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Intentional Leadership — D2, W3, M12 — Belief

As we are talking about Belief and how it relates to, or empowers, our mission, let’s spend some time today thinking about our personal missions.

Before we get into the mechanics of developing a personal mission statement, here’s mine:

I am on a mission to make the world a better place, one encounter at a time, by beaming rays of light (helping them to see themselves and others with greater clarity) into their lives.

To get started, ask yourself these questions:

What do I want to achieve, for myself and others?

Why do I want to do this?

Specifically, what behaviors do I need to demonstrate, or what actions do I need to take, to achieve my mission?

Here are three questions you can ask yourself, to test your mission statement:*

1. Is it connected to my most deeply-held values?

2. Does it inspire and motivate me to act?

3. Is it simple, straightforward, and easily understood by others?

If you can say yes to these three questions, you are off to a good start.

So, get started today. Don’t rush through it. Be sure it feels true to you at the heart level. Give yourself permission to refine it over time. This isn’t a one-time exercise.

I hope you’ll share your personal mission statement with me when you have it written.

*From the Intentional Leadership booklet, by Giant Impact. 

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W2, M12 — Belief

How will you reach your vision if you don’t believe?

Belief leads to confidence and you need confidence in order to strive towards achieving any goal.

Think about the people who had such strong beliefs in what they set out to do, ignoring those who said it was a ridiculous idea or could not be done.

Jeff Bezos and Amazon. Many thought him foolish for thinking he could build a successful online bookseller.

Steve Jobs and Apple. Many thought him foolish for thinking he could get any market share against the PC sellers.

Thomas Edison and the light bulb. Many thought him foolish for continuing to try to develop the light bulb after thousands of what others considered failures.

The list could go on and on…in fact, I’m sure you could add stories of your successes and breakthroughs in the face of opposition and adversity. I’m certain you could share countless other stories of people you’ve known who have done the same.

As a leader, it’s critical that you believe in your vision and your ability to achieve it.

Today, give some thought to how that has worked for you. Have your beliefs moved you forward to success or have they held you back?

And, how does that affect your team/organization?

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Reflecting on life-changing decisions…Here’s one of mine

As part of the growth plan I am working my way through, I have recently spent some time reflecting on my association with the John Maxwell Team and the value it’s brought to my life.
Several people have told me they wished they could do some of what I’m doing and asked me about my experience with the John Maxwell Team. After returning from Guatemala my (already great) opinion about the JMT is at a new level. What we took part of in Guatemala was “Historic.” John’s Influence and his team at Equip ( his other company) along with two other organizations ( LaRed and Guatemala Prospera) are the reason this amazing Transformation has begun in Guatemala.
Think about this: Three people trained 150 of us coaches over two-and-a-half days. We were then deployed, along with a translator, to go out and teach four-hour work shops sitting in small circles with military, city and country government officials, faculties of schools, clergy, hospital administrators, doctors and nurses, business men and women, and community leaders; we taught them how to facilitate interactive roundtable discussions on the the topics of Laws of Growth and Values, like forgiveness, listening skills, and others.
Gua Natl Civil Police June13 sm  (Me with the National Civil Police, Guatemala City, Guatemala, June 2013, at the end of our session)
In three days we reached ~19,000 people and left them trained and equipped to facilitate a 30-week follow-up using this same process in their areas of influence and with their families.
It was an amazing, life-changing experience! I don’t know if you can imagine but each one of the participants (captains & generals of armies in uniform, city mayors, doctors, clergy, etc) had to get “real” and be “transparent” rating themselves from 1-10 on how they were at, for instance, “listening” or “forgiving others. ” Then they had to say aloud what specific action steps they were going to take in the coming week to improve their performance in that area.
I’ve never seen such transparency. The stories of what happened were crazy-awesome! When people get real and want to grow, TRANSFORMATION begins.
As of mid-August, 45,000 (yes, 45,000!) others were going through this transformation process in small groups led by the people we taught in June.
I’m still on ‘cloud nine’ about the whole thing. Our own country could so benefit from this process. Third world countries don’t have the distractions we have and they want help to bring hope to their future generations. From the president down to the young people, the whole country is in pursuit of hope. Although this was not a faith-based effort per se, all the principles, laws, and values we taught come directly from the wisdom found in the pages of the Bible.
If you are looking for a personal leadership growth track (speaking, coaching, teaching, etc…), want to move toward growing a business, or be a part of a transformational, powerful organization, you can make that a reality for yourself by joining the John Maxwell Team. Give me a call. I can walk you through the process for enrolling, the investment, and the amazing benefits of joining this team.
It truly is the best thing I’ve done for myself in at least 10 years!
I look forward to hearing from you.
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