Goal-Oriented to Growth-Oriented (Part 2)

Mark Cole:

Hey. Welcome to my favorite podcast, the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. Now, I’m here every time, so it better be my favorite, but this is truly a podcast that’s committed to you. We want to add value to leaders who multiply value to others. If we’ve not met, my name is Mark Cole, and today, John Maxwell, tracy Morrow, my co host, and myself will continue our two part series on how to change from being a goal oriented person to a growth oriented person. This is a passion of mine. This is a passion of our team. It’s a passion of John Maxwell.

Mark Cole:

And today we’re going to challenge you to focus on yourself from a growth perspective. Now, if you would like to download the bonus resource for this episode or watch this episode on YouTube, please visit MaxwellPodcast.com/GrowthOriented and then grab a piece of paper, grab your pen, because John’s going to give you some meat in this session. Part two that will impact. Now, I must say this pretty quickly. You can go ahead and keep listening, but pretty quickly, if you’ve not heard part one, you’re going to want to put these together and finish the year strong. Here is John Maxwell.

John Maxwell:

Let me tell you the difference between a goal oriented person and a growth oriented person. A goal oriented person values achievement. A growth oriented person values development. There’s a world of difference. Don’t get them confused. A goal oriented person focuses on status. Growth oriented people, they focus on stretching. If you’re goal oriented, you often plateau because you hit your goal and then you’re asking, what’s next? If you’re growth oriented, you just keep climbing.

John Maxwell:

If you’re goal oriented, you ask your question, where am I going? If you’re growth oriented, you’re asking yourself, how am I growing? If you’re goal oriented, you say there’s a finish line. If you’re growth oriented, you say there’s no finish line. That’s just the way it works. My mentor in writing, who, by the way, is still alive, he’s 92. I affectionately call him E. T. And he really helped me in writing my early books. And I was in his office one day and I saw he had his plaque where he had sold 110,000 books.

John Maxwell:

And I’m just starting off and I saw 110,000 and I asked myself, oh my gosh, I wonder if I could ever in my lifetime sell 110,000 book. I took a picture of it, I thought, man, I wonder if I’ll ever get that good. And so my goal was, I want to sell 110,000 books. 110,000 books. And then I got on the growth side and totally forgot about 110,000. In fact, the next time I thought about 110,000 was when my publisher gave me a $50 million Murano glass Eagle. 50,000 not million, $50,000 Eagle for passing 10 million copies sold. And I sat there and I looked at that eagle and I thought, I passed 110,000 and didn’t even know it.

John Maxwell:

Why? Because now, the growth within you will help you rise above the goals before you. They always have. They always will. It’s my friend Truett Cathy. I’m very close to the their entire almost their entire existence. I’ve spoken for them. I’m very dan Cathy and I are golfing buddies. Truett, the founder, they’ve developed such an incredible culture.

John Maxwell:

In 1998, I was playing golf in the Bahamas with Dan Cathy and he said, Chicken is chicken. He said, we’re going to set ourself apart by the way we treat people and we’re going to develop a values culture and they’ll come and get our chicken instead of someone else’s chicken. So Truett Cathy. When they were starting to grow Chick fil A and do pretty good, his board said, we need to get bigger. We need to get said, no, no, we need to get better. And then he said those famous words if you get better, the customer will demand that you get bigger. That’s an absolute fact. Growth oriented people are better on the inside so they can become bigger on the outside.

John Maxwell:

But they know it always starts with an inside job. So I made a couple of decisions as I go into that growth environment. And the two decisions I made was number one is I needed to find or create for myself a growth environment because growth is most conducive in a growth environment. Now, let me explain something to you. When the situations in your life are not ideal, it’s your responsibility to change the situation. Don’t you become a victim? Well, it’s just I don’t have an ideal situation. Nobody has an ideal situation. Get over it.

John Maxwell:

Nobody has ever gotten up in the morning and said, I would like to be with my moaning, groaning leader today because I just get so encouraged and uplifted by hearing them talk about how tough it is and how difficult life is and how it’s not good and how the good old days and all that other crap. I’ve never had anybody said, you know, that moaning, groaning leader inspired me to be a greater person. No, that moaning, groaning leader inspired me to get away from them as fast as I possibly could because they’re poisoned into my soul and they’re going to mess me up if I hang around with them too long. So I didn’t have ideal situation. So I had to make my situation ideal. I didn’t have an ideal circumstance, so I had to turn around. And so in my twenty s I wrote this in my 20s, I’m going to give it to you now. A growth environment is a place where now, that’s the line that you’ll keep.

