If you have worked to learn or earn something, you have the ability to pass it on to others. If you live by the Law of Contribution, you will have much to give other people, because growing yourself enables you to grow others.
Giving of your time, expertise, and resources without expecting anything in return is an unselfish act that makes the world a better place. We need more gives. When you focus more on the wants and needs of others, more of your own wants and needs are met. In contrast, when you choose to hoard what you have, rather than give, you become the center of your own lonely universe and you become less content, not more. As a result, you repel both people and potential blessings.
The only way to increase your capacity intentionally is to change the way you approach personal growth. Learning more information isn’t enough. You must change how you think and you must change your actions.
Most experts believe people typically use only 10% of their true potential. So how do we tap into the unused 90%? The answer is found in changing how we think and what we do.
How You Need to Think to Increase Your Capacity
1. Stop thinking more work and start thinking what works?
Ask most people how they can increase their capacity and they’ll tell you by working more. There’s a problem with that solution. More work will not necessarily increase your capacity. More of the same usually results in more of the same. Start thinking what works and repeat it.
Most people who decide to grow personally find their first mentors in the pages of books. But at some point, you must find personal models too. If you follow only yourself, you will find yourself going in circles.
The process of growing with help of a mentor usually follows this pattern: It begins with awareness. You realize that you need help and that following yourself is not a viable option for effective personal growth.
When a person comes to such realization, one of two things can happen. The first is the person’s pride can swell up and they cannot bring themselves to ask for another person’s advice. The other reaction to awareness is to humble yourself and ask for help.
Curiosity is the key to being a life-long learner, and if you want to keep growing and developing, you must keep on learning. Curious people possess a thirst for knowledge. They continually ask why? People who remain curious don’t need to be encouraged to ask questions or explore. They just do it — all the time. And they keep doing it. This is how they learn and grow so quickly.
Curiosity helps a person to think and expand possibilities beyond the ordinary. Asking why fires the imagination. It leads to discovery. It opens up options. All meaningful and lasting change starts first in your imagination and works its way out.
When you’re first starting out in your career, it’s not very hard to give up or grow up. In fact, you’re willing to give up everything for an opportunity because your “everything” isn’t much of anything. But what about when you’ve started to earn some things; a job you enjoy, a good salary, a home, a community you’ve become part of, a level of security? Are you willing to give up those things for a chance at doing something that will take you closer to your potential?
Truths about Trade-Offs
Trade-Offs are available to us throughout life
We must learn to see trade-offs as opportunities for growth
Trade-Offs force us to make difficult personal changes
The loss of a trade-off is usually felt long before the gain
Growth stops when you lose tension between where you are and where you could be. For most people, as time goes by they lose the tension that prompts growth — especially if they experience any success. But having less tension makes people less productive. And it undermines the growth toward their potential.
1. Few people want to stretch
Most people only use a fraction of their ability and rarely strive to reach their full potential. If there is no tension in your life to grow, there is little desire to stretch. Nobody admires average. The best organizations don’t pay for average. Mediocrity is not worth shooting for.
Good character, with honesty and integrity at its core, is essential to success in any area of life. Character growth determines the height of your personal growth. It’s the Law of the Ladder.
Here Are Rungs on Most People’s Character Ladder
1. I will focus on being better on the inside than on the outside — Character matters
The inside influences the outside — What we believe really matters. If you neglect your heart, mind, and soul, it changes who you are on the outside as well as on the inside.
Inside victories precede outside ones — Continual growth and lasting success are the result of aligning the inside and the outside of our lives. And getting inside right must come first.
Our inside development is totally within our control — Character is something that you create within yourself and must take responsibility for changing.
Each time we encounter a painful experience, we get to know ourselves a little better. Pain can stop us in our tracks. Or it can cause us to make decisions we would like to put off, deal with issues we would rather not face, and make changes that make us feel uncomfortable. Pain prompts us to face who we are and where we are. What we do with that experience defines who we become.
About Bad Experience
Everyone has them
No one likes them
Few people make bad experiences positive experiences
