John C Maxwell Quotes

Seven Steps to Success 1) Make a commitment to grow daily. 2) Value the process more than events. 3) Don't wait for inspiration. 4) Be willing to sacrifice pleasure for opportunity. 5) Dream big. 6) Plan your priorities. 7) Give up to go up.

We cannot become what we need by remaining what we are.

Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up.

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

Talent is a gift, but character is a choice.

Success is... knowing your purpose in life, growing to reach your maximum potential, and sowing seeds that benefit others.

if you don't have peace, it isn't because someone took it from you; you gave it away. You cannot always control what happens to you, but you can control what happens in you.

Learn to say 'no' to the good so you can say 'yes' to the best.

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

Question for God every morning: What is the main event today? What do you want me to focus on today?

Remember, man does not live on bread alone: sometimes he needs a little buttering up.

To Stay Focused in Life: You can't know everyone You can't do everything You can't go everywhere We have to pick and choose between good and a little bit better.

A leader who produces other leaders multiples their influences.

The only guarantee for failure is to stop trying

If you don’t change the direction you are going, then you’re likely to end up where you’re heading…

Do not take the agenda that someone else has mapped out for your life.

Stay focused instead of getting offended or off track by others.

Everything begins with a decision. Then, we have to manage that decision for the rest of your life.

Relational skills are the most important abilities in leadership.

We feel unhappy and confused with our life when we don't do the focus or calling that God has on our life.

The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then, guess what? After you start doing the thing, that's when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it.

Poem by Howard A. Walter (Character) I would be true, for there are those who trust me; I would be pure, for there are those who care; I would be strong, for there are those who suffer; I would be brave, for there is much to dare. I would be friend of all--- the foe, the friendless; I would be giving, and forget the gift; I would be humble, for I know my weakness; I would look up, and laugh, and love, and lift.

You will never change your life until you change something you do daily.

There was a very cautious man Who never laughed or played He never risked, he never tried, He never sang or prayed. And when he on day passed away, His insurance was denied, For since he never really lived, They claimed he never really died. (Anonymous poem)

A successful person finds the right place for himself. But a successful leader finds the right place for others. By John Maxwell

Most People have a desire to look for the exception instead of the desire to become exceptional.

True success comes only when every generation continues to develop the next generation.

Real leadership is being the person others will gladly and confidently follow.

Your success stops where your character stops. You can never rise above the limitations of your character.

He that thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.

You must do right before you feel good.

Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.

Happiness simply cannot be relied upon as a measure of success.

Have to sow excellent seeds to have an excellent life. Must start with sowing excellent thoughts.

Must manage your thought life daily and then you can manage your life.

You'll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.

I want to make a difference with people who want to make a difference, doing something that makes a difference.

Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

Live to learn and you will really learn to live.

Dont ever be impressed with goal setting; be impressed with goal getting. Reaching new goals and moving to a higher level of performance always requires change, and change feels awkward. But take comfort in the knowledge that if a change doesn't feel uncomfortable, then it's propably not really a change.

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

You cannot enjoy others until you enjoy yourself because you cannot give to others what you do not have.

It's said that a wise person learns from his mistakes. A wiser one learns from others' mistakes. But the wisest person of all learns from others's successes.

The greatest enemy of good thinking is busyness.

A dream worth pursuing is a picture and blueprint of a person's purpose and potential

If you wouldn't follow yourself, why should anyone else?

When the leader lacks confidence, the followers lack commitment.

The sum of all your thoughts comprises your overall attitude.

Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about themselves, and small people talk about others

Tend to the people, and they will tend to the business.

Most people who decide to grow personally find their first mentors in the pages of books.

One of the major keys to success is to keep moving forward on the journey, making the best of the detours and interruptions, turning adversity into advantage.

If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then someday you can do the things you want do when you want to do them.

Life is now in session. Are you present?

People dont care what you know until they know what you care

Maya Angelou observed you cant use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. Sadly,too often creativity is smothered rather than nurtured. There has to be climate in which new ways of thinking,perceiving, questioning are encouraged.

Your attitude is like the minds paintbrush. It can paint everything in bright, vibrant colors-creating a masterspiece.

