Maxwell Leadership Podcast: Three Words that Enhance Continual Learning

Mark Cole:

Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast that is designed, it’s dedicated to you, to leaders where we can add value, knowing that you will multiply value to others. I’m Mark Cole. I’m the CEO of Maxwell Leadership, and today we’re going to talk about three words that will enhance your ability to be a continual learner. As John Maxwell often says, success is not a destination, it’s a journey. That means that leaders never arrive, we’re on an infinite journey together. We never cross the finish line because we’re continually learning to grow beyond who we were yesterday and arrive at something greater tomorrow.

John has some helpful reminders in this lesson about practices we can put into place, we can put it in our lives to enhance our day-to-day journey of growth. After John’s lesson, I’ll be joined today by my co-host, Traci Morrow, as we dive into John’s lesson and offer practical application to help you apply this lesson to your life and to your leadership.

If you would like to download the free PDF worksheet that accompanies John’s lesson, just go to maxwellpodcast.com/continuelearning. Click on the bonus resource button and you will find that helpful. We highly recommend taking advantage of the worksheet because it really will help you capture key takeaways and give you a place to capture notes. You can also go to maxwellpodcast.com/youtube and watch the video version of this episode if you would like to join us in our visual podcast. Okay, so here we go. Here is John Maxwell helping you to continue growing and improving yourself.

John Maxwell:

Let me give you three words that will enhance continual learning in your life. The first word is preparation. If you’re going to really grow and learn, you’ve got to do a lot of preparation. Lilian Vernon said, “Few people think more than two or three times a year. I have made an international reputation by thinking once or twice a week.” I love that statement. Now, what does preparation mean? Preparation means asking yourself things such as, what are my potential learning moments today?

I want to stop here for a moment, have a moment of time out. I want to encourage you to get into a habit that I’ve done for so many years that I take it for granted because it’s habitual with me, but it may not be with you. What I’m just saying to you is very key. Remember, I’m saying one of the three words in growing and learning is the word preparation. And I’m saying what you have to do is you got to ask yourself, what are my learning moments?

Now, let me tell you something. When I wake up every day, I look at my calendar, what’s going to happen that day, and I ask myself, okay, John, where are your potential learning moments today? Tonight, I’m going to be with a dozen real good leaders. I’m going to have dinner with them. Well, I promise you, when I get to that dinner, I’m going to be asking questions because I want to learn from them, I want to grow from them. Now, here’s what I’m saying. When you begin your day, ask yourself, okay, where are my potential learning points today? What am I going to be doing today?

Now, there are some things I’m not going to be able to get learning out of, but when I get on the plane, I already have my scheduled reading, so when I get on my plane, there are some potential learning times and moments there. Here’s what I’m saying, approach your day in the beginning of that day by saying, where are my potential learning moments? Who will be my potential learning people? Who will be around me that will teach me something that’ll just help me to go to a whole new level?

Let me make another statement. It’s in your notes. What am I learning that I need to learn more about today? That’s the second question you want to ask yourself. And I’m just trying to give you personal illustrations that’ll help you in this area of growth and learning in your life. I’m on a learning curve in my life in the area of teamwork because I write two books ahead, so I’m writing two books ahead right now. Anybody that I’m with that is associated at all with teams, whether it’s in the business world or in the Christian community or in the sports world, if you know what you’re going for in the area of learning, you’ll recognize it when that moment comes.

So many times we miss opportunity, not because opportunity’s not with us. We miss opportunity because we didn’t look for it when it was coming. How many times have you said an opportunity past you and you said, oh, I wish I would’ve done that. You know why you’re good on the back end because you just saw it pat you. But you see, if you’re good on the front end, you see it approaching you. I’m trying to help you in this area of growth and learning to say, okay, what are going to be my learning moments today? What do I need to learn that I’m already learning about, but I need to learn more about it so it’ll really help me? Then define maybe two or three things you want to keep learning and define two or three learning moments that you think you’ll have in each day and begin to look for, ask questions, and anticipate growth. The first word of growing and learning’s preparation.

