Why Personal Growth Is So Difficult

“When we first embark upon a growth goal, it's intangible. It takes patience to see results. "

—Jan McDonald

I had a flat forehead moment the other morning. I realized that I have a hard time being joyful when I'm not moving in the direction of a tangible result. Personal growth is not something I can check off my "to do" list. Yes, I can check off my daily learning and reading, so I can grow in those characteristics that I need so I can achieve my tangible goals. But how do you check off being gentle or empathetic, which are two of the characteristics that I want to grow in this year.  (Don't laugh...Dennis is ecstatic.)

I think this is why personal and relational growth is so difficult. We can't see immediate change and we forget about it, unless we keep the goal in front of us constantly.

                                              John Maxwell says this, "We can't grow without until we grow within." 

If we want our businesses to grow and thrive, studies have shown that we need to grow in leadership skills. The summary of studies done by Harvard, Stanford and Daniel Goleman (another leadership guru) tells us that 80% of our career success comes from our leadership skills, specifically character, values and people skills.  Only twenty percent of our success is attributed to our job skills. 

It's these "soft" skills that have the most impact in our lives. It's these skills that determine our effectiveness and ability to influence others. These are the skills and growth goals that have the most beneficial effects in our lives. These are the skills that make us into powerful leaders and are transformational for our relationships.

We may not see the fruit of these skills quickly, but my experience has been that explosive momentum occurs if we have the patience to keep on keeping on.  Personal and relational growth may seem difficult, but like Steven Covey says, "There's no greater investment."

If you need some help creating and being accountable to growth goals, I can help. I'm just an email away. 

Go and grow. It's worth it,

Jan

Jan McDonald
Maxwell Certified Leadership Team