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Personal Growth and Development Over the Next Six Months

“If you don’t do something different, your life is going to be exactly the same in six months.”

That’s what I told one of my Never Be Stuck students. I had given her some homework, and she didn’t want to do it. She wasn’t ready. Her website wasn’t up. It wasn’t the right time.

You’ve heard all the excuses. In fact, you’ve probably given all the excuses. I know I have!

In fact, I kept waiting for the perfect time to get back into the shape I was in during college. But there will never be a perfect time – not for anything. And I realized that if I don’t exercise and change my eating habits now, I wouldn’t be in the best shape of my life, and in six months, I still wouldn’t be in the best shape of my life!

Think about all the couples who are waiting for the perfect time to have kids, for the perfect time to start their retirement accounts, and for the perfect time to start donating to charity. If they sit around waiting for the perfect time, they won’t have kids, they won’t have a retirement account, they’ll never donate a single penny to your favorite cause, and they will never have the personal growth and development that they could have …

If only they took action!

There’s only ONE time when you can make change – now. If you want something other than what you have right now, you must take action … not in the future, not in six months … NOW, the only time it matters.

So what are your personal growth and development goals over the next six months? Leave a comment below, and let’s take action today!

My staff is always making fun of me for a “pamphlet” meeting I held eight years ago.

I’ll come up with a project to add to their already-busy plates and assure them that the project will be really easy to implement.

“We’ll finish it by Friday for sure,” I’ll tell them.

And inevitably, they will roll their eyes and say, “Right … kind of like that time we had a meeting to discuss the ‘pamphlet.’”

Here’s what happened …

I had been a mortgage broker for several years, and I thought I would always be a mortgage broker. I woke up bright and early, got on the phone, made my calls, and kept plugging away until the late hours.

I loved my job, but I was frustrated because so many of my clients were paying high interest rates due to their low credit scores. I wanted to put together a pamphlet so they could increase their credit scores, which meant I could give them better loans.

So I held a meeting with my team to discuss the pamphlet I wanted to create for my mortgage clients.

As I talked to my team, I realized I couldn’t communicate everything I needed in a pamphlet … I needed to write a book. And by the end of the meeting, I realized my clients also needed a workbook.

Clearly, this would not get done by Friday. We needed to research credit laws, interview experts, study credit reports … not to mention all the things that went into creating, writing, designing, and publishing a book.

And then there was another problem: Creating a book and a workbook cost money – lots of money, and I was planning on giving the products to my existing client. I was going to have to find some people (lots of people, in fact) to buy the book just to cover my costs.  And who was going to buy a book and a workbook about credit by an unknown mortgage broker?

Well, fast-forward eight years, and let me tell you what happened …

My tiny little pamphlet turned into an infomercial … which lost money.

And my infomercial turned into an online course … which didn’t lose money, but wasn’t profitable.

So my online course turned into a series of teleseminars and webinars.

I started chipping away, finding the right people who could teach me what they knew about marketing this product.

And they taught me that I was going about it all wrong. I was promoting to the wrong people. I wasn’t thinking right. I needed to do something different.

Well, last week, I finally felt some closure—that “pamphlet” meeting has finally turned into a model that works.

A lot of big thinkers, coaches, great marketers, and mentors helped me create the product, which is called the 14-Day Credit Challenge. I’m pretty proud of it because people can literally raise their credit scores in just 14 days.

I’ve been testing the product for a while, and last week, I rolled it out to about 1,000 people. And guess what? After a one-hour webinar, I impacted 380 lives and grossed $167,213 in sales.

And it never would have happened if I hadn’t been exposed to people who knew a lot more than I know.

I always tell my Never Be Stuck students that they MUST be exposed to people who are big thinkers—people who have a lifelong commitment to personal growth and development. Anytime they are facing a challenge in work or with their personal lives, I force them to find people who have been there and done that. I tell them to “put it out there,” meaning that they have to share their struggles with as many people as possible so that they can get feedback, make changes, and keep moving forward.

Imagine what would have happened if, eight years ago, I had invited all my personal growth and development mentors to my “pamphlet meeting.” Certainly, I would have saved a lot of time … though, to be fair, we probably still wouldn’t have been done by Friday.

I had a thought about personal growth and development when I ran across this optical illusion of the old witch / young woman …

It got me thinking about how we should always be sure to look at situations from every possible angle.

Let me give you an example.

For years and years, I wanted to get married and start a family, but I couldn’t find the perfect person to be my wife. I had this long list of all the qualities I wanted my future wife to have, and I looked aggressively. I went on countless blind dates, I bugged all of my friends to set me up with someone, I left no stone unturned.

But I couldn’t find anyone who fit my criteria.

And then I took a step back and analyzed the situation from a personal growth and development angle. Instead of making a list of all the things I needed in a wife, I turned the question around and I asked myself: “Who do I have to be to attract that woman? What kind of man gets that kind of wife? What are his habits?”