The second word is contemplation. If you’re going to learn, you have to have some contemplation, some reflecting alone time. I have the one paragraph in your notes. If you study the lives of 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. Now, I have made a habit of studying the lives of great leaders in the business world, the religious world, the sports world. I have found, without fail, the best leaders carve out time for contemplation and reflection. They carve out that alone time where they can take what they’re feeling, what they’re learning, what they’re reading, what they’re hearing, and back off and get away from everybody else and just spend time.

I have personally, for a good 20 years now, set aside every day contemplation time. The last thing I do in the evening before I go to bed is I withdraw usually for anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, and I just reflect and think about my day, about what’s been accomplished, what I’ve learned, what I need to apply in my life. This is all part of helping us get ahead of the learning curve. So preparation, contemplation, and one more thought on learning.

Number three, application. In other words, apply immediately everything that you learn. For every time you discover something new, ask yourself three questions. I’ve asked myself this dozens of times, hundreds of times. Number one, where can I use this? When somebody gives you a thought that you just grab hold of and say, okay, where can I use this? Now, what I do, because I’m a writer and because I’m a speaker, is I very quickly take what I’ve learned and I put it either into a written form or a speaking form so that I can get it out real quick. So where can I use this? Question number two, when can I use it? Look for the quickest opportunity. And thirdly, who needs to know it?

Isn’t it fun that when you’ve learned something to go find an eager student and share with them. You share with somebody, say, look what I’ve learned, and they’re sitting there and they’re taking notes and I say, oh, this is good. They’re like a sponge. Haven’t you also shared things that you’re learning with somebody and they’re yawning, looking out the window, looking at the watch, which basically says, life is over for me. If you want to, you can do the committal while I’m still breathing so I can watch it. But that’s about the extent of their growth in their life. One more quote. “It isn’t the incompetent who destroy an organization. The incompetent never gets in a position to destroy it. It’s those who have achieved something and want to rest upon their achievements who are forever clogging things.” Wow. You can chew on that one for a while.

I was doing a leadership conference recently in Michigan, and I was making a statement because I was talking to them about how to create positive change within an organization, and here’s what I said. 20 years ago, I used to teach bringing about change in organization. I used to teach that leaders are quick to change and followers are slow to change. I said, I’ve changed my thought on that. I don’t think that leaders are any quicker to make changes in their lives than followers, unless it’s their idea. In fact, here’s what I believe. I believe that leaders are slower to embrace change than followers unless it’s their idea because most leaders, when they see change coming and it’s not their idea, they become protective of their turf and want to make sure nothing takes away their power or their ego strokes or whatever. That gets huge, doesn’t it?

That’s why this quote is so good about the incompetent. It says, “Don’t worry about the incompetent in the organization. They never get into a place in the organization where they can mess it up. It’s the people that are up there in that position of competence, they’re the ones that are going to mess you up.” And what happens if we don’t keep growing? We will stagnate, and then the whole organization will.

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Mark Cole:

Hey, welcome back. I’m so glad. Hey, I’m walking the podcast halls. I’m walking back and somebody stops me, Traci, right here today just stops me and says, “Hey, are you Mark Cole?” I said, “I am I am.”

Traci Morrow:

That depends. Why?

Mark Cole:

Why? And it was Joe Godfrey. Now, I’ve got to tell you about Joe. Joe is the vice president of commercial loans for Oconee State Bank. He’s in our building here in Atlanta. He drives every day from Watkinsville, Georgia, which by the way is close to Athens, Georgia. Go Dogs. I just had to put that in there, and Joe said, “I listen to your podcast every week, Mark, and I recognized your voice and I thought, I’ve got to say hello.” And I said, “Joe, tell me about you.” He said, “Well, our bank is just right here.” They’re on the same floor as our studio. Our offices are one floor up. And I said, “Joe, we’re neighbors.” In fact, he and I started talking about some banking business that I need to do. I almost was late for the podcast, but here’s the reason.

