IF I KNEW THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW

This past week I had the opportunity to speak at church to a new group of interns during their summer experience. There could have been so many topics I could have talked to these young leaders about that could have added significant value. I thought I would put in a post the content of the direction I decided to go. I felt a call to vocational ministry when I was fifteen years old. At the time I thought my calling would lead me to a life of real impact (stardom) through music. After graduating high school, I packed up my ’79 Plymouth Duster and headed to Nashville, TN, the promised land of music wannabes. After starting my college career in Nashville, I quickly realized that a dynamic singing voice came a dime a dozen. At about that same time, I began serving in an inner-city ministry to students. I really found what I thought was a sweet-spot working with those students and as God stirred in my heart, I decided to change my major from Music Business to Christian Education. After meeting and marrying my wife, Lisa while at college, we left Nashville and served in student ministry at a church in Ohio and then in Kansas before coming to Christ Fellowship in 1996. I was a young, confident student pastor stepping into a ministry position at a church, that was at that time, the largest church I had personally ever been a part of. Wow, if I had the opportunity for a do-over in some areas, I would take it in a heartbeat.

THREE THINGS I BELIEVED BACK THEN:

1. Personal growth was something that just happened over time.

Looking back, I placed a lot of trust in my calling and natural abilities. I believed that they would sustain me for my entire ministry career. I was too nearsighted (focused on the moment) when I should have been much more horizon focused (looking toward the future). I also acted as if I had an unfair advantage to all my peers. I mean come on, I was on staff with Tom Mullins and Dr. John C. Maxwell. I think I must have believed that mere proximity was all I need to grow. I didn’t read all the free John Maxwell leadership books that I received as a staff member at Christ Fellowship. Why would I, I had probably heard Dr. Maxwell teach the content in a staff meeting or at one of the conferences that he held at the church. Wow, what a faulty belief.

2. I had all the time in the world.

I was young. I was just starting out in my ministry calling. There was no timetable to accomplish the dreams I had. I never worried that time could run out on those dreams and ambitions. I believed that the people who needed to worry about that kind of stuff were those who were in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Their time was running out. Okay, now that I am in my mid forty’s, I look back at that snotty nosed kid and think you were so wrong!

3. Reading books was a waste of time.

This may be a reason why all those free John Maxwell leadership books never got read in my twenty’s and thirty’s. I now realize I had a severe case of “EXCUSE-ITIS.” There were all kinds of “legitimate” excuses for why reading books was not something I could do.One really good excuse was that life was busy and who had time to sit around all day reading books. And seriously, after a hard day of “ministering” to people, I needed veg-time on the couch with my good friend the television remote control. Another self-defeating excuse that I used, leveraged the fact that I have dyslexia, adding in me being a reader.  It takes me too long to get through a book, so I will just not put myself through the pain of reminding myself of how slow I am. There were probably more excuses that I used.I was sneezing excuses all over the place. All I know is that I had a bookshelf of unopened treasure sitting in my office.

THREE THINGS I KNOW NOW:

So, if I could go back and tell my twenty-ish self a few things, here are three things that if I had known, would have propelled me farther than I am today.

1. Personal growth demands continual self-leadership.

The difference between people who maintain a continued upward trajectory in their leadership and those who flatline is self-leadership. Early in our leadership careers, success is based primarily on execution. The better you are at executing a role, the more promotion you receive. However, there comes a day when someone younger, quicker, smarter, or more talented than you will come along and be able to do what you do better than you. The thing that will set you apart and help you expand your leadership longevity is going to be how intentional you were at developing yourself. By being diligent about self-leadership, you move from influence as a result of execution, to influence as a result of who you are as an individual.

“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.” — Abraham Maslow

Self-Awareness is the beginning of real growth. You can’t know the path to get to where you want to go if you don’t first know where you are. A great place to begin the journey of self-awareness is through the use of assessment tools like DISC, Meyers Briggs, Enneagram and EQ-i 2.0. Another powerful tool for self-awareness is honest feedback from those who know you best and love you most. On your quest for personal development, it is crucial to adopt a growth mindset.   There are 2 different mindsets; fixed mindset and growth mindset to describe the underlying beliefs people have about learning. You have a growth mindset when you believe you can get smarter, you understand that effort makes you stronger you will put in extra time and effort to pursue higher achievement.  Stay curious (Google everything)! Don’t discount the ideas of other too quickly thinking it could be too old-fashioned, or not relevant. Some of the best teaching on personal growth is going to come from mentors that are no longer living. Let me introduce you to one of those people, Jim Rohn who said the following about self-leadership.

