Things get better when we do. Personal growth is a decision. There are patterns in nature that create growth, and those that cause stagnation. In this article we look at how growth happens in nature and how that can be applied to our personal and business life.
I just got off the phone with my friend and business associate Dave Buchanan in the St Peterburg area, he said, if people don’t do this, they just need to forget about it. Dave as much as anyone has always been able to read my mind. Referring to the IHub Meta opportunity he said if entreprenuers look at this and don’t have a “Where has this been all my Life” response, they may have looked, but they didn’t see it! For more detail you can download the free Plug and Play PDF at the very bottom of this page. The last 60 days has been and eye opening experience for me. People that means you and I, we see things not as they are but as WE are as human beings. We all act and react in accordance with our programming. When our mindsets, our programming is not based upon reality, the math if you will, it is impossible to take advantage of opportunities, becuase somehow we feel wisdom of the ages principles, or the math, doesn’t apply to us. FASCINATING As human beings, we MUST ACT in accordance to the brain cell patterns we have in our own minds. Did you hear what I said? MUST ACT, we have no choice. I have heard my entire life people see the glass half empty or half full. For now I call these people what if people. If you are a what if person, you mind is flooded with what if’s. you can’t help it, and if you don’t take action, they will never stop. What if people are able to ignore the success that they are witnessing all around them daily and come up with some very creative excuses about why they don’t or it won’t happen for them. Honestly, it is sad, very sad. All the logic and math in the world can dictate that it is time to make a pivot in any area of our life, or that it makes create business since to restructure our time to be able to take advantage of an opportunity, the facts can be as clear as the nose on our face, but if it is in conflict with how we see ourself, our abilites, our self image, and the programming we have in our minds, we will not be able to make smart, logical business moves. Speaking of being able to restructure our life and time to be able to take advantage of opportunity, now would be a good time to give a shout out to two of our IHub Meta team members. Phillip Cantue which I have probably mentioned before. I have worked with Phillip for a couple of years. LIke all of us he has been a work in progress, and like all of us where he is strong he is strong, where he is weak he is weak. But he has hung in there and continued to progress in his entreprenurial journey, I am very proud of him, and have always seen him as a future millionaire. He was living in Mexico and recently moved back to the USA so he could take advantage of what many of us know is the #1 business opportunity in the USA right now, IHub Meta. Another example is our associate Michael Clark. He is a great guy that I met last year and happy to have him on our team, even if he is a Tennessee Vols fan. He recently sent me this testimoney about out business. I did what I thought was the right path to the American Dream. I got my college degree, went to work, established credit, supported my family, built and owned my own home by working 40 years for someone else to make it happen. Not a bad life at all and not complaining. But I was not a wise financial guy, terrible with money matters and seemed to always struggle most of these years just to make it month to month, mouth to mouth. God has blessed me in so many ways; Wonderful parents who taught and loved me and my 3 sibs so much; Wonderful community to grow up and share with so many wonderful people; Wonderful church and church family teaching me the most vital life lessons and characteristics are always achieved with God, through God and by His Grace so we need not fear. I feel I have been favored by God and so deeply blessed. But when it comes to finances, I always fall short. I’ve always lacked the ability to give more money back and to others and do more for others because it took every penny just to make ends meet. But I am still healthy, happy and much, much wiser at the age of 67. And now, for the first time in my life, I see this incredible opportunity that can get me the financial freedom I have been seeking my entire life with something that is so simple, so doable and yet so rewarding that it blows my mind! Lifeis great but no guarantees and sometimes the harder you try the more trials and trouble you have. But you learn, live, love and go on as this builds your character. And now this incredible opportunity has become available and it’s now or never for me. I’m all in and anyone that sees the vision here, wants it and commits to action can achieve unlimited passive financial income for you and your family to enjoy. 5,4,3,2,1 – GO NOW! I share that to make this point, at the time of this recording he has gone back to his home state of Tennessee for 5 weeks to build his business in the USA. His first day in the field he gave away 5 Loop TV players, and created a $500 monthly passive income for himself …….. Yes I said his first day! — No matter what kind of summer holiday you choose, these breaks always come as a welcome reminder of the need to slow down, stay close to nature, and appreciate the simpler moments in life. During those moments of stillness, we’re also given the opportunity to take a step back from the daily running of our lives and contemplate on what truly matters. I hope this article is your guide to summer reflection & Intelligent Change. |
When we talk about growth, many of us think: marketing, business, exponential growth, data. However, today we want to trace the concept of development and evolution back to its roots (literally). What does it mean to grow? How do we expand our minds and improve our bodies? How do we go beyond who we currently are to reach new heights?