John Maxwell:

You don’t need to repeat anymore. Just put a growth environment is a place where dot, dot, dot, here we go. A growth environment is a place where others are ahead of me. In other words, you want to be in an environment where there are other people around you that are bigger, better, faster, smarter, more successful than you. You got to have somebody in front of you. In fact, let me explain something to you. If you’re at the head of the class, you’re in the wrong class. Because the moment you get the head of the class, you start telling everybody how good you are.

John Maxwell:

Nobody ever grew by telling people how good they were. You grow by looking at somebody that’s better than you, bigger than you, faster than you, smarter than you, a lot more successful than you. You got to keep yourself in an environment that other people every day show you how much farther you got to go to even get there. Number two, a growth environment is a place where you’re continually challenged. If you’re not continually challenged, you’re not stretching enough. Wow. This is essential for you. Every morning, you should wake up and gulp.

John Maxwell:

You should just wake up and say, oh, crap. Look what I got. Look at the hill I got to climb. I got to climb a hill today. I got to climb a hill. Most people, they wake up and yawn. If you wake up, yawners never succeed. Quit yawning and start gulping.

John Maxwell:

A growth environment is a place where your focus is forward again. Hey. As you say, you’re looking in the future, but you’re living in the present. You’re acting now. A growth environment is a place where the atmosphere is affirming, where you have people around you that encourage you in that environment. A growth environment is a place where you’re out of your comfort zone. Everything you need in your life, but you don’t have right now, listen to me carefully. Everything you need in your life, but you don’t have it.

John Maxwell:

The reason you don’t have it is because it’s out of your comfort zone. If it was in your comfort zone, you’d already have it, but you have to jump a fence to get it. You have to go where you’ve never gone before. You’ve got to do what you’ve never done before. You got to think what you’d never thought before. Everything that you need in your life but you don’t have is outside your comfort zone. A growth environment is a place where I wake up excited. I wake up excited.

John Maxwell:

I woke up excited. I woke up about 530 this morning, and I got so excited. If I could have had your phone number, I’d have called you. I’d have said, let’s start now. I was ready. I woke up and I said, I get to spend 4 hours with you. What an honor you’ve given me. What a privilege you’ve given me.

John Maxwell:

I could hardly wait to get here. In fact, let me just explain something to you. My name’s John. I’m your friend. If you don’t wake up excited, why wake up? I mean, aren’t there a lot of people on your team? You just really say, Go back to bed. Yeah, just go back to bed. Yeah. A growth environment is a place where failure is not your enemy.

John Maxwell:

In fact, it becomes your friend. Failure has become a beautiful, wonderful, intimate friend of mine. A growth environment is a place where accountability is appreciated. Let me just say something. You will not grow to your fullest potential unless you’re accountable. Nobody has within themselves the ability to do things on their own without accountability that allow them to have the greatness that they could have. I value the people who hold me accountable. Everybody ought to be accountable.

John Maxwell:

I’m accountable. In fact, I don’t even trust somebody that’s not accountable. If you’re not accountable to somebody for your actions, you’re not accountable for your production. If you’re not accountable for your behaviors, good Lord. You see, I don’t trust you. It’s okay. I don’t trust me either. If I had to kick the person most responsible for most of my problems, I wouldn’t be able to sit down for a week.

John Maxwell:

My greatest leadership challenge isn’t leading you, it’s leading me. A growth environment is a place where people desire change. A growth environment is a place where growth is modeled and where growth is expected. Wow, this is huge. Let me tell you about one other I made one other decision not only to create my own growth environment, but I made a decision to believe in myself in my book, the 15 Laws of Growth. And by the way, if you don’t have it, you need to get that book, because this is all about personal growth. It’s the bible of personal growth. In my book, the 15 Laws of Personal Growth, there’s a law called the Law of the Mirror.

John Maxwell:

And the law of the mirror says you must see value in yourself to add value to yourself. When you look in that mirror, whatever price tag you put on you is the price tag you’ll put on how much you invest in you. So look at your self worth. If one’s low self worth and ten is high self worth, let’s say that I have medium self worth of five. What that means is if my self worth is a five, my investment in myself will be a five. You invest in you on the level that you see yourself. So if I’m a five, as far as I feel that’s what my self worth is, I will invest in me a five, but I won’t invest in me sixes or sevens, eights or nines. The number I choose to put on my forehead is the number that will determine how much I so you pick your number, and then you pick your investment.

