The seeds of creativity
grow in the soil of obscurity.
John Maxwell has a quote that talks about successful people and leaders forming the habit of doing things that the vast majority of people neglect to do. We all know that we should eat nutritious food and exercise in order to have a healthy body and yet this is the number one complaint of physicians. They get hundreds and thousands of people in their offices each year because they neglect to develop the habits that healthy bodies require.
In our connected high speed world we all know that the products, services, skills and thinking that got us to this place are not the same things that will sustain us. We have to constantly be evolving, growing, and changing. But that requires us put in the work. The seeds of creativity grow in the soil of obscurity. Intentional time away thinking and dreaming of what is next.
I recently heard a CEO of six very successful companies talk about his intentional visioning time. He said he gets away by himself periodically and puts himself in an environment surrounded by companies that are more successful than his and just dreams of what it would look like for his organizations to be at that level. Then he spends time thinking of the person he needs to become to make that happen. He then creates a personal development plan to get himself where he needs to be to make the dream a reality he can lead his organizations into.
Summertime is the off season for a lot of professional sports. Off season for a professional is never off. It just means not in the spotlight. It is the work these professionals do while no one is looking that sets them up for success when everyone is looking. But it comes at a price.
It doesn’t matter how successful you are, how old you are or what industry you are in, to stay current and on top we all have to keep paying the price to keep growing and developing. This is why sustained success in any industry is rare.
When my youngest child was about 4 years old, it had become clear that he needed me to be able to parent him differently than his brother. He had challenges his brother didn’t have and he needed parents that could step up. The more I learned about what he would need from me as a parent the more overwhelmed I became because I wasn’t that person. I needed to grow and quickly. I invested in classes, conferences and countless books. Fast forward thirteen years and I’m pretty sure I have the equivalent of a Master’s Degree in the area of his needs and I’m not done. As he grows and changes he still needs me to grow and change ahead of him to help him navigate the road ahead. My vision for his life enables him to dream and take the limits off of his own creativity and become the person he was made to be.
Business is no different. There is no finish line for the person you can become. Who does your organization need you to be? What are you willing to do when no one is looking to become that person?
