Grow and Keep Growing

GROW Acronym -- I had to throw together a speech for a parenting class and for a parenting educators a few years ago. Both were graduating. The applications were slightly different as were the illustrations, but the outline was the same. Keep growing. You can't be of much use to anyone, your children or your students, if you are not growing as a person and growing professionally.

Not to grow is to die. When cell division ceases in an organism, death comes quickly.

G - Give. Growers are givers and givers are growers. Some things can only multiply if you give them away.

R - Reach out. As someone said, and I believe it was Ken Blanchard when I heard it, "If you ever see a turtle at the top of a pole and he tells you he got there on his own, he is either lying or he doesn't understand the nature of things, or both." We need others in order to keep moving forward.

O - Overcome Obstacles by allowing them to become Opportunities. This is an old one, but it is so true. The building blocks of your life are the same things that other people use as excuses for not moving forward.

W - Work on it and work at it and work it out!!! Growing is a 4-letter word; WORK. you have to put some energy behind this thing. It will not happen unintentionally or without effort.

I - Intentionally Invest in yourself and the process. That means work too, but also time, resources, sacrifices, and whatever it takes to become the person you were made to be. Growth is costly. We must decide we are willing to pay the price.

N - Negotiate with people. The word literally means "to carry on business." In the broader sense it reminds us that a big part of our personal growth happens as we develop the people skills necessary to work with, learn from, and collaborate with other people. It involves the mindset that enables us to lose some ground in order to gain a lot more ground.

G - Get up and Get Going!!!! This is not just about the future. It is about now! You can't wait for a big inspiration or motivation. You must motivate yourself and there is no better time than the time you see on the clock in front of you. Get on with it!!!!!

Do you have that? Good. Can I throw away the napkin now????