Maxwell Leadership Certified Team:

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Mark Cole:

Hey, welcome back, everybody. I love this question, and Tracy and I are going to get into this. I love this question that John asked us at the very end. And Tracy, we can spend some more time in a minute. But he asked this question, what number do you put on yourself? And what John was really saying there as he closed out the teaching today is, how much will you invest on yourself? I love what Theodore Roosevelt said. He said, Believe you can and you are halfway there. I love that quote, because I’ll tell you this, believe you can grow and invest in yourself, and you’re more than halfway there. We created several years ago a digital product on John’s book, the 15 Laws of Growth.

Mark Cole:

And really, this book is all about helping you become growth oriented. And we’re offering a huge discount for that online course today. In fact, you have two options to gain access to this course and because John just said, how much do you bet on yourself? I told Jake, I told our team, I got to say this up front, because you can either purchase this course, this 15 Laws of Growth course, for a one time payment of $99, or you can sign up for the Maxwell Leadership Growth Plan for $9.99 a month. You can gain instant access to that course and even more courses and more tools through the growth plan. Now, why do I tell you that? Because John just came out of it saying that we needed to do it. Two, it’s the beginning of a new year. If you listen to this podcast live or as soon as it’s released, and I want you to start the next week, whether that’s 2024 or whatever your next week is, I want you to start by proving to John Maxwell, to proving to yourself, I want to invest in myself. Now, usually this price of this course is $449.

Mark Cole:

So I’m not going to make you bet on yourself that much. But I do wonder if you’ll bet on yourself for $99 or $9.99 a month to gain access to this growth plan. Or how about this? Why don’t you get somebody on your team or somebody in your family and take a growth journey in community, get somebody else that will benefit from it and join today for yourself and them. You can find the link for all of this by scrolling down to the show notes or however you’re listening. You’ll be able to get the link there, but bet on yourself as John’s challenge tracy, I can say that and then throw it to you because good grief, just what? A month ago, I was with you, your brother, a friend that had invested in yourself for exchange. I’ve been around you for a decade now, and I watch every time I’m around you. We’re betting on ourselves. We’re just believing in ourselves.

Mark Cole:

And so, hey, I’m excited to talk about growth environment with you again this week.

Traci Morrow:

I am too. And I’m getting all comfy in my chair, crossing my legs, and I’m getting all excited because this is really a meaty lesson. And right out of the gate, John gives us something to really sink our teeth into and to hold ourselves up to. And what a perfect time of year for us to be talking about this. As we are looking at the year behind us and the year coming forward, we want to. And really, anytime that you’re listening to this, it is never too late to assess where you are at and where you are going. And when he kicks us off with talking about the comparison between valuing achievement versus Valuing growth, and I love that. And what came to mind is something that both you and I, Mark, are going to be familiar with and maybe some of you who are listening to us are going to be familiar with as well.

Traci Morrow:

And that is the marathon analogy. Because to me, when he talked about achievement, to me what I pictured is the finish line of a marathon, 26.2 miles, and the development process or the growth oriented person was more of like the mile markers. And that is where he talked about continuing to keep climbing. And as he was talking, there is nothing wrong. We both run a marathon before you’ve run several, but for me, there is nothing wrong with that marathon and the achievement of crossing that finish line, in fact, it’s an incredible feeling because the finish line means that it feels good. First of all, it’s done. For those of us who have finished, it’s like, oh, thank God it’s done. But it means that you’ve done a lot of hard work in some cases.

Traci Morrow:

It means a lot of other people have not accomplished what you’ve accomplished, not just in a marathon, but in whatever you’ve accomplished in your work, but the mile markers, whether that’s mile 1, mile five, mile 15, miles, 22 miles, 24, miles 26. It means you may pull over, you may do some mid race stretching. It just means you’re not done and you have picked back up again and you continue on. And so I love this because it’s all about what are you going to do next? And a lot of times when people accomplish something, it’s because the problem with that is they don’t have something else that’s coming up. And so then he goes right into a list, and I hope you’ve printed out the bonus resource that we’ve given you because this list of ten is something that you’re going to want to go through. But in those first few things, mark, he talked about a whole list of a growth environment is a place where and in this season, you have been very transparent with us and we all have lived through COVID and now the post COVID world. And it still is affecting many of us today. But in this environment where we are all growing.

