John Maxwell: REAL Success Conference – Session 1: “Defining Success”

I recently attended a John Maxwell conference called “How To Be A Real Success”. He started the conference by first defining success, then he concluded the conference by outlining how to have REAL success. Here are my notes (thanks Talinda!) for session 1. Session 2 will be posted separately. Enjoy!

1. Success is knowing my purpose in life

How? There are 2 Paths to determine your purpose

1) (80% accurate) What is my passion?

• If I could do anything I wanted, I would ________________
• Passion gives energy
• Passion gives creativity
• It is possible to be passionate about something you are not good at (other 20% – imagine the bad singers that think they are good on American Idol)
• Passion can sometimes set us up for failure if it is something we are not good at

2) (100% accurate) Ability/giftedness – What I am good at that sets me apart from others?

• We are wired to do what we do well
• Can take time (took John 6 years to find)
• 90% of America is working on their weakness in the matters of giftedness/ skills – that creates average skills and no success (3–>5 never 3–>10)
• Always work on your weaknesses in matters of choice (always can go 3–>10 w/ choices)
• Find what you do well and do it often
• People don’t pay for average – they drive by .7

2. Success if growing to my maximum potential

• Where to put your energy and focus
• Start to separate from the pack and experiences success
• Must make a personal commitment
• Growth is not an automatic process – has to be intentional (not a lottery)
• The secret of success is determined by your daily agenda
• Every day you are either preparing or repairing (from the last day)
• Most spend half their day finding yesterday’s problems
• “Most people don’t lead their life, they accept their life”
• Successful people make important decisions early in life and manage them for the rest of their life
• The daily agenda is management of those decisions
• Not about the moment of decision (world emphasis) it is the larger decisions made earlier
• It takes an average of 12 days to stop following through on a decision
• Most think the decisions makes you, but it is the decisions that gives you an opportunity to make the decision (From Today Matters)

3. Success is sowing seeds that benefit others

• My job is not to make myself better but to make others better
• 99% people ask when they set up – “what is life gong to be like for me today?” (My tasks, my commute, if what I do is going to be liked)
• The success of my day is not determined by the harvest I reap but by the seeds I sow
• Success –> Significance
• How can I add value to people today?
• Checklist – did I add value? If so, to who?
• John’s 4 ways:
  1. I have to value people (are you or they going to gain as a leader?) Manipulation = personal advantage
  2. • We have to make ourselves more valuable
     • You cannot give what you do not have
     • Most people are travel agents – they send others where they have never gone themselves
     • Tour guide leaders take others w/ them
     • Everyday he reads, files, writes to be a better communicator
  3. • Know and relate to what they value
     • Listen –> Learn –> Lift –> Lead
     • Great leaders do these things to understand what others value
  4. I need to do the things that God does

Question #1 : What are you doing to invest in yourself?

Question #2: What are you doing today to invest yourself in others?

• Build you child’s library and pay them to find value in books
• Today Matters – Freshman and above
• Winning w/ People
• Failing Forward

4. Growth

• Evaluate experience is the best teacher
• What did you love? What did you learn?
• Develop a system for taking notes into action
• His book Thinking for a Change covers this (great book, BTW!)

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