Are You Growing?

I’ve heard it said so many times, “When you stop learning, you stop leading”.  I don’t quite agree with that statement because I’ve known plenty of people who stopped learning but they kept leading.  I think it’s better to say, “When you stop learning, you stunt your ability to lead well.”  Growth is an essential discipline to healthy leadership.

Did you grow yesterday?  What about last week?  While growth isn’t always easy to see it’s generally easy to sense if it’s happening or not.  Are you growing or have you just ground to a halt?  Sometimes I find that I stop growing simply because I took my eye off the ball, I just let it slip.  Other times I stop growing because I get too busy to maintain growth disciplines.  And then honestly, there are times I just get stubborn or lazy.  But as I look back over my 51 years I find that I am happiest when God is stretching me, teaching me and growing me.   But growth is a choice I have to make as well.

It’s easy to become stagnant because growth is work.  In fact I’ve discovered that growth always requires sacrifice.  You may have to give up time, money, comfort or your personal agenda in order to really grow. There are times God will ask you to walk away from something you love, give up something you want to do, or leave a place you are comfortable.  But it’s these type of sacrifices that center our attention on His voice and make our mind fertile ground to receive new learnings.

If we keep our ear to God’s heart there will be times we find that He says, “I want you to sacrifice something because I want to teach you something”

What do you need to sacrifice this week in order to grow to the next level?