And when I started thinking about it from that angle, it changed everything from a personal growth and development point of view. I started fixing the behaviors that were stopping me from finding the perfect wife. I very conscientiously filled in the gaps.

And then I met Lily at a conference. And as I think I’ve told you before, Lily is the perfect fit for me. She’s exactly what I was looking for, and I made myself available to her by filling in the gaps and the holes in my own behavior.

This week, I’m challenging myself by looking at my goals from a different angle. Want to join me? If you are trying to lose weight, think: “What kind of a person looks the way I want to look? What are his or her habits?”

If you want to land the perfect job, ask: “What kind of person has that job? What are his or her habits?”

Leave a comment and tell me about it. Take a look at yourself and consider what you need to do from a personal growth and development point of view? How are you going to start changing your behavior and filling the holes and the gaps?

In 2003, my list of greatest achievements was published in a personal growth and development book called Secrets of the Young and Successful.

Here it is, with a few updated “achievements” that have happened since 2003:

1.     In my second grade reading improvement class, everybody graduated but me.

2.     In grade school, I was always bullied and teased about my speech improvement, my height, and my big ears.

3.     Struggled studying, received a 1.8 GPA my freshman year of high school.

4.     Dysfunctional Household—Father and Mother divorced at age 8 without any communication within my family.

5.     I was humiliated and embarrassed at my high school graduation when, in front of 3,000 people, I froze at the podium, unable to speak as I was presenting an award to our school principal.

6.     I was denied acceptance into all but one university to which I applied; Arizona State University accepted me just under the wire.

7.     I was denied admittance into all fraternities during my freshman and sophomore years at Arizona State University.

8.     The woman I was going to marry left me, when to Colombia, met another man, and married him.

9.     Spend more than $1.5 million on a television infomercial, which failed to have a single week of profitability in the two years that it ran.

10.  Mortgage income dropped 92 percent in 12 months.

Let’s look at a couple of these personal growth and development “achievements” …

The woman I was going to marry left me, went to Colombia, met another man, and married him.

This was a personal growth and development achievement—and it was perfect—because today, I’m married to Lily, and I have three amazing kids. Thank God my college girlfriend left me. It was perfect, because I needed to be single to meet Lily, who is by far the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.

Here’s another “achievement” …

When I was in college, I tried to join a fraternity three times. I was denied acceptance into all the fraternities I rushed, all three semesters.

It is because I got denied entrance into the fraternities that I jumped into work-mode, started working for Senator Ruiz, and was later named Man of the Year of ASU.

It took the frustration, and the struggle to experience the personal growth and development that helped me get to where I wanted to go. But what I did—and what you have to do—is use the experiences as rocket fuel to success. Use your pain to your advantage …

Use your pain, your struggle, and your frustration as the sling shot that will get you where you want to go!

For a lot of years, I hid the fact that I had problems reading. I hid the fact that I didn’t get accepted into any fraternities after three tries. I was embarrassed that my fiancée left me for another man. I hid the fact that I got rejected by all colleges except one …

Now I use these things as my badge of honor.

I’m PROUD of my failures because they have led to personal growth and development.

And I know without a question that he who fails the most …

Wins.

Let me repeat that, because it’s not just what I believe—it’s what Warren Buffet and Bill Gates believe. It’s what Michael Jordan believes …

HE WHO FAILS THE MOST … WINS.

So leave a comment below and tell me … What are the 10 biggest “failures” in your life? What are the 10 failures that you are determined to turn into achievements? At this point, you might not know how your failures are going to be turned into achievements; however, when you start relating to your past “failures” as achievements, the game will change. You will start seeing pivot points and opportunities for growth all around you …

You don’t have to be ashamed anymore. The game has changed. Where you are at is the perfect starting point for personal growth and development!

I know people are going to disagree with me, but here’s something I believe about personal growth and development…

Feeling inadequate in a good thing. I’ve been telling my Never Be Stuck students that they should intentionally put themselves in situations where they feel inadequate.

Let me explain …

About a decade ago, I joined a program called The Strategic Coach. Students were separated into different classes based on their income: $200,000, $500,000, or $1 million.

Well, I would have felt a lot more comfortable in the group making $500,000—I’d made $500,000 for years. But making $1 million was brand new to me. I felt really uncomfortable being around a bunch of millionaires, but I applied for the $1 million group anyway.

When I walked in for the first day, I realized that I was the least talented person in the entire room when it came to experience and business acumen.

I felt like I didn’t belong. I felt inadequate.

But here’s something I know to be true: Feeling inadequate is really good for your personal growth and development. If you want to have a pivot point in your life, you have to be exposed to people who are smarter, more successful, and more experienced …

If you always feel safe, nothing will ever change. But if you place yourself in situations where you feel inadequate, you will have an opportunity to learn, grow, and get bigger ideas. In fact, it has been ten years since I joined Strategic Coach. These days, I am regularly called upon my other Strategic Coach members who need help implementing the principals of the program.

Let’s all try to feel a little bit inadequate at least once this week. Where can you go and what can you do to help fuel your own personal growth and development? Share your stories below!