Traci Morrow:

But we have been in a very unique time of leadership. Mark, where he talks about a growth environment is where others are ahead of us, where we are continually challenged. Our focus is forward, the atmosphere is affirming. What have you learned in this particular season of your leadership that you are currently in regarding where you’re currently challenged, where your focus is forward and the atmosphere is affirming and you’re out of your comfort zone. What have you learned in this season in those areas?

Mark Cole:

That bananas are good. Now, you didn’t expect that answer. For all of you listening, you need to watch. I love this answer already because Tracy was like, okay, I’ve never heard you say that. You will never hear me say it again except in this analogy. And so let me explain. And you set this up and you didn’t even know it. Again, we listened to John and then we come on and we give application, but it was mile 24 for me.

Mark Cole:

In my first marathon. You talked about marathon running. It was mile 24. And I started to answer that it was mile 24, but it really wasn’t mile 24. I was so close to the end that I was going to finish my first marathon no matter what. But what I had to do to finish is what I’m talking about, because in my first marathon, it was 32 degrees. It was Kiwa Island. Smart move to run your first marathon on an island, because as you and I both know, whether you’ve ever been to Kiwa Island or not, it’s flat.

Mark Cole:

Good first choice. For my first marathon, I was 39. I wanted to run my first marathon before I was 40.

Traci Morrow:

Me too.

Mark Cole:

Were you really? And so I got it and I was ready to go. And then I saw the forecast after I had already packed and it was never going to get higher than 35 degrees in the marathon. And I had dressed for a marathon at Kiwa Island, not in Alaska, so we had a problem with clothes. But not only that, I felt very sick that week. And what I did not know until after when I went to the doctor the next day after my marathon, I ran my first marathon with walking pneumonia, coughing up blood. Tough times. I had all the adversities. What I didn’t plan for was mile 24, miles 24, both of my legs cramped up.

Mark Cole:

Now, I finished my first marathon in a sub four hour marathon, which is a pretty good speed, which is about a nine minute mile, a little bit less. When you put all of it in, it was good. But mile 24 was 16 minutes and 48 seconds long because both of my legs cramped up. I couldn’t get them to uncramp. Somebody came by and they gave me something that I have not eaten since and had only eaten about one time before a banana. I hate bananas, but my desire to finish the marathon was greater than my dislike for bananas. And when they told me that I could get rid of my cramps because my cramps were not going to stop me, I was going to crawl, I was going to do something, mile 24 was not going to stop me because I only had 2 miles to go. 2.2.

Mark Cole:

The 0.2 matters. But when they told me I could get rid of my cramps with a banana, I said, give me the banana, because my dislike for the cramps and my passion to finish is greater than my rejection of a banana. Here’s my point in 2023, this has been a tough leadership year for me. In fact, in the area of leadership, I’ve had some tougher years personally, just personal challenges that many of you know about. But as it relates to my leadership confidence, as it relates to my leadership reflection, my leadership certainty, I can’t remember a year that was more tough to lead through than 2023 for me. You know what I’ve learned that the toughness is the stamina I need to get to 2024. In other words, I’ve learned to like bananas in my leadership. And I would just challenge all of you that are looking at 2024 and saying, I hope it’s better than 2023.

Mark Cole:

You might be looking at the close of 2023 or the close of this season when you’re listening to this podcast as a milestone, when really it’s a set up that everything that you and I learned during this difficult time is what’s going to make the success of the next season of our life that much greater. In other words, eat the banana. Enjoy it as much as possible, but appreciate the significance it’s going to put in your life.

Traci Morrow:

So good. I know somebody needed to hear that. Maybe it was just me. I’m going to jump out of order, because that just triggers another question that I had. So I’m going to jump down to number five where he said, you’re out of your comfort zone, and because it’s just exactly what you’re talking about. And we got to spend a little bit of time together a few weeks ago in Las Vegas at an Exchange that John does in a different city every year. But this year it was in the city of Las Vegas, and it didn’t even feel like we were in Las Vegas, really, because we experienced that city so uniquely, as we do at Exchange. We experience whatever city we’re in very uniquely.

