I have always been fascinated over the years with how to grow my ability, skills, attitude, actions, and success.  I recently re-read a 2017 book by John Maxwell called “No Limits” and was fascinated by the positive impact of the book. It’s amazing in life that you can read a book once, and then read it again and enjoy a whole new perspective and level of insight on the material presented. One of the first insights I highlighted is “counseling helps people work through their weaknesses but equipping helps people work on their strengths”. The older I get the more I am convinced that when I take time to work on my weaknesses, I can minimize them to a degree BUT when I work on my strengths, I can significantly move my success ahead. I apply the 80/20 rule, which is spending 80% of my time and effort working on my strengths and 20% of the time working to deal with my weaknesses. 

In the book, author John Maxwell has a simple formula to grow your capacity - AWARENESS + ABILITY + CHOICES = CAPACITY. Let’s examine the first of three parts - awareness. To deal with the factors that are limiting my success I must be aware of what those factors are. When it comes to developing a higher level of awareness there are two key things we can do: The first is to ask the question “what am I missing?” We choose to give up the actions that sabotage our success and take responsibility for our life and its outcomes. Avoid things such as:

1. Excuses and blame (being a victim does not often lead to positive change).
2. Success fantasies that are not real (a dream without a plan is a fantasy).
3. Talking too much and listening too little (self-evident).
4. Unresolved negative emotions (they keep you stuck).
5. An absence of personal reflection (success or failure, both needs analysis).
6. Unwillingness to pay the price to learn (everything worthwhile is uphill).
7. Looking for the secret shortcut to success (the secret is there is no shortcut).

The second thing we can do is enlist the help of trusted people around us who will give us honest and accurate feedback about our attitude and activity. We choose to:

1. Develop relationships with people who care about our success and then ask for their help.
2. Listen to their experiences and ask questions about how they became more self-aware.
3. Listen carefully to the observations & feedback they give.
4. Develop a plan of improvement and growth then take action.
5. After taking action, seek feedback on the progress you make.
6. Remember that small changes compounded over time provide great outcomes.

Enjoy the journey of growing self-awareness and watch for more articles on the second and third parts to the capacity journey (ability & choices).