Laws 4-6

We are continuing our study of John Maxwell’s The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by looking at laws 4-6 today. If you missed last week’s article, check out laws 1-3 in the previous post.  If you did catch it, how are you doing with incorporating your new daily changes that will lead to growth?

The set of laws we are examining today include:

4.The Law of Reflection

5. The Law of Consistency

6. The Law of Environment

4.The Law of Reflection: Learning to pause allows growth to catch up to you

Maxwell says reflection turns experience into insight. He believes taking time to analyze a situation or experience and ask good questions about it will lead to growth and change. He lists some self-awareness questions to ask yourself, but what I found interesting was that he advised to “use your I’s” when reflecting:

• Investigation – ask questions
  • Incubation – listen to God, meditate on a quote, idea
  • Illumination – the aha moment
  • Illustration – making ideas real, really “seeing” in your mind

He wrote a book called Thinking for a Change that dives deeper into the power of reflection that is on my “to read” list.

5. The Law of Consistency: Motivation gets you going; Discipline gets you growing

Maxwell refers to Darren Hardy’s book The Compound Effect and the power of small daily habits bringing great change over time.  But first you need self-awareness about where to start the change, and that is discovered by asking yourself good questions:

• Do you know what you need to improve?
• Do you know how to improve?  What motivates you? Start with simple stuff, be patient, and enjoy the process.
• Do you know why you want to improve? Read his book: Put Your Dream to the Test. It teaches the more valid reasons you have to achieve your dream, the higher the odds are that you will.
• Do you know when you are supposed to improve? Answer: Today.  Change daily habits and growth is inevitable!

When armed with the answers to these questions you can develop a plan of what daily behaviors you will change that will help you reach your goal.

6. The Law of Environment: Growth thrives in a conducive environment

Your environment consists of people you spend time with, events you attend, your workplace, your homelife, and where you hang out. Are these people and places going to be helpful to creating the growth you want to see happen in your life?

I liked this idea Maxell presented about growth and environment:

• Change yourself but not your environment- growth will be slow and difficult
• Change your environment but not yourself- growth will be slow and less difficult
• Change your environment and yourself- growth will be faster and more successful

He suggests changing who you spend your time with so that you can grow in the areas you need to grow. This could mean finding someone who has already mastered the area you wish to see growth, attending events and learning opportunities in that area, or creating your own group to grow together with.

As we conclude laws 4-6, think about how you can apply some change in your daily life from each of these laws.

Join me next time for our continued study of Maxwell’s laws as we examine laws 7-9: The Law of Design, The Law of Pain, and The Law of the Ladder.

-Jan Jones

Check out John Maxwell’s coaching on consistency!