Traci Morrow:

But what I said to you a little bit beforehand before we came in here, before we started recording, was that I got to hear a new you and John taught from the stage, and I got to hear a version of you that was just I’ve heard you over the last now almost eleven years speak with John many times, both on stage and just personally. But this was different. This was a culmination. I mean, you are very open and honest about everything on the podcast of what you’re going through in your leadership journey. But this was you sharing what you were learning. And I took notes and I felt like how perfect this lesson was with what we just talked about, what you and John had just talked about when you taught on the lesson on how to be an innovator. And as I heard a new version of you emerge in your teaching that could have only come from being in a very intense growth season. I want to read a little bit from my notes that I took of what you said with our podcast listeners and then I would love to hear from you as I ask this question.

Traci Morrow:

But the notes that I took said when John talked about fencing out and expanding your fences, that everything that you need but don’t have is on the other side of your comfort zone. And he talked about you need to jump the fence in order to get it. You guys also expanded on this fence idea. And John said, innovators challenge preconceived beliefs and biases and assumptions. Be ridiculously curious. And then you talked about you need to jump over the fence to be exposed. Stop hanging with the same people. Don’t bring bad stuff back over the fence.

Traci Morrow:

Get to other people. They know something you don’t know. Get out of the same circle that you’ve been in. So from those notes that I took with you and John up there on stage, where have you gone in Chris season, this particularly uncomfortable season of your leadership? Where have you gone to get what you don’t have and what was it that you needed?

Mark Cole:

Yeah, so I love this question. I will tell you where I went first. Traci. I went into myself because I was exhibiting characteristics, I was exhibiting mindsets that concerned me and my ability to have the emotional capacity to get through to where I needed to go. And so I went through myself, Tracy, and I said, okay, is this an emotional instability issue? Am I allowing my perspective to change just because things are not easy? No leader expects things to always be easy. Then they wouldn’t need leaders. In fact, I love Jake. Thank you.

Mark Cole:

Jake is such a contributor to this podcast. You guys have no idea. Jake, our podcast producer, just put up for me right in front of me. He said, don’t hope things get easier. Make sure you get better. And I think Jake, I would agree with that. Traci because when this year I’ve spent much of the year wishing things would get easier or trying to figure out why they felt so tough and only to find out that it was not an emotional issue or an emotional capacity. It was a mental thing to where I did not have the perspective that I needed to get where I was going.

Mark Cole:

And I came up with about three or four AHA’s in the last 60 days. And then what I did when I got settled in who I was, one of the AHAs were was COVID did not change this fact about Mark Cole. I’m a good leader. Now, y’all don’t agree, don’t disagree, don’t put in the comments whether you agree or disagree. This is about me getting inside of myself. I had to go in and say, mark Cole, what do you really believe about your leadership? You know why? Because my emotions was making me feel like a good leader, bad leader, good leader, bad leader, good leader, bad leader. Every other day I had changed what I thought about my leadership because I was listening to my emotions well. Then I calmed my emotions down and felt really good about emotional stability.

Mark Cole:

And then I found out that I was questioning in my mind, am I a good leader? Should I be leading this thing? Is this too big for me? Am I not overcoming because I don’t have the capacity, the mental, the experiential capacity to overcome? And Tracy, I had to quiet the lies and I found that the only way to quiet the accusations or the lies in my head was to get established a couple of things. One, I’m a great leader. That won’t change with the rise and fall of this initiative that I’m leading. I’m a good leader. Two, I had to get clear on what I knew was my purpose for me. We put a lot of spiritual foundation into our leadership. As all of you on the podcast know, this doesn’t work for all of you. I had to make sure that my calling was sure.

Mark Cole:

I had to get settled, that success was not the indicator of my calling, that overcoming wasn’t even the success of my calling. I’ve known a lot of people, they were called and they left it all out on the field and didn’t get to see the finished product of their work success and finishing well is not an indicator of a calling lived well. You’ve got to leave it all out on the field. Sometimes you don’t get to determine the results. Others, society, some of you got let go recently in 2023 and you go, how could I have succeeded when I was surprised I was ambushed by a termination, by a transition. Don’t allow those things to determine how well you. Are leading, how successful you are in leading, and how committed you are to your calling. And I had to get some things settled, Tracy.

Mark Cole:

When I got it settled in my head and it had to start there, I had to be bigger on the inside. Then I was ready to go to my inner circle and my outer circle. I went to John and said, john, this is what I’ve just been processing. This is my conclusions. This is what I’m going to do with the conclusions. I validated the direction and the conclusions with people that knew me well. Then what I did, Tracy, I went to people that had no idea and was very unfamiliar with my leadership. And I said, hey, this is what 2023, this is what the current leadership challenge has been for me.

