​​Welcome back to One Marine’s Perspective on how to play the game of life. We all have to play, we’re all on the same team, we play by God’s rules, and we win with teamwork.

Consider this quote from John C. Maxwell, a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author, coach and speaker who has sold more than 24 million books in 50 languages.

“Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it’s almost always due to personal growth.”

Now, consider this story about How to Maximize Personal Growth. 

Listen to Story 1.

The same is true for all of us. If we choose the safe, well-worn path, then a life of mediocrity awaits us. But if we have the courage and capacity to live in the elements, we give ourselves a great chance of reaching our full potential and being successful in our chosen field of endeavor.

God created trees to grow outside. He created people to live lives of significance. So, are we indoor trees or outdoor trees?

Personal growth does not happen by itself. Some personal growth can seem to be a matter of being in the right place at the right time, and simply taking up opportunities. (but we know that the harder we work, the luckier we seem to get). The truth is that consistent, effective personal growth across a wide range of skills requires deliberate and focused effort, the execution of a plan.

The reason for planning our personal development is very simple: we are the only ones who know for certain what we want to achieve, and the key to achieving it is in our hands via the actions we take. 

From One Marine’s perspective, there are three things that we need to include in a personal growth plan.

1. A clear vision of where we want to be and why. This would be our Goal.

2. A clear understanding of where we are now in relation to where we want to be. This would be our Assessment.

3. A detailed strategy for getting from where we are to where we want to be. This would be our Plan.

So, it’s all about filling the GAP (Goals, Assessments, and Plans). Starting with -

                                                            Goals

 A key thing to remember here is that any goals we set should be in support of our life’s purpose. With that in mind, here are some other aspects of a “good” goal, in modern parlance called a "SMART" goal.

If we’re unfamiliar with the term, “SMART” used in this context is an acronym, with a focus on creating realistic targets to hit. To that end, every SMART goal is bordered by five constraints. The goals must be: 

Specific. The goal should have a clear, highly-specific endpoint. If our goal is too vague, it won’t be SMART. 

Measurable. We need to be able to accurately track our progress so we can judge when a goal will be met.

Attainable. Of course, setting a goal that’s too ambitious will see us struggle to achieve it. This will sap our motivation, both now and in the future.

Relevant. The goal we pick should be pertinent to our chosen field, or should benefit us directly.

Time-Bound. Finally, setting a timeframe for our goal helps quantify it further, and helps keep our focus on track.

For example, imagine we want to start jogging to improve our health. We could just run as the spirit moves us (i.e. whenever we please, for however long we want). However, One Marine has found that "whenever we please" doesn’t appear to happen as often as it should. And, "however long we want" seems to vary greatly and get shorter as time goes on.

To make this ‘SMART'er, we could set a goal of running five miles in less than 45 minutes. This covers the “S” and “M” criteria. It’s also attainable, although it could require considerable effort depending on how out of shape we are. 

Moving on - the goal is also relevant because we’re actively trying to improve our health and fitness. To make this totally SMART, we’d finally need to give ourselves a timeframe to achieve our target. In this case, a month or two could be sufficient, as long as we plan our schedule correctly. However, if we are dealing with significant health issues and/or are grossly unfit, we could set a much longer timeframe.

This approach to goal setting might sound a little complex. However, being able to track our progress in relation to each goal accurately is a great way to remain motivated. As long as we can see ourselves making progress toward a specific finish line, keeping the momentum going becomes easier. Moving on - 

                                                     Assessments

How about assessments? Consider these words from Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian author who writes about self-fulfillment and personal happiness. His books have been translated into 81 languages and published in 170 countries.

“Ask yourself if what you're doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow.”

In order to answer that question, we would need to know not only where we want to be tomorrow, but also where we are today. We would need to do an assessment of where we are in relation to where we want to be.

The context in which One Marine uses assessment is as an inventory. We inventory where we stand mentally, physically, and spiritually in relation to our goals.

