Good Afternoon GreatLIFE Members,
Over the past several years, Tom has spent time every month writing this newsletter to the GreatLIFE community with the hopes of keeping everyone informed on what’s going on within the company. Each month he also made sure to share a positive tip, words of advice or some other piece that readers would be able to take away and use to enhance their lives in some way. I don’t have the years of experience to be able to offer the kind of things that Tom does, however I am excited to carry on the legacy of being a lifelong learner with you all. I had resisted being intentional with my personal learning for several years. Matter of fact, I would often joke around that I am not a reader and hadn’t, up until that point, read a book since college. When I came to work with Tom in 2014, one of the first things he told me was that we are going to be doing a book club together as a leadership team. Little did he know that I wasn’t bought in right away. It seemed like a silly thing to do and that I didn’t have time for it. I would spend a couple minutes before the weekly meetings skimming the pages so I had something to talk about. Several weeks in, I chose not to read. Tom pulled me into his office after the meeting and instead of scolding me, he simply said, “Don’t allow your leadership ability to limit those who were following you”. He went on to explain that we can only lead others to the extent of our leadership. If I was going to choose to stop growing, I would be the reason those following me wouldn’t be able to grow and ultimately not reach their full potential. That instance was a tipping point for me to go all in. Since that day, I made a choice to make sure I was doing something every day to become better for everyone around me. As part of this newsletter, I’m going to encourage you to join me in a monthly book club. Every month, I will pick out a book for us to read and include a few of the big takeaways from the previous month’s book. My favorite part of reading books with others is that they tend to speak to everyone in different ways. Taking time to do a short recap and/or just a few major takeaways is a great way to reinforce what you learned and make it more likely that you are able to put what you have learned into action. I would love to hear your takeaways and book recommendations along the way. Click here to share your thoughts and recommendations!
This month’s book was called: Start. By Jon Acuff
Here were 4 of my big takeways from it:
- Most people unintentionally fall into the path of Average while those that choose the path of AWESOME, commit to being uncomfortable
- We tend to rely on our own Willpower to make AWESOME decisions and are surprised if/when we fail. Instead, set up your day so that those decisions that take the most Willpower, are made at the beginning of the day when your Willpower is the highest!
- We can’t skip ahead to get to Mastering something. We can cut down the time it takes to get there by creating more time to practice, learning from others and by starting earlier.
- NOW is the best time to “Guide” and to be “Guided” by others. Essentially, what he was saying is that we should always be intentionally mentoring others, as well as being mentored by others.
NEXT MONTH’S BOOK: ATOMIC HABITS by James Clear
Positive thought: The difference between average and great is that Great people do daily what average people do when they are motivated! Choose to be Great every day whether you want to or not!
Nick Ovenden – President of GreatLIFE