Mark Cole:

What was it like for you? And some of these were very, very successful people running billion dollar organizations. And they went, this truly happened. They went, do you know, I never admitted to anyone in the middle of my fights that are just like yours? I never admitted. And I stayed in it longer because I wouldn’t admit to people the struggle, the challenge, and the commitment to overcome. And Tracy, it’s for me, that was incredible, because I saw people that I hold in high regard. Number one, admit something they’d never admitted before to anyone else. I struggled big time, too. But number two, I realized I was on a good track because I found a safe place to admit it with people that could help me become a better leader.

Traci Morrow:

That’s so good. That’s so good. If there is a leader who is not in, like you had safe people that you could go to and admit that, but what if there is a leader who is listening and they aren’t in an affirming environment? What do you recommend to a leader who needs someone that they need to go to to admit to safe people? What does a leader do if they don’t feel like they have that outer or inner circle?

Mark Cole:

So let me answer that question very clearly and very quickly. Get a safe environment. Now, you say, what do you do with somebody that doesn’t have one? Get one.

Traci Morrow:

Yeah.

Mark Cole:

You cannot make it on your own. You cannot achieve greatness by yourself. So if you are in the place where Tracy just invited me to answer, the only answer I can give to somebody that doesn’t have one is get one. Period. Now, how do I get one? So let’s talk just a minute about that. I will invite you into our community, maxwell Leadership certified team members into our event. Tracy, you mentioned exchange. You come to transformation trips.

Mark Cole:

Anything Maxwell Leadership does. There is such a community environment, a safe environment, people that live, authentically, like Tracy and I try to on this podcast and like John does all the time, what you see is what you get with John. There is a component in our environments, whether it’s a high end environment like Exchange, whether it’s building a coaching, speaking, training community like certified team members do, get into an environment and begin to put yourself out there. People will respond to your authenticity and to your vulnerability and support you. It’s not as hard as you’re making it. You are making it harder on yourself because you don’t think you can be vulnerable and you can people appreciate your vulnerability.

Traci Morrow:

Yeah, I think get an environment.

Mark Cole:

No, I’m just going to say, Tracy and I want you to come right back, get an environment, and if you don’t even know how to do that, join something. Maxwell leadership team. This is not just a sales gimmick. Just get involved with us. You’ll find a safe environment. What were you going to say, Tracy?

Traci Morrow:

I was just going to say I think trust is a problem for leaders. I think that is something that either you’ve been burned before and someone has proven to not be trustworthy, or it’s really hard to develop a relationship when you get to the level of leadership where, how do I now find someone to trust when I’m at this level of leadership? And it’s exactly what you just said. Mark the beauty about coming to events that John hosts, that you and John provide for leaders, is that the people who come into John’s, the proximity of John, is that you get to be with other people who are at that same level of respectability, of trust. The people who John like, draws like. And so the people who come into the things that we host, the trips that we do and the things that we’re doing are people who are moving in that same direction and want the proximity to John, though, that is one of the things that I really have found to be such a safe space is no matter what area that I go to, whatever event that we are or trip that we’re doing, there is a certain level. Of assumed trust that you have with the people in our groups that I think I find refreshing and nice for leaders to come in and just find, like, oh, this is a place where I can feel Tracy.

Mark Cole:

It’s like anything that we do, I’m telling you, leaders and I think I didn’t intend to go here. This is my favorite segment. But no, I think it’s good. I think it’s good. At the end of this year, some of us need to turn over a leaf and try something different in 2024. And for many of you, it’s a level of vulnerability that you’ve never expressed. And I believe there’s a reason we’re camping out here. For the moment, I do too.

Mark Cole:

I remember the first time I repelled off of a 300 foot cliff in Colorado, your home state. I was on the side of this cliff, a 19 year old girl there’s no girl hate right here, but she was 19. She weighed about 75 pounds, was going to belay this 200 and none of your business, 40 year old man. And I looked at this and I said, mark Cole, you’ve lost your mind. You are on a 300 foot cliff. You’re going to land on a three foot wide ledge or run out of rope if you miss the ledge, because there was only about 15 to 20 more feet. It was about a 315, 300ft rope. I had to land on a three foot ledge or then it was another 150ft drop.

