BY CHERYL WELLS
There is so much that could be said about Law 9 in John Maxwell’s book “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth” and I have been contemplating what would be best. The law is “The Law of The Ladder” and it says that character growth determines the height of your personal growth. I am a student of John’s and I love his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”. It is actually what I have read and studied the most and to be a part of the team and join the John Maxwell University, it is his core material and the one book that everything is built on. This whole year we have looked at the 15 laws and how our growth pertains to our leadership, no matter where we are leading. Remember that leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less. If we don’t have influence then there is no leading anyone.
The Law of the Ladder from the 15 laws and the Law of the Lid from John’s 21 laws really go hand in hand. To grow ourselves at all we have to do this hard work of growing in our heart and in our head. The result is we become people of character with good values. When we have good values, people want to be around us. People do business with and for us, because we are hard-working and dependable, with a good attitude. Then we will be productive and honest, and we will be influencing people as we go. When we are wrong we handle correction well, taking responsibility when needed and self-correcting.
The Law of the ladder says the rungs of the ladder are where we are at in our growth and our character development. In order for us to move up or to grow our character, we have to have the humility to say that we need to change. We have to be able to take a good honest look at our life and our heart. The book of Proverbs says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
What do we spend our time thinking about? What really matters? What is really in your heart? I would really encourage you to spend time thinking about this. Proverbs also says that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”.
I have been reading one of Harvard Business Review’s 10 Must Reads titled “On Leadership”. It states that the most effective leaders are alike in one crucial way – they have a high degree of emotional intelligence. It turns out that you have to know yourself and in those moments of truth also be able to stop yourself from doing things that really upset people. Self-Regulation is really about managing our soul. Our soul is our will, our thoughts, and our feelings. Those are all about our inner man and I have found that the only way to build my inner man is to ask God to do it and yield to Him. The truth is that I can try to change myself every day all day and it has never worked, and it wears me out. I came to a point in my life many years ago where I knew I needed a change of heart and mind. When I realized that I was powerless I turned my life over to Jesus. I love the song that says “Jesus take the wheel”. As I submit to Him then there is still the responsibility to mature and grow, but He gives the power. I am powerless on my own to live as I should and most importantly- how God wants me to live. He is the Guardian of my heart and I continue to ask and submit to that truth.
Remember, above all else, guard your heart.
