OVERCOMING RESISTANCE INSTEAD OF BEING OVERWHELMED BY IT
Parents of toddlers and teenagers understand a simple truth about being a leader: sooner or later you encounter fierce resistance. Leadership feels a lot like peddling uphill, swimming upstream, or running into a stiff headwind. The challenge is to overcome the resistance instead of being overwhelmed by it. 1) Be Aware that Motion Creates Friction…
Read MoreHow to Think Straight and Concentrate
We train our brain by the things we do. For example, experienced taxicab drivers have an abnormally large hippocampus, the portion of the brain responsible for navigation. Veteran violinists or keyboardists have an expanded motor cortex, the area of the brain associated with fine motor skills. Our brain is literally shaped by what we repeatedly…
Read MoreThe Not So Secret Path to Greatness
The young girl skipped onto the stage of the dilapidated, half-filled theater hall, her thin voice competing with the noise of an unruly audience. Midway through the first verse of her first song, a beer bottle smashed onto the floor just a yard or so in front of her. The child’s voice quaked momentarily, but…
Read MoreRecapping Webcast of Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn
What would it look like to fail and learn from hardship, only to improve in the end? On Thursday, October 10, 11,000 leaders from around the world joined John Maxwell for the “Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn” webcast. John explained: “The question is not, ‘Did you fail?’” The fact of the matter is: we…
Read MoreGiving People a Reputation to Uphold
When motivational speakers make the impassioned declaration: “You can change the world!” a typical response may be to write them off as naïve windbags.We would agree that such exhortation rings hollow. Nevertheless, we do think leaders have the ability to inspire others to amazing, even history-shaping, feats. Perhaps no one did so better than Winston…
Read More3 Keys to Overcoming Adversity
Adversity in life is a given. Although it’s never going to escape the picture, we don’t have to see it as a negative. We can triumph over obstacles we encounter each day to ultimately gain great experience from them. According to John Maxwell in his soon-to-be-released book, Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn: “Adversity can…
Read MoreA Leader’s Portrait
Leaders vary by occupation, personality, and style. There’s no specific formula specifying exactly how to lead well. Still, great leaders throughout history share a common set of characteristics. In this article, we would like to fill in the picture of a leader for you—one quality at a time. The four features listed certainly do not…
Read MoreJoin Us for a Free John Maxwell Webcast!
“As you get older, you will find that you become more disappointed by the things you didn’t attempt than by the ones you tried and failed to achieve. And here’s the best news. Every step of the way there’s something to learn. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. In it, there…
Read MoreResponsibility: The First Step in Learning
Who is responsible for what happens in your life? Do you believe you should take personal responsibility? Or do you feel as if that is outside of your control and there’s little or nothing you can do about it? Psychologists say that some people possess an internal locus of control, where they rely primarily on…
Read MoreNo “Blamestorming” Allowed!
In less than a month, my new book, Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn, will be available. I can hardly wait! I’m excited about this book because I believe that how we deal with loss and disappointment has a huge impact on our lives. One of the most crucial decisions we can make after we…
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