Book Review - 6 Lessons from How Successful People Grow (Book by John C. Maxwell)

The highlight of this book is “Success and Grow works hand-in-hand”,
  • You can't be successful if you are not ready to grow.
  • Your potential cannot be maximized when you are not growing.
  • You’ll fail in your relationship if you don’t incorporate growth into it.
Growth in self-awareness, in your character, your skills, your knowledge of finance, etc. are all necessary to succeed as a human being. Growth is very intentional.
“You cannot change your life,
Until you change what you do on a daily basis”
Now, this is the beginning of success. These are the six (6) lessons I learned from the book “How Successful People Grow by John C. Maxwell”

Lesson 1: Growth Doesn't Just Happen

For you to grow, you must be deliberate and intentional about it. Growth starts with a decision – not just a “mouth decision”, but an “action decision”. Decisions that causes you to take actions – that’s what I’m talking about. It’s not a “Waiting Decision” but a “Doing Decision”.
“You’ll never get MUCH done unless you go ahead
And do it before you are ready”
John C. Maxwell
My personal motto is: “If you want to do something, so it or else keep shut”. Don’t wait for the best way or the right time because they don’t exist. Start being intentional and start growing now.
“You have to get started if you want to
Find the best way”
John C. Maxwell

Lesson 2: Would You Pay the Price to do What You Want to do?

This is where passion comes into place. Passion gives you the energy to carry on. Take a minute and answer this question:
What do you want to do?
Hmmmm! Breathe in… and take a sec. Don’t worry about the answer, I already have for you. “I want to grow!” “I want to be successful!” should be what is coming out of your mouth right now – otherwise, you shouldn’t be reading this post.
And if you want to grow, you must do whatever it takes to grow, do whatever it takes to be successful:

  • Take the necessary actions
  • Sacrifices have to be made
  • Self-discoveries have to be made
  • Risks have to be taken
  • And not being scared of making mistakes have to be a major part of your life
    • I’m not saying that you should go about making mistakes. No! But don’t ever be afraid of making one – don’t be held back by that mindset.


Whatever you want to do, now is the right time to start

Lesson 3: Self-Believe

You can't grow neither can you be successful if you don’t even believe in yourself and your ability because you being successful come from self-believe. If you don’t believe in yourself, what makes you believe anyone else will believe in you? I bet you, not even your mom!
“To add value to yourself
You must see value in yourself”
John C. Maxwell
These are strong words worth keeping in your heart by John C. Maxwell.
“You can never outperform your self-image. You must believe in yourself to live out your potential and lead a fulfilled life. You believe you are worthless, the world won't add value to you. If you put a small value on yourself, the world won't raise it for you. Move beyond your Limiting Beliefs”
Take responsibility for your own life by working on your life and your belief system. We tend to get in life, whatever we are willing to tolerate. Your self-believe builds in your self-confidence and self-esteem and creates a high level of self-worth within you which is a very attractive feature for anyone that wants to succeed in life.

Lesson 4: Self-Reflection


“Learning to pause
Allows growth to catch up with you”
John C. Maxwell
The importance of self-reflection can never be over-emphasized. Personally, whatever level of success I have achieved so far has been as a result of self-reflection. Without self-reflection you may end up living your life in a cycle thinking you are progressing, you may end up making mistakes and similar mistakes and at the end of the day, you will find out that you have wasted a whole lot of time chasing “shadows”.
Take time, no matter how short it may be (at least for a start) to pause and reflect. To reflect on the new day, to reflect on the previous day, to reflect on the previous months or the new month, to reflect on the previous years or the new year. Keep all forms of distraction far from you, stay focused and have some personal reflection.
According to John C. Maxwell (and I 100% believe him), “reflection turns experiences into insight. People have innumerable experiences every day and may never learn anything from them because they never take the time to pause and reflect. Time alone allows me to sort through my experiences, put them into perspective and plan for the future”

Lesson 5: Practise of Self-Discipline

What do you think life will turn to without discipline? Discipline starts with self-discipline. One of my favourites quotes about discipline is by one of my mentors, Jocko Willink (a retired Navy Seal).
“Discipline = Freedom”
Jocko Willink
Precise, short and mathematical. No ambiguity. No confusion. No story. Do whatever you have to do – stop complaining, stop believing you can't, stop unconsciously or consciously holding yourself back, stop lying to yourself – just do what you are supposed to do. Keep to your plans and keep to your words (the words you say to yourself even without anyone hearing them, keep to them – it all starts with self, self-discipline).
“You’ll never change your life
Until you change something you do daily”
John C. Maxwell
In the real sense, people don’t decide their future – they only decide their habits and their habits decide their future. Knowing what to improve and how to improve are vital to the success of anyone. Another quote that struck my head in this book is:
“Hard-work is simply the accumulation of tasks you should have done
When they were easy for you to do”
John C. Maxwell

“You can't win the war against the world
If you can't win the war against yourself, your mind”
Will Smith

Lesson 6: Growth Starts from the Inside

When you are good inside, it reflects on the outside. When you growing inside, your character will change for good and it will affect your predisposition about life and how you look and how you tend to understand things generally. The inner conviction that you have is as a result of the internal growth.
Growth plan should be a part of your daily life, not a one-off thing – not something you do once in a while. It should settle down in your subconscious. Attributes like humility, been teachable, being thankful, appreciative and grateful, honesty, integrity, being kind-hearted,  etc. are worth paying any price to get.
“Before you can do
You must be”
John C. Maxwell
Hello everyone, I want to inform you that there are tone and tones of contents in the above book – I have not and I cannot finish pointing out all the pieces of good stuff in the book and what I have put up there is not the complete detail in the book. The content is just my own opinions and thoughts about the book (how the book appealed to me when I read it).
So feel free to go get a copy so that you can garner the complete words of knowledge and wisdom from the book.
Thank you for reading and please feel free to comment and share.

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