In times of need, we instictively look towards nature and a higher power because, simply put, that is where the answers are. Pick up a leaf from the ground – any leaf will do – and even those of us with no botanical knowledge will be able to immediately notice the system of veins running through its blade. Does that remind you of something?
Our own physicality and human nature are equally complex and more connected to Earth than we realize or care to admit. We are who God shaped us to be. We need water and light to grow, we change according to life’s seasons, and even our mood is subject to influence from weather conditions. I realized years ago, that I need sun light more than most, not sure why. Some of us need it more than others, but we all need it. I am not one of these I love all 4 seasons person, I wouldn’t care if I never saw another flake of snow or was in temperatures belo 70 degrees the rest of my life.
But if you still can’t see the wood for the trees, allow us to elaborate.
At the Roots: Where We Come From
At first, we are but tiny seeds. Some of us have a chance to fall on fertile soil and some of us have to fight for survival in barren ground. Some of us are regularly watered, exposed to sunlight, and properly cared for and some of us are left unattended to fend for ourselves. So how do we grow healthy roots?
We don’t choose our family by blood (sometimes an apple falls really far from the tree), our guardians, or school teachers. We have no say in where or when we are born, what circumstances constitute our first environment, and if the grass is greener where we are able to go from our first neck of the woods.
Those of you have heard me talk about I see all humans as 12 year old kids. I talk about this in the whirlpool training I do. We are all who we are based upon the authority figures we had in our life, and ehte location, enviroment where we were raised.
Still, we can choose to adopt a family – friends who will support and nurture our growth (even if it’s slow and messy), people who will (gently or not) nudge us to challenge ourselves. Jim Rohn would say those that love us enough to tell us what we need to hear, not necessarily what we want to hear. That is the challenge with network marketing and the world today. Nobody cares enough to have real, authentic, difficult conversations. The media pushes us all to never speak our minds, and make sure everything we say is politically correct. It is getting harder and harder to be a real, authentic person, I don’t give a flying flip about the media, they violate every wisdom of the ages success principle on the planet.
We can choose our mentors, work towards leaving our circumstances, search for new soil, build a new home, and keep our minds open in order to learn from the grind. 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
95% of the challenges the network marketing profession is facing today could have be eliminated if distributors had just asked themselves, who is this person and why should I be listening to them? ( When the internet became mainstream we allowed self proclaimed gurus to over take the market place spouting shortcuts and ) Violate wisdom of the ages.
It may be a good time for some of you listenig to ask yourself who have you been listening to? Where has it gotten you? I talk about the concept of mentorship and how important this success prinicple is in my double CD set available on Amazon.
The Tree Trunk: Who We Are
Soon enough, something sprouts from the ground – a teeny tiny proof of life dressed in green. About that time we start to form our personality, our first hopes and dreams, and before we fully grow into ourselves, our character is formed into a solid trunk, our core, the spine that holds us in an upright position.
Psychologists are not unanimous in the nature versus nurture debate, but they do agree that at its most basic, personality, as our unique patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, remains fairly consistent throughout life. For example, it would be extremely difficult for an introvert like myself to become extroverted. As I have said many times when I got on stage to speak and share ideas, a new personality emerges from me that I can only explain as a deep sense of responsibility comes upon me and I communicate at a different level. I call it level 5 communication, communication that is filled with conviction and emotion. It not forced, it is just somethng that happens.
