7 ways to be excited about growing

Taken from Hong Teck's blog - it's very thought-provoking! Do read it...

7 ways to be excited about growing
September 21, 2007 @ 11:06 am

“How many of you are commited to grow?” A few hands go up. The rest have other things they are commited to… notably their jobs, their family, their mortgage, their ministry and their spouse. “Honestly, of you who are commited to grow, how many of you are excited about it?” Of the few hands up, only 1 or 2 remains. Reason could be while we are commited to grow, we do not take action to. When we don’t act upon our conviction and belief, we will get bore to death our dear precious life.

Here are a few suggestions how to be commited to grow and be excited about it.

1. Read a leadership book a month. Why leadership? Because whether we like it or not, we are leading others. Leading is influencing anyone whose path crossed yours. You can do it positively in a conscious way or negative unconsciously. Leadership books help us consciously and positively influence. Most other books leave us entertained and with good knowledge that can ‘puffed us up’ if we are not careful. Leadership skill is applicable to everyone from highest of employer to the lowest of employee.

2. Learn something everyday and log that insight. You are only excited about learning when it is concrete … so write it down, think about it, find ways to apply it. If you can’t tell yourself what you learned today, you aren’t going to be excited about learning and will one day (very soon I think) be not very committed to it.

3. Do, do, do! Don’t talk more than do! Doing is good for growth because we are human being and that just means we will DEFINITELY mess up. I’m 100% sure of that. But that mess or failure is our only opportunity to grow so we should commit to doing and hence risk failing. That’s the bottom line. So do to yourself a favour and work towards growth, gain and improvement in all areas of your life. And we are going to fail and that failure is exactly what we need to develop patience, perseverance, character and wealth of understanding. Show me a successful person and I’ll show you cases and cases of hardships and trials.

4. Pray and trust the one who created you! Don’t be a nut. Don’t succeed without God. Don’t minister, love and give by yourself. Know that you are an instrument of blessing. Know you have nothing you can do yourself! You are doing it because He loves you so much to bestow talents for you to. Expect that phrase ”Good and faithful servant” to be said to you when you die. Life and hardship become sweet. It’s not what you gain when you grow that is important, it is what you become (ie ‘faithful’) that is more valuable.

5. Don’t blame anyone. If you are not growing, don’t blame anyone. People are not for you to blame. They are for you to be good friends with. Blame yourself, that’s the best way to grow and an excellent way to get excited about growing.

6. Ask your spouse, am I a good husband/wife. Or ask your employee, am I a good employer …. or your boss, am I a good worker…or your friend, am I a good friend… They will most likely say no if you allow them to be honest and that is a sure way to get yourself genuinely excited about growing. Either that or it gets you agitated about that person….. which comes to my last suggestion…

7. Choose to be excited rather than agitated.