BOOK REVIEW
The 15 Invaluable Laws Of Growth: Live Them & Reach Your Potentialis one of the good book on personal growth by New York times bestselling author; John C Maxwell, through which he has tried to explain the myths, facilitators and barriers to personal growth. He has wonderfully demystified the wrong assumptions that people held about growth.
In the introductory chapter of the book, the author has shared a beautiful riddlewhich his father had asked him in his childhood to teach him a life lesson. His father had asked him, “Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decided to jump off. How many are left? He answered with confidence, “One”. His father replied; No, “Five; because there’s a huge difference between Deciding and Doing!” Most of us decide and plan but only some commit and act.
All of us want to achieve great things and set goals but not all have the vigour, perseverance and grit to realise those goals. Almost everybody starts with passion but everyone cannot remain consistent and keep the fire burning. There is a gap between intention and implementation and that gap determines the future.In the words of American politician Frank Clark “What great accomplishments we’d have in the world if everybody had done what they intended to do.”
Maxwell marked that most people don’t act as quickly as they should on things. They find themselves subject to the Law of Diminishing Intent, which says, “The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds that you will never actually do it.If we want to achieve something, we have to start working for it right away; not tomorrow or Monday.”
In order to grow we must remember thatPersonal growth doesn’t just happen on its own. We must take complete ownership of the growth process, because nobody else will do it for us. This is what he called “Intentional Growth”. .“No wind favours him who has no destined port.”(Michel de Montaigne)If we want our life to improve, we must improve ourselves. We must make that a tangible target.He warned that accidental growth is just a myth. No one improves by accident or luck or external force.
The author quoted Musician Bruce Springsteen “A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be.” Islam also emphasises intentional growth as reflected in the holy Quran Surah Al Ra’d13:11; “Verily, Allah will not Change the condition of people until they change what is in themselves”.
Maxwell pointed that growth is determined by 15 Laws and no one can escape them. These include:
- The Law of Intentionality: Growth Doesn’t Just Happen.
- The Law of Awareness: You Must Know Yourself to Grow Yourself.
- The Law of the Mirror: You Must See Value in Yourself to Add Value to Yourself.
- The Law of Reflection: Learning to Pause Allows Growth to Catch Up with You.
- The Law of Consistency: Motivation Gets You Going—Discipline Keeps You Growing.
- The Law of Environment: Growth Thrives in Conducive Surroundings. Sit among the dreamers who are doers and knowers; environment is contagious; seek environment that challenges you not the one that keeps you redundant and stagnant.
- The Law of Design: To Maximize Growth, Develop Strategies.
- The Law of Pain: Good Management of Bad Experiences Leads to Great Growth
- The Law of the Ladder: Character Growth Determines the Height of Your Personal Growth.
- The Law of the Rubber Band: Growth Stops When You Lose the Tension between Where You Are and Where You Could Be.
- The Law of Trade-Offs: You Have to Give Up to Grow Up to gain something one has to be willing to lose something; one has to sacrifice sleep and momentary pleasure; one has to step out of comfort zone to reach the goals; one has to give up the negative habits of rumination, procrastination, resistance to change and seeking quick returns.
- The Law of Curiosity: Growth Is Stimulated by Asking Why? Only those who dare to ask learn; to grow one must stop pretending to know everything; and ask questions; as the depth of person lies not in the number of correct answers he can give but in the thought provoking questions his mind can raise to reflect on. Intellectual curiosity is the key to personal Growth.
- The Law of Modelling: It’s Hard to Improve When You Have No One but Yourself to follow.
- The Law of Expansion: Growth Always Increases Your Capacity.
- The Law of Contribution: Growing Yourself Enables You to Grow Others.
Maxwell underscored that in order to grow we must be clear about what drives us and what gives us satisfaction? When what motivates us is in line with what satisfies us, it is a powerful combination. He warned that we often make mistake of seeking extrinsic motivation and stimulation to change but Motivation is not going to strike us like lightning. And motivation is not something that someone else—nurse, doctor, family member— can bestow or force on us. The whole idea of motivation is a trap. We have to forget seeking motivation and just do it. Once we start doing the thing, that’s when the motivation comes and makes it easy for us to keep on doing it. Motivation is like love and happiness. It’s a by-product. When we’re actively engaged in doing something, it sneaks up and zaps us when we least expect it.
In order to grow we must ‘put our Dream to the test’ and know if the desire we have matches the abilities we possess. We must know the difference between what we want and what we‘re good at? “Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display qualities which he does not possess.(Samuel Johnson)” & Your goal should be to waste as little of your life as possible.
In the words of Jim Sundberg , “Discover your uniqueness; then discipline yourself to develop it.” We must know where we want to go and where we currently are in order to reach our potential. Without this knowledge, we’re likely to get lost. Above all, growth means rising above the fear of making mistakes. One has to accept the fact that he/she will commit mistakes every day, and welcome them as a sign that they are moving in the right direction; as only those who try and make mistakes learn correct way of doing things; rest of the people remain in ignorance forever.
If we want to succeed, we need to do whatever it takes. If we don’t, we’ll have to prepare to give up our dreams and any hope of reaching our potential. Those who do not begin cannot win! The people who get ahead in life are the ones who create the circumstances of their life. They are initiative. They don’t wait for right circumstances.
In order to grow, we should Know People Who Do What we’d Like to Do. If we have discovered what we want to do, we should start finding people who do what we want to do with excellence and then try to learn from them.
Let’s conclude by the beautiful quote: “If you put a small value on yourself, rest assured the world will not raise the price”
(Author can be mailed at: [email protected])
