The tragedy for many leaders is that they let major life experiences slip by without learning from them.
By themselves, significant moments do not alter a person’s behavior. Events certainly can make powerful impressions on us: they stir our emotions, capture our imagination, provoke our conscience, or bring revelation. However, events do not automatically transform us, and the feelings they evoke usually are short-lived.
Leadership breakthroughs happen when we seize the opportunity presented by a significant event to adjust our thinking and to change our patterns of action. For example, having a heart attack could have brought me nothing more than pain. However, I used the experience as a springboard to change my thinking about my physical health.
Prior to the heart attack, I considered exercise to be a nuisance and dietary restrictions to be a drag. After suffering the heart attack, I reevaluated the importance of a healthy lifestyle. I contemplated the implications of ignoring my health, and I thought about how poor fitness would shorten my life and would limit my influence. I modified my mental attitude toward nutrition and physical fitness, and I took practical steps to build exercise into my weekly routine.
The tragedy for many leaders is that they let major life experiences slip by without learning from them. Once a pivotal moment alerts you to the possibility for a better future, I suggest embarking on the following four steps to bring about positive change.
1) Embrace Bottom-Line Thinking
When touched by a significant life event, project yourself into the future by asking yourself the following questions: How will my life improve by making a change? What is at stake if everything remains the same?
2) Generate Reminders
I agree with Samuel Johnson: “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” For instance, physical fitness isn’t rocket science. Indeed, the formula is amazingly simple: eat healthier and exercise more often. Yet, breaking a bad habit involves reminding ourselves of the action we need to take and what’s ultimately at stake. Generating reminders may include creating visual mementos, setting calendar prompts, asking friends to provide accountability and encouragement, or celebrating progress made.
3) Find a Model
I started off as a lousy public speaker, but I was committed to improving. For that reason, I began to study, in detail, the great communicators within my circle of friends and colleagues. I listened intently whenever they spoke, and I observed their strengths. Then, I incorporated the lessons learned into my own style and delivery. Progress came slowly. In fact, I’d estimate that it took me eight years to become a polished public speaker. However, by modeling myself after other skilled communicators, I eventually gained competence myself.
4) Adjust Your Surroundings
To translate the momentary inspiration of an event into life transformation, we must limit our exposure to negative environments. The people closest to us have tremendous influence over our lives. To make the most of pivotal moments in our lives, we often need to reevaluate our relationships and to cut ties with unhealthy acquaintances.
Conclusion
Pivotal moments in life stir our emotions, but they don’t necessarily affect our day-to-day emotions. In fact, if you wait until you feel like making a change, then you’ll never experience personal growth as a leader. The next time you’re touched by a significant life event, look for ways to adjust your thinking and behavior so that instead of temporary enlightenment, you experience lasting breakthrough. Remember: leaders develop daily, not in a day.
John Maxwell grew up in the 1950s in the small Midwestern city of Circleville, Ohio. John's earliest childhood memory is of knowing that he would someday be a pastor. He professed faith in Christ at the age of three, and reaffirmed that commitment when he was 13. At age 17, John began preparing for the ministry. He attended Circleville Bible College, earning his bachelor's degree in 1969. In June of that same year, he married his sweetheart, Margaret, and moved to tiny Hillham, Indiana, where he began his first pastorate.
While serving in his second church, Maxwell began to study the correlation between leadership effectiveness and ministry effectiveness. On July 4, 1976, while preaching at a service commemorating America's bicentennial, John sensed that God was calling him into a ministry to pastors. Within days after that event, pastors began to contact him, asking for his assistance in nurturing their churches. Over the next four years, on an informal basis, John helped scores of fellow pastors. Then, in 1980, he was asked to become Executive Director of Evangelism for the Wesleyan denomination.
Though his time at Wesleyan headquarters was productive, John soon realized that his deeper desire was to help pastors from numerous denominations. He knew that desire would be unfulfilled if he were to stay at denominational headquarters. As a result, in 1981 John accepted the call to return to the pastorate, this time at Skyline Wesleyan Church in the San Diego, California area. But he did so with the church's blessing to pursue his vision. The Skyline congregation allowed him to continue mentoring and assisting pastors even as he led them to new levels.
In 1985, as he continued to equip and encourage other pastors, John took the next crucial step in leadership development. He founded a new company called INJOY and created the INJOY Life Club, featuring a monthly tape for leaders. The fledging operation, established in the corner of a garage, was soon bursting at the seams. The INJOY Life Club tapes were received with great enthusiasm, and the number of subscriptions quickly increased from hundreds to thousands. Simultaneously, the demand for other resources and seminars exploded. Pastors from coast to coast were responding, and their desire for help was even greater than John had anticipated.
As the years passed, INJOY began demanding more and more of John's time. In 1995, he resigned from his position as senior pastor at Skyline following a very fruitful 14-year tenure. The church had tripled in size and its lay ministry involvement had increased ten-fold. Dr. Maxwell is in great demand today as a speaker. Through his bestselling books, audio and video resources, and major conferences, he communicates directly with more than one million people every year. He is frequently asked to speak for organizations such as Promise Keepers and Focus on the Family, but his greatest joy and desire is to help pastors become better leaders.
Because the need for leadership development knows no borders, John established EQUIP, a non-profit organization which trains leaders in urban communities, academic institutions, and within international organizations. EQUIP is also spearheading a movement which has enlisted more than one million pastoral prayer partners who covenant to pray specifically for those who shepherd God's flock.
John continues to seek new opportunities to help churches and church leaders. He knows that one thing is constant: the only hope for the world is salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, who gives life abundantly.