We are never given a process, method, framework or strategy for learning about ourselves. We learn about ourselves purely through trial and error. It seems very inefficient, but then again no one has ever been “us” before in human history.

In order to move toward the accomplishment of our goals more efficiently and effectively, we need to ask ourselves some tough questions:

          Do we have the necessary skills to accomplish the goal?

          Do we have the necessary knowledge to accomplish the goal?

          Are we healthy and fit enough to accomplish the goal?

          Do we have personal characteristics that need to be overcome to accomplish the goal? (eg. procrastination, lack of motivation, self-doubt, distractibility.) 

Learning about ourselves takes a lot of time, but it’s well worth the investment. The more we know about ourselves, the better decisions we’ll make about the lifestyle we want to live.  Self-knowledge will enable us to use our energy more efficiently by aligning our habits with our purpose. The more we know about ourselves, the more confident we can be in our decisions as we devise plans to reach our goals.

Which brings us to the plans part of filling the gap between where we are and where we want to be, 

                                                           Plans

As Pablo Picasso, famous painter, once said, “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success."  

It sounds obvious, but we need to know how we are going to get from (a) to (b): from where we are now, to where we want to be.

The difference between where we are now and where we want to be tells us the magnitude of our task. It therefore affects how long it will take, and also how much effort we need to put in. 

Let’s look at some key elements of an effective plan.

It's Flexible: Planning should be flexible enough to incorporate any changes in the resources, if necessary. Additionally, it should be responsive to changed conditions so that if future events do not follow the anticipated course, the same plan can be modified and adapted to the new course.

It's Simple: A good plan must be simple and comprehensive. When the plan is simple, all members of the team can understand its significance and it can be easily put into action. 

It's Balanced: A good plan should be well balanced so that the existing resources are properly utilized for all functions and short-term gains are not at the cost of long-term gains. 

It's Time-Bound: The time period allowed for achieving goals should be reasonable given the uncertainty in attempting to anticipate the future. Long-range plans are more uncertain. hence, the time period covered should be reasonably stable. 

It's Action-Oriented: Probably the most important characteristic of a good plan. It has been One Marine's experience that a less-than-optimum plan, well executed, generally yields better results than an optimum plan that is poorly executed. 

We don’t get what we want, or what we think we deserve. Instead, we get exactly what we work for, what we focus on, what we take action upon every single day. Consider the following:

Listen to ​Story 2.​

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Achieving our goals and dreams is fantastic but that’s not the most important thing about setting goals. The most important thing is the type of person that we become along the way.

So, choose a life of growth. Any positive change in our lives requires effort on our part. We should commit ourselves to lives of continuous growth: read everything we can in our fields, identify the experts in our fields, and consider heeding their advice. 

Do it now is the mantra of a successful person. We don’t wait for lightning to hit us to start the process. Anything worthwhile takes effort and it requires action today. So, we start today on our growth plans and take action to implement them.   

Like anything in life, growth also requires a sacrifice from us. If we want to win in life we need to concentrate on educating ourselves not entertaining ourselves. We need to be willing to pay the price to succeed.  

We need to fill the GAP – We set our SMART Goals. We do our self-Assessments, and we make our comprehensive Plans. 

Listen to Story 3.

 
If we have a laser focus on our goals, that focus will help carry us to those goals despite the everyday distractions that continually bombard us.

We'll close with more of One Marine's favorite quotes.

​“Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” Thomas Edison 

“Just because you make a good plan, doesn’t mean that’s what’s gonna happen.”  Taylor Swift 

“A good plan energetically executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” George S. Patton 

“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” Bill Copeland 

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” Henry Ford 

“Personal development is a major time-saver. The better you become, the less time it takes you to achieve your goals.” Brian Tracy 

“Never quit. … Set a goal and don’t quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don’t quit until you reach it. Never quit.” Bear Bryant
    
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Personal Growth

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