INSIGHT ON INITIATIVE
If you want to reach your POTENTIAL, you have to show initiative. Here's why:1) Initiative Is the First Step to Anywhere You Want to Go.
Where you finish in life isn't determined so much by where you start as by whether you start.
2) Initiative Close the Door to Fear.
Author Katherine Peterson said, "To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another." We all have fears. The question is whether we are going to control them or allow them to control us. Also, Author and Pastor Norman Vincent Peale asseted, "Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all." If you want to close the door on fear, get moving.
3) Initiative Opens the Door to Opportunity.
Benjamin Franklin, one of a nation Founding Fathers, advised "To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.". People who take initiative and work hard may success, or they may fail; but if they keep on they will actually succeed, that is, be a success BUT anyone who doesn't take initiative is almost guaranteed to fail.
Do you know you have :
a) A decision you should be making,
b) A problem you should be solving,
c) A possibility you should be examining,
d) A project you should be starting,
e) A goal you should be reaching,
f) An opportunity you should be seizing,
g) A dream you should be fulfilling.
No one can wait until everything is perfect to act and expect to be successful. It's better to be 80 percent sure and make things happen than it is to wait until you are are 100 percent sure because by then, the opportunity will have already passed you by.
4) Initiative Eases Life's Difficulties
William James said, "Nothing is so fatiguing as the hanging on of an uncomfortable take." The longer we let things slide, the harder they become. The hardest work is often the accumulation of many easy things that should have been done yesterday, last week, or last month. The only way to get rid of a difficult task is to do it. That takes initiative.
5) Initiative Is Often the Difference Between Success and Failure
Talent without Initiative never reaches its potential. It's like a cater-pillar that won't get into its cocoon. It will never transform, forever relegated to crawling on the ground, even though it had the potential to fly.
PEOPLE WHO LACK INITIATIVE
1.) People who do the right thing without being told
2.) People who do the right thing when told
3.) People who do the right thing when told more than once
4.) People who never do the right thing, thing, no matter what.
Anyone who wants to become a talent-plus person needs to become the first kind of person. Why doesn't everyone do that? I think there are several reasons.
1. People Who Lack Initiative Fail to See the Consequences of Inaction
King Solomon in Book of Proverbs said:
"You lazy fool, look at an ant.
Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two.
Nobody has to tell it what to do.
All summer it stores up food;
at harvest it storepiles provisions.
So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing?
How long before you get out of bed?
A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,
sit back, take it easy --do you know what comes next?
Just this :You can look to a dirt-poor life,
poverty your permanent houseguest!"
"It's easy to dodge our responsibility, but we cannot dodge the Consequences of dodging our responsibilities."_Economist Sir Josiah Stamp. That is true. Whatever we do, or neglect to do, will catch up with us in the end. Those who don't initiate often end up like the subject of English playwright James Albery's verse,
He slept beneath the moon;
He based beneath the sun,
He lived a life of going-to-do;
And died with nothing done.
Don't let that happen to you.
2. People Who Lack Initiative Want Someone Else to Motivate Them
Successful people don't need a lighted fuse to motivate them. Their motivation comes from within. If we wait for others to motivate us, what happens when a coach, a boss, or other inspirational person doesn't show up? We need a better plan than that.
If you want to get ahead, you need to light your own fire.
3. People Who Lack Initiative Look for the Perfect Time to Act
Timing is important, no doubt about that. But it's also true that all worth-while endeavors in life require risk. I love Chinese proverb: "He who deliberates fully before taking a step will spend his entire life on one leg." For many people, the tragedy isn't that life ends too soon; it's that they wait too long to begin it.
4. People Who Lack Initiative Like Tomorrow Better Than Today
One of the reasons noninitiators have such a difficult time getting started is that they focus their attention on tomorrow instead of today. Jazz musician Jimmy Lyons remarked, "Tomorrow is the only day in the year that appeals to a lazy man." But that attitude gets us into trouble because the only time over which we have any control is the present.
Anything worth doing is worth doing immediately. Remember that for people who never start, their difficulties never stop.
TALENT + INITIATIVE = A TALENT-PLUS PERSON
Culled From: TALENT IS NEVER ENOUGH_by_John C. Maxwell
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