Life can be boring unless you put some effort into it.
— John C. Maxwell
When a person starts to talk about their dreams, it's as if something bubbles up from within. Their eyes brighten, their face glows, and you can feel the excitement in their words.
Look at our society. Everyone wants to be thin, but nobody wants to diet. Everyone wants to live long, but few will exercise. Everybody wants money, yet seldom will anyone budget or control their spending.
Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure.
The most talented do not always end up as celebrities, and those with less talent often do. Upsets are written into our history and occur around us every day.
People who use time wisely spend it on activities that advance their overall purpose in life.
If you want to reach the top, don't run over others. Likely, the only way you'll reach the top is to be carried there by others.
Ranking among the greatest Christmas movie classics, 'It's a Wonderful Life' tells a beautiful story about the priceless value of relationships.
It seems the older you get, the more life comes into focus.
Pride deafens us to the advice or warnings of those around us.
A minute of thought is greater than an hour of talk.
Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.
We don't mature momentarily, but over the long-term.
Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.
To remain a credible leader, I must always work first, hardest, and longest on changing myself. This is neither easy nor natural, but it is essential.
Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn't come alive until the leader models it.
Whenever a high-profile leader dies, people immediately attempt to summarize that person's life in a sentence. Often, critics and commentators get caught up looking at the leader's style, or which political or philosophical camp they represented.
Enjoyment is an incredible energizer to the human spirit.
The best leaders are readers of people. They have the intuitive ability to understand others by discerning how they feel and recognizing what they sense.
Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is usually painful.
The unsuccessful person is burdened by learning, and prefers to walk down familiar paths. Their distaste for learning stunts their growth and limits their influence.
Talent grips us. We are overtaken by the beauty of Michelangelo's sculpture, riveted by Mariah Carey's angelic voice, doubled over in laughter by the comedy of Robin Williams, and captivated by the on screen performances of Denzel Washington.
Time is more valuable than money, because time is irreplaceable.
Every person has a longing to be significant; to make a contribution; to be a part of something noble and purposeful.
As you get older, time speeds up but life slows down.
The dreams and passions stored within hearts are powerful keys which can unlock a wealth of potential.
When you are full of pride on the inside, it makes you stiff, stubborn, and creates strife with others.
You will never fulfill your destiny doing work you despise.
A lack of realism in the vision today costs credibility tomorrow.
I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn't. In fact, I didn't even know you were supposed to have one.
All of the people in my life whom I consider to be close friends or colleagues are good thinkers.
As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.
Dividers seek to make themselves look or feel better by making others feel worse. They damage relationships, fracture teams and organizations, and create havoc in people's lives.
One of the roles of the Presidency is to lead a political party. Having a President in office is usually a huge advantage to a party because it gives the party a mouthpiece and an advocate at the highest level.
The experience of pain or loss can be a formidably motivating force.
The best way a mentor can prepare another leader is to expose him or her to other great people.
Exceptionally hard decisions can deplete your energy to the point at which you finally cave in. If you mentally crumble and degenerate into negative thinking, you'll magnify the problem to the point where it can haunt you.
Live to learn, and you will really learn to live.
Family and friendships are two of the greatest facilitators of happiness.
Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.
When your dream is bigger than you are, you only have two choices: give up or get help.
Keeping score is for games, not friendships.
Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That's not a guess, it's a guarantee. With pride, it's not a matter of 'if' we will fall, but 'when.' There are no exceptions.
There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. 'Good pride' represents our dignity and self-respect. 'Bad pride' is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.
Children astound me with their inquisitive minds. The world is wide and mysterious to them, and as they piece together the puzzle of life, they ask 'Why?' ceaselessly.
Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it's almost always due to personal growth.
Success comes to those who have an entire mountain of gold that they continually mine, not those who find one nugget and try to live on it for fifty years.
Good thinkers always prime the pump of ideas. They always look for things to get the thinking process started, because what you put in always impacts what comes out.
If you are a parent, you have probably already realized that your children are always watching what you do. And just as children watch their parents and emulate their behavior, so do employees who are watching their bosses.
How do leaders serve their people? They may pay good wages and treat employees with respect.