“The most important question to ask is, what am I becoming?” – Jim Rohn

“Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. If you work hard on your job, you can make a living, but if you work hard on yourself, you’ll make a fortune.” — Jim Rohn

2. Time is your most valuable commodity

Unlike money, time is a nonrenewable and nontransferable commodity. Once it is used, it’s gone. Once it is used, it’s gone. A.W. Tozer wrote, “Time is a resource that is non-renewable and nontransferable. You cannot store it, slow it up, hold it up, divide it up or give it up. You can’t hoard it up or save it for a rainy day – when it’s lost it’s unrecoverable. When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.” In case you did not know, every single human being gets the same allotment of time, twenty-four hours a day, one hundred and sixty-eight hours a week. It doesn’t matter how rich or how poor, how educated or uneducated, we all have the same…no more no less. Kevin Kruse, in his book 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management says, “Time is unique because it’s the one true equalizer.” This is why you need to learn how to do three strategic things with your time.

Prioritize it!: What are the most important things that you need to do to accomplish your responsibilities, complete your goals and fulfill your dreams? Using a tool like the Eisenhower matrix is an excellent framework to start identifying those things.
Protect it!: Did you know that every day you could be getting robbed and not even realize it is happening? It is true! Without adequate protection, thieves will rob you blind of your time. A great process to put guardrails around your priorities is through a tool called time blocking. Like a budget gives a purpose for every dollar you make, time blocking gives a use for all the time in your day, week, month and year. If you don’t protect your time, it will be stolen by something or someone else.
Maximize it!: Highly productive people focus on minutes instead of hours. You can start doing the same. Thinking in smaller units of time will enable you to maximize your time.

One way to maximize your time is by compressing the amount of time that you give to meetings, projects, and tedious activities. There is a law called the Parkinson’s Law that states work expands to fill the time available for it completion definition. So, If you give something 3 hours to do, it will take you the entire 3 hours to complete. But if you give the same project 30 minutes to do, you will get it done in 30 minutes. Compress 60-minute meetings to 45 minutes and 30-minute sessions to 20 minutes. This one small change will allow you to maximize your time.

3. The single most effective strategy for personal growth is a regular, disciplined reading habit.

“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” — Charlie “Tremendous” Jones

There is no other practice that I know of that has the overwhelming benefits to a persons life and leadership than the habit of consistently reading books. Here are ten proven benefits from reading books.

Reading make your mind stronger – The brain is a muscle and reading keeps your mind active preventing it from becoming weak and unhealthy. Mental stimulation can prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Reading improves your verbal and written communication skills – AAs you read you learn new ways to form sentences, share ideas and express emotions.
Reading makes you smarter –All the bits of information fill your brain and you never know when that information may come in handy. Knowledge equips you to overcome any challenge may face.
Reading improves your vocabulary –You are introduced to new words, phrases and expressions. Just today, my wife Lisa made the comment about how she had to look up words she didn’t know in a book she is reading.
Reading improves your memory – With every new memory you create new brain connections (synapses) and fortify existing ones.
Reading enhances critical thinking skills – You make decisions every day and some of them are critical. The requirement of reading for a person to think through and process information strengthens critical thinking.
Reading improves focus and concentration – Reading requires your mind to dial in on what is being said through the text. This discipline carries over into other aspects of daily life.
Reading builds self-esteem – Did you know that If you were to read three books about a topic, you would know more about that topic than 99% of the population. That would make you an expert. How is that for building self-esteem?
Reading makes you more interesting  - People who are well read can recall stories, illustrations, history, funny antidotes, and information about all kinds of topics.
Reading it the ultimate leadership differentiator – It’s a sad reality that only one in four Americans read a single book in the last year. Just think how reading a book a month could separate you from the pack as a leader. Not all readers lead, but all leaders read!

If you want to start the discipline of reading. I would encourage you to focus on reading a small number of pages per day that you know you can accomplish. Ten pages is a good starting point. If you commit to reading ten pages each day, you will read around 12 to 13 books in one year. If you are not sure what books to read, I have a lot of the books that I have personally read listed in my RESOURCES with Amazon links for each. The most critical step to creating the habit of reading it to start. I know it is impossible to go back in time and talk to myself and to hope that I would take my advice and act on it. But, I know it is possible that after reading this post, you could take my advice and start growing yourself, prioritizing, protecting and maximizing your time, and begin the daily discipline of reading books. I leave you with one last quote…

“My father used to say that it’s never too late to do anything you wanted to do. And he said, ‘You never know what you can accomplish until you try.'” — Michael Jordan