It’s Saturday, April 22, 2017. I was from an interview that became the game changer for my career and my life. This interview was unique, I met a beautiful woman at the panel that interviewed me beyond the position. Fast forward, I was offered the vacancy and asked her on a date.
Do you have a plan for your personal growth?
She asked me the question and waited patiently as I struggled to stay relevant and impressive. I explained about my achievements and accomplishments and talked about how I worked so hard and how I was Improving human condition. This question caught me off guard as I was expecting something like “what are your long and short-term goals?” Finally, I had to admit that I had no plan to become a better person. The date went from awkward to awful and it was something I had never considered before. It exposed my major flaw in approach to work and success. Just like everyone today, we are very intentional about working and reaching our goals and being successful and our strategy is—hard work.
If you have dreams, goals, and aspirations, you need to grow to achieve them. But if you are like I was—like most people you have one or more mistaken beliefs that are creating a gap that keeps you from growing. If you need to grow, you need to you need to avoid these three traps that will distract you from growing.
- Assumption Gap. “Assuming that you will automatically grow”.
A state of continuous learning and growth must depend on the purpose. Merely performing a job or task doesn’t automatically result in growth. Sometimes, the only thing we gain is getting more efficient at the mission. Wisdom doesn’t always come with age; sometimes age comes alone.
“A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be” —Musician Bruce Springsteen.
- The Expectation Gap. “I thought it would be easier than this”
There’s no such thing as luck. You might get luck into a few opportunities, but your hard work is the secret sauce of being able to take advantage of them.
“Preparation (Growth) + Attitude + Opportunity + Action (doing something about it) = Luck” — John Maxwell.
To achieve ultimate success your decisions (big and small), you need to take decisions at an optimal time.
- Timing Gap. “It’s not the right time to begin.”
There will never be a perfect time to start an action/ jump into something new. Growth is a process, and you have to set the wheels in motion now no matter how small. The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the higher the odds that you will never actually do it.
Preparation (Growth) + Attitude + Opportunity + Action (doing something about it)+ optimal timing = Luck (Success).
Thank you for stopping by, happy reading!
“You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight” — Jim Rohn
