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Daily Maxwell July 15
BREAKTHROUGH
Every major difficulty you face in life is a fork in the road. You choose which track you will head down, toward breakdown or breakthrough. Dick Biggs, a consultant who helps Fortune 500 companies improve profits and increase productivity, writes that all of us have unfair experiences; as a result, some people merely exist and adopt a “cease and desist” mentality. He continues,
One of the best teachers of persistence is your life’s critical turning points. Expect to experience 3–9 turning points or “significant changes” in your life. These transitions can be happy experiences . . . or unhappy times such as job losses, divorce, financial setbacks, health problems and the death of loved ones. Turning points can provide perspective, which is the ability to view major changes within the larger framework of your lifetime and let the healing power of time prevail. By learning from your turning points, you can grow at a deeper level within your career and life.
If you’ve been badly hurt, then start by acknowledging the pain and grieving any loss you may have experienced. Then forgive the people involved—including yourself, if needed. Doing that will help you move on. Just think, today may be your day to turn the hurts of your past into a breakthrough for the future.
—Failing Forward
DON’T ALLOW ANYTHING FROM YOUR PERSONAL HISTORY TO KEEP HOLDING YOU HOSTAGE.

Daily Scripture

Isaiah 43:16-19

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

“Wisdom is knowing the right path.
Integrity is taking it.”
M.H. McKee

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Daily Quote

If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.

Melinda Gates

Daily Maxwell JULY 14

SELF-IMPROVING
We live in a society with destination disease. Too many people want to do enough to “arrive,” and then they want to retire. My friend Kevin Myers says it this way: “Everyone is looking for a quick fix, but what they really need is fitness. People who look for fixes stop doing what’s right when pressure is relieved. People who pursue fitness do what they should no matter what the circumstances are.”
People who are constantly improving themselves make three processes an ongoing cycle in their lives:
1. Preparation: Self-improving team players think about how they can improve today—not some far-off time in the future. When they get up in the morning, they ask themselves, What are my potential learning moments today? Then they try to seize those moments. At the end of the day, they ask themselves, What have I learned today that I need to learn more about tomorrow?
2. Contemplation: I recently came across the following statement: “If you study the lives of the truly great individuals who have influenced the world, you will find that in virtually every case, they spent considerable amounts of time alone—contemplating, meditating, listening.” Time alone is essential to self-improvement.
3. Application: Applying what you’ve learned is sometimes difficult because it requires change. Most people change only when one of three things happens: they hurt enough that they have to, they learn enough that they want to, or they receive enough that they are able to. Your goal is to keep learning so that you want to change for the better every day.
—The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player
LEARN SOMETHING NEW TODAY, REFLECT ON WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED, AND APPLY IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

Daily Scripture

Philippians 4:9
The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Daily Quote

Today’s Maxwell 07/11/17

PREPARATION FOR TOMORROW BEGINS TODAY

Recently, a few friends and I were privileged to have dinner with former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and his wife, Judith, in Orlando after a speaking engagement. I found the mayor to be a very warm and personable man who was an easy conversationalist. During our conversation, I of course asked him about his experience during 9/11. He talked about his impressions from that day and how the event impacted him as a leader. He said that leaders need to be ready for anything. They need to study, acquire skills, and plan for every kind of situation.
“Your success will be determined by your ability to prepare,” he said. He went on to explain that when a situation like that on September 11 occurs—for which there was no plan in place—leaders must take action and rely on whatever preparation had taken place. In his case, it was the emergency drills they had followed. Both helped during the crisis.
Preparation doesn’t begin with what you do. It begins with what you believe. If you believe that your success tomorrow depends on what you do today, then you will treat today differently. What you receive tomorrow depends on what you believe today. If you are preparing today, chances are, you will not be repairing tomorrow.
—Talent Is Never Enough
FOCUS ON PREPARING TODAY SO THAT YOU CAN EXPERIENCE SUCCESS TOMORROW

Today’s Scripture 

1 Peter 5:8

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering

Daily Quote

Preparation eradicates cowardice, which we define as the failure to act in the midst of fear.

Veronica Roth

Daily Maxwell 07/09/17

CREATE A GROWTH ENVIRONMENT
Just as the growth of tropical fish is limited by the size of the aquarium in which they live, you are affected by your environment. That’s why it’s crucial to create an environment of growth around you. That kind of place should look like this:
Others are ahead of you: When you surround yourself with people from whom you can learn, you are more likely to grow.
You are still challenged: Complacency kills growth.
Your focus is forward: If you’re thinking more about the past than the future, your growth has probably stopped.
The atmosphere is affirming: Industrialist Charles Schwab said, “I have yet to find the man . . . who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.”
You are out of your comfort zone: Growth requires risk. Ronald E. Osborne stated, “Unless you do something beyond what you’ve already mastered, you will never grow.”
Others are growing: When it comes to growth, it’s better to swim in a school than to try to do everything on your own.
There is a willingness to change: Clayton G. Orcutt declared, “Change itself is not progress, but change is the price that we pay for progress.”
Growth is modeled and expected: In the best possible environment, growth is not only allowed, but leaders model it and expect it from everyone. And when that happens, everyone’s potential is off the charts.
—Your Road Map for Success
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT OF GROWTH FOR YOUR TEAM MEMBERS.

Daily Scripture 

Philippians 2:1-30 

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

Today’s Quote 

Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground.”
Wilfred Peterson