Life is filled with opportunities to grow.  However, what are you doing to take advantage of these opportunities?

One of the most important components to success is growth.  And no growth can occur without a person stretching.

So let’s look at a two key ways to stretch in order to grow and develop yourself.

1.    Train your mind.

I know you have heard the phrase, “The mind is a terrible thing to waste.”  I spoke about this in one of my weekly Friday’s Encouragement emails that goes out to numerous thriving leaders.  In one of these emails, I said, “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

How are you training your mind?

When you are training your mind, you are positioning yourself for various levels of success.  Training of any kind is important because it helps with competency, productivity, and efficiency.  Gaining these types of skills prepares you for challenges seen and unseen.  Yes, challenges are coming.  That’s the bad news.  Now here’s the good news, you will be prepared for the challenge in you train your mind.

I know you are thinking - how do I train my mind?

Training our mind is being more aware of the following:

-    Where we’ve been,

-    Who we are, and

-    Where we’re going.

Awareness helps you to discover negative thoughts, habits, and actions that may be hindering your growth.  This can happen by self-discovery or through a mentor.

2.    Try new things.

The only way to grow and develop is by trying new things.  Genius and physicist Albert Einstein knows a little something about trying new things.  He developed the theory of relativity, which has become one of the two pillars of modern physics.  Einstein said, “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

Many avoid trying new things to avoid making a mistake.  Einstein failed many times before any of his successes.  How many mistakes have you made?  By trying new things, you will expose yourself to new people, new opportunities, new ideas, new systems, and new energy.  Sometimes all we need is new thinking to create new patterns of growth, development, and innovation.

Let’s face it: You need to stretch.  Your personal and professional life depends on it.  So what are you waiting on?  It will not happen without you training your mind and trying new things.  You can do this, start today and take advantage of the various opportunities for you to be successful.

In what ways do you need to stretch?  Please leave a comment below, send me a tweet on Twitter, or leave a comment on Facebook.

Bryant

If you liked what you read here, subscribe here to get the latest ideas on success and leadership.