangible target. The only guarantee that tomorrow will be better than today is if we are growing and improving ourselves today. But if you want to grow, you have to get over any fear you may have of making mistakes, because to grow you have to get out of your comfort zone and into your growth zone and when you're in your growth zone, you will make mistakes.....that's how we learn.

 

The key is to reflect every day on what you did and to ask yourself these 3 questions:

  1. What went right?
  2. What went wrong?
  3. What could I do different?

Then you adjust and don't make the same mistakes over and over again. What is the definition of insanity? To do the same thing over and over and expect different results. See, it's not experience that makes us better, it’s reflective experience.

And you can't wait until you feel like making these changes. You don't feel your way into an action, you act your way into a feeling. Who has ever not felt like exercising, but you went ahead and did it anyway? I have had some of my best exercise days when I felt that way. So don't wait until you feel like it, follow the Nike saying and "JUST DO IT"!

 

Let me give you five main areas that you want to grow in, and I want to challenge you to take the time to really access where you are in these five areas:

 

  1. Spiritual Growth - I am a person of faith and I know that we are all spiritual beings. We have an innate desire to connect and grow in this area.
  2. Personal Growth - You have to grow personally before you can help others around you grow.
  3. Relational Growth - the relationships in our life are more important than anything else we will ever have. But you have to work on them, you have to be intentional to develop strong relationships. Most people can trace their success and failures to relationships.
  4. Physical Growth - what are your health goals? No one ever plans on having health problems, but do you have a plan to stay healthy?
  5. Financial Growth - you cannot give what you do not have. Financial security gives you options and it allows you to help others.

So, you need a growth plan in these five areas. It's not going to be easy at first, but if you will be Intentional  and make a commitment to yourself to start and stick with it, you will fall in love with the process......Don't ask yourself "how long will it take", ask "how far can I go."

 

I hope you enjoyed learning about intentionality. If you did or if there is anything, I can help you with, shoot me a message.

Be on the lookout for my 10-day challenge on finding your purpose and passion.

Let me invite you to join my Intentional Living Private Facebook Group. Just go to this link and request to join.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1279082582166634/

 

Thank you and be blessed!

Jeff

 

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