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Significance Begins HERE

Only a mediocre person is always at their best!

What happens when you stretch yourself in leadership? Remember that leadership is influence and not title. What are some possible outcomes of stretching yourself to accomplish, become, and develop yourself in new ways?

Consider the usage of a rubber band.   In all of the ways that a rubber band can be used there is one thing that is common in all of those usages. Can you think what that might be? YES – a rubber band is useless until it is stretched. Without stretching the rubber band as an invention is utterly useless.

With these thoughts as a backdrop consider the following thoughts…..

1. Few people want to be stretched – most people use only a fraction of their ability and rarely strive to reach their full potential. Consider this truth – 1/3rd of high school graduates never read another book the rest of their lives and 42% of college graduates never read another book after they graduate. Publisher David Godine claims that only 32% of the US population have ever been in a book store. People are settling for average daily

Consider the thoughts of writer Edmund Gaudet:

• Average is what failures claim claim to be when asked why they are not successful
• Average is the top of the bottom, the best of the worst, the bottom of the top, the worst of the best
• Average is the ”run-of-the-mill”
• Average is the lazy person’s cop-out – it is refusing to take a stand in life. If you do not stand for something you will fall for anything
• Average is taking up space for no purpose
• Average is to pass away one’s life with time instead of passing time with life
• Average is to be forgotten when we pass from this life
• Average is to commit the greatest crime against yourself and your God

FEEL THE TENSION OF THE GAP that stands between you and your fullest potential!

2.Settling for the status quo ultimately leads to dissatisfaction – I believe that our natural tendency is to settle into our comfort zone where we choose comfort over potential. Abraham Maslow once states that “If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all of the days of your life.” You must leave the familiar, safe and secure. You have to give up excuses and push forward. You must be willing to face the tension that comes with stretching toward your potential. Writer John Wittier states that for all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these; ‘It might have been.’

3.Stretching always starts from the inside out – James Allen’s book “As A Man Thinketh,” wrote in 1903 is one of the more profound books that you can read today. In it he states that you cannot travel within and stand still without.

• Author’s Buckingham and Clifton state that most people do no like their jobs, yet will never leave to pursue a job of their dreams. What is stopping people?
• There are all sorts of dreams that people are not pursuing – WHY?
• Let us keep the context of life into focus here – my situation in life is mainly due to the choices I make and the actions that I do or fail to do.
• The older we are the more responsible for our situation.
• If we are merely average of if you are no closer to your dream’s fulfillment this year than last year, you can choose to accept it, defend it, cover it up, and explain it away. Or you can choose to change it, grow from it, and forge a new path.
• Thought Leader Jim Rohm states that every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings however have been the dignity of choice!
• Measure what you are presently doing against what you’re capable of doing
• You can choose to be all that you can be or you can choose less. What motivates you from within. Where do you find the strength to stretch?
• 4.Stretching always requires change – A.G. Buckham states that monotony is the awful reward of the careful. At some point you have to stop looking over your shoulder at your past. Yesterday ended last night!
  • Alan Cohen author and contributor to the Chicken Soup for The Soul series wrote, “To grow, you must be willing to let your present and future be totally unlike your past. Your history is not your destiny!”

  It is not too late to be what you might have been! – George Elliot

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  Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!