I said, “Joe, I like to leave a story every podcast. In fact, I’ve got a doozy for you at the end of today.” But Joe reminded me, in fact, he said, Traci, he said, “We’re about the same age.” What Joe was really saying is, we’re old. Now, Joe, he’s a vice president of a bank. And Joe is telling me, “I live out the lesson today, Mark. I’ve got position, I’ve got status. I’ve got some financial position that rewards me, but I’m not done.”

Traci Morrow:

Right.

Mark Cole:

“I’m at a stage in life that I know I want tomorrow to be better than today.” And Joe, I just got to tell you, it was great to meet you. It was great to connect with you. And I got to meet Shannon on the team as well. It was great to meet you. Great to hear what Oconee Bank does even without a sponsorship. I’m already promoting the bank, but I’m promoting really Joe, because Joe is a guy with a position. Joe is a guy with a lot of accomplishment, but Joe is a guy that says, “I listen to this podcast every week ’cause I want to continually learn.” Traci, you’re a continual learner. I can’t wait to talk a little bit about it today.

Traci Morrow:

I’m excited too. You know what I really loved about Joe? Not to just make Joe the lesson today, but I loved the way he talked with excitement about his team and the culture that they were building using the podcast, that they all listen to the podcast and they were using it to build the culture in their team. I love that. That’s a lesson for all of us, using this as part of what they do together as a team. Love that.

Mark Cole:

I do too. He was talking about his CEO, talking about how they’re committed to culture and invited me to meet his CEO soon. So we’re going to do that and hear what’s happening with the culture there. Maybe come over here and help make it better.

Traci Morrow:

I love that.

Mark Cole:

That’s what continual learning’s all about.

Traci Morrow:

I agree. And I love when we get to meet those of you who come up and say hello. So if you ever see us out and about, make sure that you come up to say hello, because we love to hear what the podcast does for all of you.

Mark Cole:

And it’s the second time. And last week I talked about Cam from Cranberry Township in Pennsylvania. Today, I’m talking about Joe and both of them listen to us on the drive, which means don’t download the PDF and take notes. That would not be a good thing to do on the drive. Download it later. Download it twice.

Traci Morrow:

Well, today’s lesson is powerful because it’s really only three words that he’s teaching on, but those three words really pack a punch. And so let’s dive right in. The first one is one that I would love to hear you speak a little bit about how you use the word preparation, because this is a word that is done in private. And so your team and the people that you lead probably aren’t seeing this step that you do. And done consistently, it really does enhance your learning journey, your leading journey.

John talks about approaching the day, aware of the day’s learning moments, the day’s learning, the people that you’re going to interact with. Certainly hopefully, the podcast for all of us, even for you and I, we’re learning every time we sit down at this table and have this interaction with one another and learning from John and breaking it down and assessing how that applies to our lives and our leadership. But how do you approach your day each day, even on the weekends, looking at your day and kind of assessing what do your learning moments look like?

Mark Cole:

Let me back up from a day first and go to a year.

Traci Morrow:

Oh, okay, great.

Mark Cole:

Several years ago, well, at 33, I discovered my life purpose and I felt like I was late in life finding that out. But I found it out in a process I call a year-end review with me. It’s where I review the previous year and I put plans in place for the upcoming year. I do it between Christmas and New Year’s every year. It’s a powerful moment. I’ve talked a lot about it on the podcast. We’ll put in the show notes a way that you can hear one of those times I’ve talked about it. But I will tell you this, Traci, that I think a day’s preparation should link to the year’s preparation that should link to the life you are preparing to live. I think intentionality really is a big part of this.

Traci Morrow:

Absolutely.

Mark Cole:

And so when I go and prepare for my day, it is in mind with what I am trying to accomplish in that year. That’s why I wear bracelets almost every year. Many years you have been very kind to get me a bracelet with my word for the year. This year’s, run. I’ve been wearing this bracelet or a black bracelet, got a match, right? This bracelet, a black bracelet, all year long with my word for the year on it, run. Now, the reason I do that is because every day when I put this on, I realize that what run means to me, what does that mean to me? So as I prepare, I prepare with what I am trying to accomplish in that year. That’s a very intentional thing for me. It’s not just a bracelet to put on ’cause it looks cool.