Mark Cole:

And who was going to ensure my speed was a girl half my size and half my age? There’s a problem with this. And Tracy, I’ll never forget the fear, because if you’ve ever repelled and if you’re watching on YouTube, this is a reason to watch YouTube, watch Mark make a fool of himself. I’m sitting there on the edge and you have to step back because you’re going to repel back. I’m stepping back. And that first step, it was the biggest step I’ve ever made in my life. The fear, the scare. Is the rope going to hold? Am I going to hit the three foot ledge? Is this young lady going to take a lunch break? And we’re right in the middle of this thing. What’s going to happen? But, Tracy, after that first step, when that rope caught and I hit that thing, the exhilaration, the fear turned to incredible adrenaline.

Mark Cole:

I’m going to tell you guys this, that are holding on in fear to a secret self, to a struggling self. I promise you, 2024 could be your most exhilarating ride, whether you’re 70 or 17. If you’ll take that first step of leaning into somebody else and saying, will you help me navigate this wall? And just like my little friend, I remember her name to this day, rachel. I got down there, I hugged her. I probably kissed her. I probably hugged for too long. And she said, thank you for showing me how fearful you can be double my age. And I went, thank you, Rachel, for showing me how brave you can be at half my age.

Mark Cole:

And we just had this moment because we leaned into each other to trust what it could look like. And too many of you are not growing because you won’t allow yourself to be seen. So somebody can work with you to cultivate the greatness out of you.

Traci Morrow:

Yeah. And I know we’re at our time where we need to close out, and we didn’t even intend to go here. But what really is just impressed on my heart as we go through this list is that fear can be an issue. Trust and hope, those are really the words that I wrote and kind of put a box around as I wrote this, because it can be lonely in leadership. It can be isolated in leadership. And I think in this world, we can lose trust and faith in people and think they’re trying to sell us something, even here on the podcast cast, where it can feel like we’re trying to push something. But really, if we want to make a difference in this world, if we want to be a part of something, we can’t hope that we’re going to find people who are like minded, people who are moving in this direction. People have the high level of integrity that are our people.

Traci Morrow:

And so if I could just encourage you as you go into this new year, we hope to meet you. We hope to meet you at these live events, because I’m at all of these events, I’m putting my money where my mouth is and I pay to go and be around other people who are growing in this movement because it is something that makes me better. And hope is not a strategy. We can hope that we’re going to run into these people out in our busy lives, but it just doesn’t happen. And so as we enter into this new year, no matter when you’re listening to this, the last one is believing in yourself. And that does take trust and hope and faith and denying fear as well. But we are glad that you have found this podcast. We are thankful that you continue to show up with us.

Traci Morrow:

And as we grow, with our mentor John, and with our mentor, Mark, and with all of you, we’re just people who want to leave this world better than we found it. And we’re glad that we are entering into a new year with you. And thanks, Mark.

Mark Cole:

Yeah. Thank you, Tracy. I’m so glad we went there because I do believe that many of us, our greatest holdback is not realizing that we need to be growth oriented. Many of you are betting on yourself. In fact, I’m hoping and believing that many of you have already taken advantage of this almost $400 savings that we gave you for this 15 laws of growth, access to digital content and this growth platform we’ve created for you. I hope that you’re betting on yourself. That feels like the no brainer. Please do that.

Mark Cole:

That’s going to make your 2024 better. That is the first step. The second step for many of us is to get in an environment to where we can lean into trust and hope and fear and vulnerability like Tracy talked about. You know, I always love to close our podcast with comments, and it’s so appropriate. Jake, the comment that you gave me today from Nicole. Nicole listened to the podcast we did some time ago called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. I remember that podcast. It’s a brilliant podcast.

Mark Cole:

We’re going to put that link in the show notes. Go listen to that, but feel the fear and do it anyway. Exactly what we’ve been talking about. Tracy. Here’s what Nicole said. Learning about fear, and reading about what holds me back in the 15 laws of invaluable growth has honestly changed my life. Cole that’s why I’m doing another podcast. I want to see somebody else’s life changed.

Mark Cole:

Nicole goes on and says, accepting that fear is what was holding me back was also a huge challenge, but it has honestly motivated me to move forward in my Maxwell journey. She’s in our community, and she says, thank you, Mark and John. No. Nicole. Thank you. Because we can put it out there. We can do all the podcasts in the world. We can make the Growth app available to you, the Growth platform available to you.

Mark Cole:

Cut the price, but you’ve got to take the step. And so today, take the step. Create powerful, positive change in your life so you can do that in the world around you, because everyone deserves to be led well.