THE BEST ADVICE I EVER GOT PART 1: "YOU'RE FIRED!"

I recently listened to an audio lesson called, "The Best Advice I Ever Got," by world renown leadership expert John Maxwell. As I listened to the lesson, I began to write down some of the statement that sum up the best advice I ever got. And decided to make it into my Monday Morning Motivation.

This week is a start of a five part series of five of the greatest pieces of advice I ever received.

Starting from a list of about twenty, the five I will share with you over the next few weeks have given me my greatest "aha" moments. Each one of these concepts I have taken and applied with great commitment. Each application has unquestionably delivered great things into my life.

I hope you may look back at this one day and consider it some of the best advice you ever gotten.

BEST ADVICE NUMBER 1: "THE ONLY JOB SECURITY YOU HAVE TODAY IS YOUR COMMITMENT TO A PERSONAL IMPROVEMENT."

Source: Ken Blanchard, Management Expert

Where I Learned it: Read it, but not sure what book I read it from.

Why I consider this some of the "Best Advice" I ever received: I started my personal growth plan in 2004 after reading, John Maxwell's, 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. In this book I began to live and apply the statement, "a leader develops daily, not in a day."

Before this, I was focusing getting better as a performance coach. But after this advice, I realized I needed come up with a daily, thought out, personal growth plan, which encompassed not only learning about my craft, but also learning about becoming a better leader, coach, and ultimately productive and serving citizen.

I specifically consider the following statement, "The only job security you have today is your commitment to personal improvement," some of the best advice of ever had. Because no other advice has given me more of a fearless mindset.

My level of knowledge, expertise, and trained skill set gives me the confidence that I will always have job security. Which is essentially the ability to get paid for a service you provide.

What Are the Other Byproducts of a Personal Growth Plan: The number one byproduct is confidence. The more prepared you are to do what you do, the more confidence you will naturally have.

Intuition: The more you skilled you become in what you do, the greater intuition you will have within it. You will be able to see things happen before others do. You will be able to read trends. You will constantly be blazing a trail in what you do.

Influence: Influence = Character plus Competence. Training daily and staying committed to a personal growth plan will give you competence in your field. If you are person who makes good decisions, you will ultimately be an influential person. The higher your influence potential, the higher you success potential becomes.

How I Apply This Concept of Personal Growth into My Life: Six years ago, I made a commitment to becoming one of the best at what I do. I knew in order to do that I would have to learn the skills and become fundamentally grounded in the my Spiritual Life, Personal Life, and Professional Life. There has been nothing that has been more impactful to my career, my family, my relationships, and my finances. Below I share with you my spiritual, personal and professional growth plan:

-Spiritual Development:
-15-30 minutes reading the Bible each day
-Read 1 Spiritual Growth book per month.
-Attend Church each week (I'm not gonna lie, I haven't been really consistent at this one over the past year)
-Record and write down, in a systematic fashion, the most important lessons I've learned.

-Personal Development (Leadership/Teamwork/Business):
-30 minutes every other day reading/reflecting/listening or watching personal development material).
-Read 1 book per month.
-One audio lesson per month.
-Build a relationship with at least one highly influential leader each year.
-Record and write down, in a systematic fashion, the most important lessons I've learned from the material.

-Professional Development (Exercise Physiology, Biomechanics, Sports Nutrition, Sports Psychology, Etc.):
-30 Minutes every other day reading/reflecting/listening or watching professional development material
-Read 1 article per week
-Build a relationship with at least one highly influential leader each year.
-Watch 1 video per month
-Go to one conference per year
-Record and write down, in a systematic fashion, the most important lessons and concepts I've learned from the material.

Ask yourself, what would happen if I lost my job today? What would happen if I was no longer needed on my team? Would my past commitment to preparation and to getting better at what I do A) Leave me with no fearful with no job security? or B) Leave me fearless and ready to move on to bigger and better things?