It actually may not look cool to you, but it means everything to me. Because I started this morning off realizing that I needed to, in preparation, I need to have a preparation in my mindset that this is the year to run and run means a lot to me. I’m not going to take time for that. It’s not just run out of the house, run pace. It’s not just pace. It’s movement, it’s pace, and it is smoothness. It’s efficiency. This morning I woke up and in preparation I put on pace, movement, and efficiency. That’s what I put on. So my day was already prepared with my mindset. What am I trying to accomplish this year? Big picture.

Now, let’s talk about when you do get into the day, I look every single day and I look at the moment, as John says, when I need to be a hundred percent. What are the meeting or meetings that I need to be 100%? This is one of them. This podcast recording is one. You know why? 182,000 people will download a podcast this week and listen and try to see if we brought something that would help them? You feel the pressure of that, anybody? That’s pressure. We’ve got to be prepared. This is a moment when I need to be a hundred percent.

In fact, just a quick moment. This week we’re going over 25 million downloads-

Traci Morrow:

That’s amazing.

Mark Cole:

… of this podcast. Congratulations to you, podcast listener, you’ve made this family effective. This is a moment I need to be 100%. The other thing that I’ll look at in a day is, where will be the greatest learning opportunity for me? Well, today I’m going to listen to John Maxwell. I am going to learn. So my learning moment was also when I need to be a 100% with my effectiveness.

This was a moment I had defined early this morning. John Maxwell was going to say something on this podcast, because you and I listen to it every time, before we apply, we listen. And I knew John was going to help me. Now the next thing I will do today to make sure that today was a learning environment that I still put under preparation is I know at the end of the day, I’ve got to give an account to myself on what I learned that can be the most effective at the end of the day. So tonight, I will do what I did last night what I will do tomorrow night. I’ll sit down and say, “What did I learn today that will have the greatest amount of impact on the life I want to live?”

So I start with big picture, put my bracelet on. I’m going to run. I end with big picture. What did I learn today that will help enhance the life I want to live? So big picture, small picture. Where do I need to be 100% focused on growing today? Back to big picture, what did I take away from today that will help me with the life that I want to live?

Traci Morrow:

So is that a matter of you looking at your calendar in the morning? One of the things I heard from somebody, I don’t even know who it was a long time ago, that just started me on a practice of the last thing I look at before I shut down for the night and put my phone away is my calendar. So as I shut down at night and turn my phone off, I look at my calendar for the next day and the first thing I open in the morning is I look at my calendar for the day. So I’m reviewing, and that’s part of it for me. Is that something that you do or beyond the bracelet or is there also the reviewing of the day like that?

Mark Cole:

It is both. Both that planning, when do I need to be 100% today? Where do I have the greatest chance of getting a life-changing nugget today, a growth? That is looking at my calendar, assessing what I’m going to be doing today. And when I reflect, it’s looking at the calendar and where did I learn and what did I pick up in that moment.

Traci Morrow:

And just to be practical, is that on your phone or are you a paper calendar guy?

Mark Cole:

I’m a phone guy.

Traci Morrow:

Oh, you are?

Mark Cole:

It’s a technology. And so then I will take that nugget and I will capture it on my phone so that I have a chronological expectation for the day that I give account to. And then a chronological, this was the biggest takeaway for growth today. And that’s chronologically in there as well.

Traci Morrow:

One of the things that John said is on the front end you see opportunity approaching you versus a lot of times people, a leader, will see opportunity in hindsight or in the rear view mirror. So can you talk a little bit about what that looks like for you? How did you train yourself? Because I don’t know, maybe for you it was intuitive, and you can share that too, but how did you learn to see opportunity approaching you rather than looking in the rear view mirror and going, ah, darn?

