Positive Principles Newsletter
August 2005
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“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death”
- Albert Einstein
“When you're finished
changing, you're finished.”
- Benjamin Franklin
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This month's tip –
Commit yourself to personal growth.
This morning, I had the opportunity to attend a presentation by the author
of one of my favorite books, The Servant.
James Hunter delivered a great message on Servant Leadership and the need
for personal growth. He reminded me once again of both the importance and
value of continuing to grow as a person.
Last month,
I wrote about asking yourself the question: “What’s in it for WE?”.
Personal growth is at the heart of “What’s in it for WE?” thinking. We
don’t come onto the planet with a great capacity for creating win-win
solutions. Most of us naturally tend towards selfishness. Our natural
focus is “What’s in it for ME?” thinking. You can only get to “What’s in it
for WE?” by growing towards emotional maturity.
This growth takes effort. It takes lots of hard work. As I listened to
James Hunter today, I thought back to my days as an Engineering student. In
these early days of studying to become an Engineer, I learned about
different types of heat cycles and the equipment that works based on the
principles of heat cycles (air conditioners, heat pumps, electric power
plants, etc.).
Here’s a layman’s paraphrase of what I learned – you have to put energy into
a mechanical system for it to do its job.
I
realize that this is not a huge revelation. We all know that mechanical
systems don’t work without an energy input. However, let’s draw an analogy
to our growth as people.
I’ll start my analogy with a quote by the famous Greek philosopher,
Anonymous – “Change is mandatory. Growth is optional”. None of us can
avoid change. Our bodies change, our eyesight changes, our business
environment changes, our financial conditions change – virtually everything
around us changes throughout our lives. Some of it we can influence; some
of it we can not.
The
only thing that we can completely control is our response to these changes.
We can learn from them and become better people, or we can let them wash
over us and remain as we were. In short, we choose to either change or to
stay the same. If we choose to change, we have an opportunity for growth.
If we choose to stay the same, we choose to become victims of
circumstances. In the end, the choice is always ours.
The
choice to grow requires that we change our perspectives, our knowledge, and
our skills. So, to grow we must change ourselves.
Back to the mechanical systems. Air conditioners, heat pumps and power
plants change their environment. We know that they won’t do what they were
designed to do without an energy input. We accept this truth without much
thought. Why, then, do so many people act as if passively living life and
experiencing change is enough to produce growth?
The
average American will not read a personal development book after they finish
their last year of formal education. Only a small percentage of people will
make the conscious effort required to grow and develop new skills after they
enter their primary trade or profession. As it is with mechanical systems,
it is with us. If we want to change our internal environment – if we want
to grow – we must put energy into the process. We can not sit idly by and
expect personal growth to just happen.
This energy takes the form of reading books, attending seminars, meeting
with mentors, and listening to audio programs. This energy shows itself in
the investment of both time and money into personal growth. As Denis
Waitley says, “All of the top achievers I know are life-long learners...
Looking for new skills, insights, and ideas. If they're not learning,
they're not growing... not moving toward excellence.”
You
are on my distribution list. So, you are probably not like the average
American with regard to personal development. I suspect that Positive
Principles is not the only growth input you have. I’ll paraphrase
something James Hunter said, you probably don’t need to be trained so much
as you need to be reminded.
Keep up the work. Stick to your personal growth program. Continue to read
books and attend seminars. Listen to audio programs. Meet with people that
you trust and get their input. Continue to learn and grow so that you can
become even better leaders.
So
for now, I encourage you to remember this month's tip . . .
Commit yourself to personal growth.
Have a great day,
Guy Harris
The Recovering Engineer
