Do Better or Become Better?

Originally shared in A Daily Dose Of Leadership on August 21, 2020.

If we’re focused on winning a finite game, our objective will most likely be to do the absolute best we can within the given time frame so our results are better than whoever we’re competing against. And let me be VERY clear here: I love to win! My DRIVEN approach to life can turn nearly everything into a race. (You’re welcome to verify that with Cindy if necessary…)

But being able to differentiate which things require that finite approach where we’re competing to win from the things that are truly more infinite can make a world of difference in what we achieve over the course of time!

In his recent book LeaderSHIFT, John Maxwell shares a story of what changed how he approached his role in ministry and how that shift impacted the results he was able to achieve in every other area of his life from that point forward. I won’t hash out the entire story, you should really read the whole book if you haven’t already… I will share this statement with hopes of painting a picture we can wrap this week up with:

“Achieving a goal had opened the door to the opportunity, but my ongoing ability to train others and develop my career as a trainer and speaker came as the fruit of my personal growth.”

Early in his career, John’s primary focus on any given day was to build the biggest church within his denomination. Nearly everything he did was with the intent of achieving that one goal. And he did it! But like so many of us can do when we finally reach a significant milestone we’ve set for ourselves, he found himself wondering what mountain he should begin climbing next.

That was when one of his mentors challenged his approach. Rather than focusing solely on the thing he was working to achieve, they suggested he shift his focus to continuously improving himself. From that point forward, any goal he set seemed to be so much easier to accomplish because of the work he had been doing to improve himself. By investing the energy into becoming better, he found it much easier to do better!

Hear me when I say this though: I’m not suggesting we ever completely scrap the idea of setting goals or giving up on the idea of winning. Winning is really fun! But when we can design our approach to include a mindset that’s geared toward growing ourselves personally and professionally on a daily basis, winning is very likely to become the natural byproduct!

Let’s wrap this up with a simple question: How can you begin to make that same kind of shift? What have you been approaching with a sole focus on the finite goal? How can you adapt that focus to aim more specifically at improving in the necessary areas so that achieving the goal becomes inevitable?

As a quick example, Cindy and I created our Emerging Leader Development course to fill a very specific need we had recognized in so many organizations. As we completed the fourth of those six lessons that first time through in mid 2018, we realized that the course would serve as an outstanding starting point but we absolutely had to offer more! That’s how our Leading At The Next Level program was born. I don’t think either of us had any idea what I signed us up for when we kicked it off, but today that program has around 45 different lessons with two more added each month. Now that it’s all stored in a digital library, complete with assessments that follow each lesson, there’s no end in sight to what we can build into the program. And that requires us to focus on our own growth every single day so we can deliver at a higher level moving forward!