Mark Cole:

I got to ask a question. In a recent interview, it was maybe earlier this week. I got to ask, what’s one of the greatest lessons you’ve learned as a business person working for John? Well, you got to understand, I didn’t come with business experience or business education. It has all been here where I’ve learned business. One of the greatest takeaways that I have taken away as a business leader from John Maxwell and this organization is the power of the back of the room. So the power of the back of the room. Now, let me explain. In every room that I’m in, there is a next step, if you train yourself that there’s going to be a next step. So every room, before I walk in the room, I already know what the challenge is going to be, the next step for the people that I’m speaking to, the next step for me to take out of the room.

So the best way, when John says prepare for opportunity, is to walk in expecting opportunity. When opportunity presents itself, it’s too late to prepare. John says that. He quotes John Wooden with that. Well, if you walk into an environment saying there is going to be an opportunity to build my business, there’s going to be an opportunity to grow myself, there’s going to be an opportunity to build a relationship. What are you wanting to extrapolate out of that room? I call that the back of the room. What am I going to take away from the back of this room? When I leave the room, what am I planning to take away? Most of the time I hit it, sometimes I don’t. But it’s never because of a lack of preparation and a lack of thought to say, what do I anticipate being the power of the back of this room?

And as a business person, that has helped me tremendously because I never walk into a room thinking transactional. It’s not a one and done. I didn’t come to this room and go, wow, we won. We’ve got 5,000 people in this room. That was the end. No, it’s what is the next step for these 5,000 people to do to better themselves? I celebrated last week when we know we had 5,000 people join us in the room. That was last week’s celebration. On game day, I’m thinking, what’s the next step? What’s the back of the room?

Traci Morrow:

I love that. I hope you guys all wrote that down. I wrote that down. So part of your preparation, before you enter into something, and part of anticipating, John uses that word often and seeing an opportunity approaching is thinking about what will be the next step. Not just thinking, what am I going to right now? I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Okay, second power-packing word is contemplation. Now, this is a time of life and maybe it’s always been that way, but I just feel like you are one of the busiest people I have ever seen in action. Talk about run. You don’t mean to be frenetic, and I don’t think your life is frenetic, but you are one of the busiest people on the run, on the go people. And so I think in this day and time, certainly in America, we think of downtime or slowing down to contemplate and meditate and have slow time to think as almost weak or resting is slow or poor.

So can you talk a little bit and break down what does contemplation and that time to meditate and really think and roll an idea around in your mind to let it grow and what does that look like for you?

Mark Cole:

Yeah, I do feel, and a little bit of my culture that I grew up in, my parents, specifically my mom, and genetically, my mom’s side of the family, the Montgomery, it is this intense passion. There’s always something to do. And if you don’t leave something feeling like you have more to do than you before you started, something went wrong along the way.

Traci Morrow:

Oh, interesting.

Mark Cole:

It’s just this thing to where we leave something and we see more opportunity, we see more that we need to do. My 93-year young mother that says she’s really 39, because she’s inverted her age, my 39-year young mother, she tells me all the time, I call her and say, “Mom, how you doing?” She says, “Mark, I got so much to do.” “Mom, you’re 93. You have nobody expecting. What do you have to do?” And then she goes through this list of stuff that you got to do. I got the house, I got the my bed, I’ve got my new closet. There’s always something that my mom’s got to do.

And I look at that and I go, this sickness that I have of always feeling busy is not going to end. This is a way of life. Thank you for saying that. Yet, that is the enemy to contemplation. It really is. And so I don’t feel like I really am the best to ask about contemplation because I feel like it’s such a challenge for me to slow down and do it. But let me tell you a couple of things I’ve picked up to be contemplative because I am, and I believe it is a secret sauce of visionary leaders as well as leaders that want to have continual learning and for it to be better.

So contemplation comes to me in a location. Have a location that is designed that your body, your mind, your aura knows that it is where you intend to contemplate. John used to call that his thinking chair.

