“What do my personal relationships and habits have to do with growing my business?” You could insert your area of growth in there too.
Without fail, there is a misunderstanding in a coaching relationship when we begin talking about things other than business. Things of a more personal nature. For some reason, we think that using the words like “business” or “career” makes things less personal. As if every business was not made up of people. Each of us with our own design, style, and history. Each job within a business is intimately tied to the person doing the job. It’s even more true of the business owner. The business and brand of a company is a direct reflection of the person at the top of it. We cannot separate professional aspirations from the person. If the person is in a rut, the business is in a rut. If the person is not trustworthy, the brand will not be trusted. I have seen far too many promising entrepreneurs and professionals try to convince themselves that it is ok to ignore all of their personal issues and expect their business to grow. They soon learn that tactic fails every time. How do we end up trying to create a career or business that is separate from the people we long to be? We begin the separation when we hit the ceiling of our personal capacity.
If I stop growing as a person, my business will not outgrow me. Personal growth is often uncomfortable, so I start hoping my business is a separate thing that I can focus on instead. It isn’t, so I stall. Our personal growth is not as important as our business growth…it’s MORE important. Personal growth means that I am recognizing who I am, how I’m designed, and nourishing my particular gifts. As those gifts develop, they become strengths. Any business built on or by the strengths of the owner will flourish as the owner does.
You grow, your business grows. You stop growing…
To make sure we keep growing, our first task is to acknowledge our design. Seeing my strengths is one part, but an often ignored aspect is desire. What pulls on you? What are the desires of your heart? This answer alone can start the momentum of growth, if we will embrace it. Many people don’t embrace the desires of their heart because they have been taught that those desires are selfish. I want to propose to you though that the desires of our hearts are a direct reflection of what we allow into our heart. If I allow selfishness and malice into my heart, my desires are selfish and unconcerned with others. If I allow love and compassion into my heart, my desires reach well beyond any benefits they bring to me. How do I make sure the right things are pouring into my heart? I draw close to the one who designed it. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in The Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
That Psalm can be interpreted a couple of ways. The first is that God will give you the object of your heart’s desire. The second is more accurate I think. That God will place the desires in your heart. Doesn’t that sound like a perfect plan?! The designer knows what works best, so why not let Him decide what goes in there? If God Himself has placed the desires in my heart, who am I to doubt them? This is where personal growth really starts.
I trust God to have designed me exactly as I should be. In that trust I open my heart to being the best ME I possibly can because my desires require it. The beauty of our design is that we can never reach our full potential in this life. We’re infinite! That’s a beautiful thing because we will never have to stop growing. Now that I can see how much there is for myself and the world to gain by my never-ending growth, everyday is spent getting better. As I get better, everything I touch has the chance to get bigger and better with me. Including my profession.
If you find you’re stuck or lagging, turn your focus to your own growth. Trust your designer, love your design, and see how far you can go.
Become a Better You!
John Ramsey