However, if we understand the mechanisms of our personalit what is commonly called today SELF AWARENESS well, we can use it to our advantage. We can work with what we’ve got towards unlocking the potential that lives in the trunk of our unique tree.
If you have not spent personal education time on understanding yourself and your personality type, I cannot recommend that you do that strongly enough.
Here are some books I would recommend to do a deep dive into personality types and your own.
After you get a solid picture solid picture of who you are and what you stand for in your mind and heart, accept that nobody’s perfect and that growth is always painful but worth it. Only then, with a fairly fixed personality, will you outgrow a fixed, unproductive mindset that doesn’t serve you or your entreprenurial journey.
Branching Out: Decisions, Decisions
Psychologist Carol Dweck believes that under the surface of our fixed broad personality traits lie our “in-between” qualities such as beliefs or coping strategies. These, according to Dweck, are very much changeable. Therefore, if we can, for example, break away from our limiting beliefs, that might have a resounding effect on our behaviors and possibly on certain aspects of our personality. I say for sure
on our personality. I have seen this happen to myself and many others I have worked with over the years.
But it boils down to our personal choices, the limbs and twigs. Each and every branchlet is an evergreen decision we make that shapes the tree of our life. Our fate depends on whether we pick what is right over what is easy and convenient, whether we opt for creating rather than consuming, if we go after that dream or stay in the safe but mundane zone of comfort. Everything we do matters.
Once again, we turn to nature, this time within ourselves. If you struggle to make the right choice, stop for a moment. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and think about your crossroads. What’s the gut feeling? Does path A make you feel expansive or contracted? Now, what about path B? There’s wisdom in our bodies, and usually, we know what we want before we know what we want. The simple secret to life is to
try to get through it making as few wrong choices as possible.
The Crown of Leaves: Success and Flourishing
If every twig is a decision, every leaf and every bloom is the consequence of it. A tree is known by its fruit, and the fruits of our labor are the sweetest. Hence, if you decide to invest in yourself, after a while you will see positive change in your wellbeing. Every personal development student on this planet will tell you the same thing. Invest in yourself. When Dawn and I got married I told her, I don’t spend money on fancy stuff, I only spend money on two things, personal education and memories.
Who said success doesn’t grow on trees (wink-wink)? Education, taking a healthy risk from time to time, starting that new passion project (sometimes for the sole purpose of challenging the brain), but also self-care, good diet, exercise, and proper rest are all steps towards growth. And above all: gratitude & thankfulness. Make sure those you love and appreciate know you love and appreciate them.
Sap is the tree’s blood. It travels within its veins distributing nutrients throughout the whole plant. Gratitude is that same kind of nourishing life force. It spreads within us fixing what’s broken or weak in order for us to grow strong, healthy leaves and, in time, burst into beautiful flowers of happiness. If you allow gratitude to fill you in head to toe (or crown to root), it will fuel your growth and prosperity.
Great Oaks from Little Acorns Grow
Do you know the best part of growing and evolving like a tree? Rebirth. When a branch is cut off, it regrows. When the leaves perish in autumn, they come back in spring. It’s that cycle of natural changes that corresponds to what we go through in our own lives: loss – patience and recovery – flourishing.
A tree is a symbol of life for a reason, all we are mimics nature. So grow tall, grow proud, grow mighty. And be patient, your growth might be slow but if you tend to your sprouts with love, your progess will be tangible. The rebirth can and will occur, I have seen it happen over and over in my career. The exciting thing for me is many of you listening to this podcast are experincing major personal growth right now. I am happy for you.
I have said that netork marketing is a personal develop program with a compensation plan attached. It is the number one personal development program in the world. At one time in history I could say that about 95% of the companies in the industry. Unfortunately today less than 5% of companies in the industry today walk the walk. They all talk the talk, but very few companies and organizations are focussed on personal development and leadership development. Network marketing has turned into a giant social club that attempts to hype people up about nothing.
Most people in the profession with leadership titles are more interest in keeping their social club members on auto ship one more month than they are developing a new crop of REAL LEADERS. As I have said for 40 years the real product in network marketing is a well trained leader, build people, and people will build the business.