Traci Morrow:

Chair.

Mark Cole:

For me, it’s plane time. I’m on a lot of planes and I used to love the fact that Gogo Air, the wifi in air had been invented because now I could stay in touch with my team. I now hate it. I’m a lifetime member. They annually charge me or quarterly charge. Whatever it is, I’m there. But I don’t use it very much anymore because it began to rob me of where I feel the most able to contemplate what’s going on. So plane time is a big deal for me.

Also, believe it or not, when I’m supposed to be sleeping. Back to my mom, she did not gift me with genetics that can sleep 6, 7, 8 hours a night. I don’t have it. I know, you tell me that I’m supposed to have that. Everybody tells me it’s a health thing. If you don’t want me to medicate with something, I just cannot sleep more than three to four to five hours a night.

Traci Morrow:

Please don’t take that as the norm, everyone.

Mark Cole:

It’s not the norm.

Traci Morrow:

That’s not a leadership lesson from Mark Cole.

Mark Cole:

It’s not. It’s not.

Traci Morrow:

Disregard what he just said.

Mark Cole:

Yeah, it’s a curse.

Traci Morrow:

It’s a genetic thing.

Mark Cole:

It’s a curse. It’s a genetic thing. It’s whatever. My mom’s the same way still. But that becomes very contemplative time because the rest of the world is sleeping and now I’ve got time to let my activity sleep and my mind just to sort things out, to contemplate how I want to be better, how I want to lead better, what I want to do about a particular problem that I’m trying to solve. So that is another time to where I can just find, in a state of rest, I still allow my mind to contemplate things. And I get a lot done between about three, four, and five in the morning as it relates to contemplation. My body is still resting, but my mind begins to process some of the problems or things I want to learn are things that I want to grow. So that would be two areas and that becomes a place, a space that I can contemplate.

One final thing that I’ll say is, what kind of processor are you, podcast family? What kind of processor are you? Are a contemplative processor? Do you need to just sit alone in a dark room with no lights on, no fan, no movement, and boom, you begin to process? Or are you like me, a verbal processor? I process verbally. And so contemplation for me is sometimes in companionship. And most people don’t see companionship as a place to contemplate. For me, companionship is a place to contemplate. I am a verbal processor and I don’t verbally process with myself because I hate my voice. I don’t even listen to the podcast over again because I can’t bear to hear myself.

However, I love to hear myself talk in a environment that is safe for me, that is going to give feedback for me. So much of my contemplation is done in the art of verbal processing in a place that I feel safe to do that so that I can get a thought out and hear how it sounds. Sometimes I get feedback in this contemplative companionship. Sometimes I go, thank you very much for not saying anything, I just need to say that out loud to a live audience. And so that works really well for me.

Traci Morrow:

So I just want to circle back on a couple things that you said. Number one, so when you are thinking at four in the morning, five in the morning, your body is in rest. Oh, I do like to know that. But just as your friend truthfully, because that is good for you. You are resting still. It’s not just that you’re up and you’re going and running into the day. So thank you for allowing that little private friend moment. I do like to know that as your friend. Okay, second of all, I like that you said on the plane, because that gives a little contrasting to what John said in the lesson. John said, I have my books that I read on the plane. And I think sometimes people listen to what John says and they think, I have to do exactly what John Maxwell does in order to be successful as a leader. And sometimes you just have to hear the message and the heart of what he’s saying and not exactly do because maybe you aren’t wired like that. For you, you’re saying that’s your thinking time.

Mark Cole:

That is my time.

Traci Morrow:

For me, that’s my thinking time, that’s my resting time. Because of where I live. A lot of times I’m on the plane longer and so I have to get up earlier or I’m losing sleep or maybe I can rest on the plane. And so if I had to force myself to read, because that’s what John did, I think it’s very important to show your pockets of time where you contemplate or when you are resting are going to be different from John as long as you have found out your times when you need to prepare and be all in for those learning moments and show up as a hundred percent.

