Personal Growth: You Can’t Give What You Don’t Have

You’ve come back! I was waiting in anticipation to see who heard their call to leadership. As I mentioned in the first article, leadership is all around us, yet we don’t really know what it’s about. 

Here’s what leadership is about: you and how you show up in the world. Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. So if you want to lead and influence more, you need to be the best you possible, which requires growth. John Maxwell talks about 15 laws of growth, and here are my current top 3.

Law of Intentionality: Jim Rohn said, “If it’s a priority, you’ll find a way. If it isn’t, you’ll find an excuse.” How many things do you “wish” you did? Make it an intention, which turns into goals, then take action. Once action is taken, growth begins. 

Law of Environment: Environment is a very important factor in success that is glossed over constantly. How? Let me share a personal example. It’s a lot easier to work from home when I’m alone. It’s “magically” much more difficult when my son is at home asking me to play. What changed? The environment did. Even though it’s the same house, other variables in the house changed, thus changing the environment and the sustainability of the behavior. Think about a bar during the day versus at night. Very different behaviors occur, right? 

Law of Trade-Offs: John Maxwell says that you have to give up to go up. Let’s say you want to lose weight and get healthier. 

At first, you’re eating a cheeseburger with fries and a milkshake. So you cut out the shake and have a salad. You immediately feel better. You then up hydration and have a protein shake for breakfast. The next level looks like eating chicken breast instead of steak, wearing blue light blocking glasses before bed time, and you start running. Then you change to the keto diet while doing intermittent fasting, give up coffee for green tea, and do HIIT workouts. The higher you go, the more you need to give up. You give up bad for good, good for great, and great for amazing. 

So, some food for thought:

What are your intentions?

What needs to change in your environment to achieve your intentions?

What do you need to start giving up to go up?

Please reach out and share your answers! Talk soon.

Kevin Koo is a professional life coach who specializes in personal, business, and leadership goal setting and accountability and can be contacted at kevinkoocoaching@gmail.com