During the past year, I've read a few books by John Maxwell. I like his message and writing style. The most recent book I read is Change Your World - How Anyone, Anywhere Can Make a Difference.
Below are some points from the books that I found particularly interesting or meaningful:
- Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are. (Augustine of Hippo)
- It's estimated that 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern slavery.
- People change when they hurt enough that they have.
- People change when they see enough that they are inspired to.
- People change when they learn enough that they want to.
- People change when they receive enough that they are able to.
- Dare to Dream, but please also Do. For Dreamers are many, but Doers are few. (Brad Montague)
- Regardless of what people aim to achieve...those who set themselves apart from the rest maintain a sense of urgency in order to be the best they can be. (Rob Llewellyn)
- The most successful entrepreneurs not only have courage and imagination, they also have a sense of urgency....Their feeling of urgency moves them to take action. Right now!
- It doesn't matter how old you are. It doesn't matter what you have or haven't done yet. It's never too late to do something to change your world.
- Third-grade literacy is the number-one determinant of whether kids graduate from high school.
- The most significant and powerful way to bring generational change to this community would be through good education, especially of younger kids with reading.
- The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are usually the ones who do. (Steve Jobs)
- Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. (Harriet Tubman)
- Many things in life just happen, but positive change isn't one of them. Changing anything in our world requires someone to be the catalyst.
- People with good intentions want to add value to others, but find reasons not to do it. People with good actions want to add value to others and find ways to do it. People with good intentions can be passive, inconsistent, and disappointing. People with good actions are deliberate, consistent, and willful. Good actions represent the dividing line between words and results.
- "May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent, and dedicated leadership....Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause." (Martin Luthern King, Jr.)
- "We can't change everything, but we can change something." (Bill Austin, billionaire philanthropist) The questions to ask are: What can I change? What can I do exceptionally well? What's my A-game? What do I do that consistently makes a positive impact? That's what you should be focusing on.
- Your best contribution will be based on your gifts, past successes, passions, and opportunities.
- I can do what you cannot, and you can do what I cannot; together we can do great things. (Mother Teresa)
- No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you're playing a solo game, you'll always lose out to a team. (Reid Hoffman)
- I want to make a difference with people who want to make a difference. If we wanted to make a difference, we had to be fighting for the same cause. That taught me to become more selective about who I teamed up with.
- Let both sides explore what problems united us instead of belaboring the problems which divide us. (John F. Kennedy)
- All players have a place where they add the most value.
- Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start. (Nido Qubein)
- There was a shift from survival thinking to significant thinking during the COVID-19 pandemic:
- Teachers offered their classes online.
- Neighbors shared necessities like food, water, and toilet paper.
- Neighbors put up Christmas lights to boost spirits.
- Your values become your destiny. (Mahatma Gandhi)
- As individuals embrace good values, they realize they have the potential to change their own lives. They begin to realize they have the opportunity to add value to others.
- Transformation begins in an individual, grows in community, and impacts a society.
- Values not only help people to live better, they also help people to stay true to themselves.
- A meaningful life is not a matter of speed or efficiency. It's much more a matter of what you do and why you do it, than how fast you get it done.
- For partnerships to thrive, trust must be the foundation. Movements move at the speed of trust because they are dependent upon the collaboration process.
- To work together you need three things: Generosity (giving up resources for the whole), Humility (giving up your own importance, position, and power), and Integrity (truthfulness so that others can depend on your character).
- Good values always add value to us. And they make us more valuable to others. You can work with someone whose skills are weak if their values are good. You can train someone who is inexperienced as long as they value growth. You can trust someone who makes mistakes if the person is honest. But when good values are absent in someone, working with them becomes very difficult.
- We measure what we treasure.
- Leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment.
- No matter how you're working to make a difference, measuring results is one of the greatest skills you can develop in becoming a person that can change your world.
- The 5 Ds:
- Discover - find out what's really going on and who is doing something about it.
- Design - develop a strategy that begins with the end in mind nad builds on your strengths, not your weaknesses.
- Deploy - implement your plan. Start small, fail soon, and adjust often.
- Document - measure to make sure that your intended outcomes are being accomplished.
- Dream - start the cycle over, expanding what works and abandoning what doesn't.
- You can make a great plan on paper, but it may not work out the way you imagined. How do you guard against that? By building in checkpoints along the way to ensure you're headed in the right direction. And if you discover your plan isn't working out the way you hoped, be prepared to pivot.
- The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. (Walt Disney)
- Big life change comes through a series of small life changes.
- Find hope in every situation. Bring hope to the people who need it: those who have lost hope, become discouraged, and don't see a positive way forward.
- Stop asking "Can we?" and start asking "How can we?"
- When we hope we have high expectations for the future and a clear-eyed view of the obstacles that we need to overcome in order to get there.
- A person with high hope has goals, the motivation to pursue them, and the determination to overcome obstacles and find pathways to achieve them.
- Stories are remembered up to 22 times more than facts alone. IF you want people to remember what you communicate in a transformation conversation, include a story.
- Four-step transformation process to change the world: I want to make a difference, with people who make a difference, living values that make a difference, taking action that makes a difference.
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1 comment:
Really appreciated the 5 D's and your well chosen excerpts.
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