Mark Cole:

Yeah, I love that you said that, Traci, because so many times we look at how somebody does that and we think that’s the rule of five or the law, and it’s not. It’s not how John writes, it’s that John writes, if you want to write and be a thought leader like John. It’s not how John grows, it’s what John does to grow. And so, so many times we need to focus on what is right for us. So I do believe that every day you need to be consuming content. Something that will challenge you, something that will encourage you, reading a book, listening to the Maxwell Leadership podcast.

Traci Morrow:

That’s right.

Mark Cole:

I believe you need to be doing that on a daily basis, but doing that on a plane, doing that in the car, like our friends. I don’t want you to think Joe or John, how Joe listens to the podcast in the car or how John reads a book has to be your way. Just consume content, because content will help you.

Traci Morrow:

I love that too. Okay, so application, our third power-packing word. I learned a long time ago from John, how he breaks down act. Whatever he’s teaching, he wants you to act on it. And he breaks that down into the acronym of Apply, Change and Teach. And here he talks about immediately applying everything that you learn. Where can I use this? When can I use this? And who needs to know this? And so was this something that you had to learn or how do you, in your busy life, we’ve just talked about how busy you are, and how do you pull away to discern and decide what you’re going to apply? When are you going to use this and how do you take the lessons, because you’re traveling with John all the time, more than any of us. You’re getting gold dumped on you at all times.

Mark Cole:

All the time.

Traci Morrow:

And so how are you capturing what John is saying and deciding, where do I use this, when do I use this? Who needs to know this? I would think for out of anybody on this planet, it would be hardest for you to decide how you’re going to apply what John is teaching into your life.

Mark Cole:

For me, and this, I am so passionate about the subject, especially this time of the year because the year’s starting to wrap. It’s the end of November now, and the year’s starting to wrap, it’s been my grateful month. So I’m very reflective in gratefulness of November. And so this time of the year, I start thinking about growth. How have I been a good steward of growth in 2022, the things that I have had access to? And then how will I turn that into application in 2023? So that’s the mindset for the last 45 days or more, 60 days sometime of a given year. And then I go through my year-end process.

I believe in intentionally designing the life you want to live. And that comes in this answer because I’ve intentionally decided that my life is going to be built on five pillars. I won’t take time for the pillars today. We’re about out of time. But you need to determine what does your life look like? What do you want your life to be about? We designed a house. It took us months, years to finally finish the house that we had designed. And yet many of us, we spend more time on planning our vacation, designing our home than we do designing our life.

Traci Morrow:

That’s true.

Mark Cole:

So for me, years ago, I designed the life I want to live and I put five pillars, five things that everything in Mark Cole’s life is going to rest on. Now, when I learn something on a daily basis, it immediately fits on one of those five pillars. It immediately structures in one of those rooms that I’ve called my life. Also, in any given year, I have a word for the year. I’ve already mentioned my word this year is run. Every time I’m processing something, I filter it through the five categories, the five pillars of my life and the word that I’m trying to learn and apply for the given year. So now, I’m constantly looking for something and I know how quickly to apply that based on the life I want to live, the life I’m designing and the way I’m growing and focusing on that life designed this year.

Traci Morrow:

I love that.

Mark Cole:

When you will do the homework, and sometimes that takes a little bit of time, but when you do the homework and begin to intentionally structure and build the life that you want to live and the way you want to grow in any given year or month or day, now it becomes easy to take nuggets from John Maxwell and quickly fit those in and quickly build that into an application process.

Traci Morrow:

I love that.

Mark Cole:

Well, hey on that, Traci, I wrap today by putting on my glasses. For those of you that are watching us in YouTube, welcome to the reality that I’m now needing glasses to learn. I want to do two things as we wrap today because we’re talking about continual learning. One is I want to give you a way to continually learn, something that we’ve been working on here at Maxwell Leadership. And then I’m going to read a long listener comment. It’s long, but I’m going to read it because it shows that no matter how old you are, no matter at what stage of life you’re in, like our friend, Joe, who’s a vice president, continual learning needs to be a part of your life.