Dreams don’t work unless you do

In most cases, those who want power probably shouldn't have it, those who enjoy it probably do so for the wrong reasons, and those who want most to hold on to it don't understand that it's only temporary.

You can't move people to action unless you first move them with emotion.... The heart comes before the head.

People are never able to outperform their self-image.

You see, when our attitudes outdistance our abilities, even the impossible becomes possible.

It's good to be out of your comfort zone. Just don't step out of your gift zone.

Attitude is the first quality that marks the successful man. If he has a positive attitude and is a positive thinker, who likes challenges and difficult situations, then he has half his success achieved.

Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.

It's better to prepare than to repair.

A dream becomes a reality as a result of your actions, and your actions are controlled, to a large extent, by your habits.

A person who knows how may always have a job, but the person who knows why will always be his boss.

If you're not failing, you're probably not really moving forward.

The bottom line in managing your emotions is that you should put others – not yourself – first in how you handle and process them. Whether you delay or display your emotions should not be for your own gratification. You should ask yourself, What does the team need? Not, What will make me feel better?

When you realize that people treat you according to how they see themselves rather than how you really are, you are less likely to be affected by their behavior.

God uses people who fail—'cause there aren't any other kind around.

The leader’s Attitude is like a thermostat for the place she works. If her attitude is good, the atmosphere is pleasant, and the environment is easy to work in. But if her attitude is bad, the temperature is insufferable.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.” —Jim Rohn

Where success is concerned, people are not measured in inches, or pounds, or college degrees, or family background; they are measured by the size of their thinking.

Leaders Who Attract Followers . . . Need to Be Needed Leaders Who Develop Leaders . . . Want to Be Succeeded

Great leaders always seem to embody two seemingly disparate qualities. They are both highly visionary and highly practical.

Creativity requires a willingness to look stupid.

Ninety percent of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit.

People tend to become what the most important people in their lives think they will become.

People change when they ... Hurt enough that they have to, Learn enough that they want to, and Receive enough that they are able to.

To lead yourself, use your head; to lead others, use your heart.

It is easier to move from failure to success in from excuses to success.

People don't care how much you know unless you know how much you care

Your thinking, more than anything else, shapes the way you live. It’s really true that if you change your thinking, you can change your life.

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” —Carl Jung

Thinking is hard work; that’s why so few do it.

The company owner doesn't need to win. The best idea does.

Everyone is a leader because everyone influences someone.

Little progress is better than no progress at all. Success comes in taking many small steps. If you stumble in a small step, it rarely matters. Don't gift wrap the garbage. Let little failures go.

Comparing yourself to others is really just a needless distraction. The only one you should compare yourself to is you. Your mission is to become better today than you were yesterday. You do that by focusing on what you can do today to improve and grow.

French essayist Michel Eyquem de Montaigne wrote, “The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long yet live very little.” The truth is that you can spend your life any way you want, but you can spend it only once.

Few things build a person up like affirmation. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, Third College Edition (Simon and Schuster, 1991), the word affirm comes from ad firmare, which means “to make firm.” So when you affirm people, you make firm within them the things you see about them. Do that often enough, and the belief that solidifies within them will become stronger than the doubts they have about themselves.

First, when we are busy, we naturally believe that we are achieving. But busyness does not equal productivity. Activity is not necessarily accomplishment. Second, prioritizing requires leaders to continually think ahead, to know what's important, to know what's next, to see how everything relates to the overall vision. That's hard work. Third, prioritizing causes us to do things that are at the least uncomfortable and sometimes downright painful.

Many people view leadership the same way they view success, hoping to go as far as they can, to climb the ladder, to achieve the highest position possible for their talent. But contrary to conventional thinking, I believe the bottom line in leadership isn't how far we advance ourselves but how far we advance others. That is achieved by serving others and adding value to their lives.

I always try to remember that I am a work in progress. When I maintain that perspective, I realize that I don’t have to be perfect. I don’t have to have it all together. I don’t need to try to have all the answers. And I don’t need to learn everything in a day. When I make a mistake, it’s not because I’m a failure or worthless. I just didn’t do something right because I still haven’t improved enough in some part of the process. And that motivates me to keep growing and improving. If I don’t know something, it’s an opportunity to try to improve in a new area.