Slow Growth Wins

Personal growth is something I’ve been working with for the past year. Since I read John Maxwell’s book Today Matters,  I’ve made it a core value of mine and try to do something each day to work on growth personally. Today I realized something about growth. Something that hadn’t really hit me before now. Growth is a slow process? yes. But does it have to be? Yes. I believe it does.

Slow growth will always beat out NO growth. (Duh!) But Fast growth, growth that occurs all at once, wouldn’t that beat slow growth? It sounds awesome! The only problem is? It doesn’t exist. There is no easy way to the top. There is no shortcut. There is work hard, work hard everyday, set goals, achieve them and grow personally everyday. That’s it.

The reason slow growth wins is because that’s all there is. I hear stories of people who “made it” or were over-night successes but that’s not what I want. I don’t want to “make it.” Making it implies that the journey is over. that I’ve reached the top and there’s nowhere else to go. People who “make it” often stop growing when they do.

The cool thing is though, once you start working on your personal growth, you leave everybody else behind. Then you’ll be perceived as someone who was lucky or caught a good break or “made it”. But you’ll know the truth: That you worked your ass off to get here. You’ll also know that this is not the end. Just because you achieve your goals and reach a high point, doesn’t mean the race is over… it’s just a check point. There is no finish line. Only the race.

I heard John Maxwell say once, “If you find yourself at the head of the class, you’re in the wrong class. It’s time to find a new class.” So don’t ever think you’ve made it. It’s all about continuing the journey or as Reid Hoffman, the author of The Start-up of You says, “Live in permanent beta.” Define what success looks like to you and go for it. But when you get there know it’s not the end. You’re always improving, always striving for growth.

Never arrive.