The first thing I want to do is give you application, how can you do that. John was asked a question many years ago, “John, what is your growth plan?” I was asked that same question 22 and a half years ago when I joined John’s company. “How are you growing?” We believe that everyone needs intentionality around growth to be a continual learner, so we created the Maxwell Leadership Growth app. We’re very excited about it. We are tweaking it. It’s in its final stages, and I wanted to give you, the podcast family, a chance to preview it free. There’s no such thing in life as free, well, we defy that. We want to give you a free value assessment and a free journey.

Now, let me tell you what a journey is. It’s a seven-day challenge that between seven and 10 minutes a day, you can take on a challenge to become a better leader and to be a growth-minded person. And so we have this free values assessment, this free journey that we want to give you on Maxwell Leadership Growth Plan.

Now, if you’re an app person like I am, go to your favorite app store, whether that’s an Android or whether that’s an Apple, go to your favorite app store, download the Maxwell Leadership Growth app. For those of you that are not quite in the app world, I have a place for you too. If you’ll go to maxwellpodcast.com/growthplan, maxwellpodcast.com/growthplan, we will give you this free assessment. We’ll give you this free journey, this free challenge. That’s seven days that will help you. The reason we do that is, yes, it’s a business building tool for us. There’s a way for you to join that and get a challenge every week for the next year. So yes, it’s a business building tool for us, it’s how we do business, but it’s because of the life change that happens. And I want to read you some life change from Jamie.

I want to share, it’s a little long, but I want to share a listener comment that has truly, profoundly impacted me and shows that enhanced continual learning makes a difference. Listen to what Jamie said. Now, Jamie, listened to the podcast, Leadership Limitations, and now listen to what Jamie said.

“I just want to share that I just finished listening to the podcast and I really just started the podcast in April. This podcast has changed my life. I’m playing catch up, and so I try to listen to one episode each day. And the information, ideas, and inspiration I get from each podcast is phenomenal.

Since the very first episode I listened to, I’ve been working on figuring out my purpose in life. I’m 40 years young.” Now, Jamie says 40 years old, but I’m older than that. So Jamie, you’re young. So a little later in the game, and Jamie, again, I say you’re young. But Jamie, I too found my life purpose at about 33, as I said earlier in the podcast. Jamie said, “But just this week, I think I finally figured out and wanted to thank you and share it with you. Not just John, but the entire podcast team as I’ve learned so much from all of you. My whole life, I thought I really dislike people. I would get so angry with them and while they complained and whined about their life circumstances, I would get more and more frustrated. I’d try to talk them through or offer advice, but mostly I met them with their excuses and after excuse, after excuse as to why their lives won’t get or can’t get any better, I would get more frustrated.

This week, I’ve been so close to honing in on my purpose, and just yesterday I had an epiphany. I want to show people all the possibilities. I want to show them all the opportunities that exist in their lives.” I love this.

Traci Morrow:

I love it too.

Mark Cole:

Jamie said, “This is my purpose. I am constantly working on developing myself. And I know now that my biggest challenge will be working on developing this purpose while exercising empathy and patience with people. But now I know that is why I would get so angry. Or actually,” I love this, Jamie. “Actually, it wasn’t even anger. It was passion. And I feel a new energy inside that I haven’t felt before, and I can’t wait to see how my life unfolds now that I know what I am here to do.”

Traci Morrow:

Wow.

Mark Cole:

“I could go on and on and on and on, but I will wrap it here. Thank you so very much, John. Thank your leadership team. You are all amazing. I love listening to you and the podcast. Oh, and by the way, I got hooked on your books as well. I’ve only read 10 so far, but I have one on the way and planned to read them all.”

Traci Morrow:

Wow.

Mark Cole:

Jamie said, “You all are life changers.” Jamie, You are a life changer and you are. Why we do this podcast. We exist to lead powerful, positive change because everyone deserves to be led well. Join Jamie, and lead well.