Can you expect to win a gold medal in the Olympics if you start preparing the day of the try outs for your country's team? Probably not.
In the same way, each of us needs to develop ourselves spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, physically, intellectually, and socially if we want to accomplish more in the future. Many books take one aspect of life and suggest daily activities to strengthen that part of one's life. Dr. John C. Maxwell has taken that important idea further in this book and suggested what you need to do each day in 12 different areas.
The 12 areas are:
Choose and display the right attitude
Determine and act on important priorities
Know and follow healthy guidelines
Communicate with and care for your family
Practice and develop good thinking
Make and keep proper commitments
Make and properly manage your money
Deepen and live out your spiritual faith
Initiate and invest in solid personal relationships
Plan for and model being generosity
Embrace and practice good values
Seek out and embrace personal improvements.
Each section comes with negative and positive examples so you understand the point Dr. Maxwell is trying to make. I often found the negative examples to be more instructive than the positive ones. I don't want to be like those people!
At the end of each section are a series of questions to help you make the decisions and take the actions you need to do to accomplish what you want to in life. So, you're not modeling on what Dr. Maxwell does specifically . . . but rather turning a spotlight into areas he's found to be valuable in his own, very successful life.
I often marvel at how much Dr. Maxwell accomplishes. He writes lots of books. He gives many speeches. He trains enormous numbers of leaders. He inspires millions more. For a long time, I've wondered what the discipline was like that he uses. Now that I have read this book, I know. And I'm very impressed. This is a level of self-discipline and focus that I had never considered before.
Mid-way through the book, I found myself becoming intimidated by all that needs to be done . . . and began to despair if I was up to the challenge. It was with a great sense of relief that I found this problem addressed in the conclusion to the book. Rather than attacking the whole Mount Everest of opportunity for daily self-discipline all at once, he suggests starting with two areas where you are doing well and one where you are not. Then, switch focus as you get one of the areas you have been working on where you want to get it. I think that's a reasonable plan, and only wish he had suggested that approach in the beginning of the book.
Personally, the book would have worked better for me if I had read it in this order: faith, values, attitude, thinking, growth, health, family, relationships, commitment, generosity, finances and priorities. I suspect that the right order for you will be different from either Dr. Maxwell's or mine. The book is modular enough that you can reorder your reading of the chapters after the first two to provide a focus that fits with the way you like to organize your thinking and actions. I encourage you to do so.
Although this book will make a tremendous difference in your life, it will make even more difference if you share and discuss it with those you love and care about. So be generous in sharing this remarkable volume.
