(Music)
TERRI: Hey, I'm Terri Savelle Foy, your cheerleader of dreams.
Hey, if you've never subscribed to this podcast, just push the
little red button right there to get consistent teaching tools
and tips to help you live your dreams. Today, I want to talk
about what great leaders really do; what great leaders really
do. Years ago, John Maxwell was teaching a leadership seminar.
He agreed to do a Q&A at the end. Well apparently this young
guy with an MBA who was just kind of observing everything
about the conference, he was just admiring John Maxwell.
Well, think about it. There were 2,000 people in attendance. They
paid $2,000 each. In fact, let me grab my pocket calculator and
do some math here. 2,000 times 2,000 is four million dollars.
This kid is admiring all this and he stood up, and he just
said, "John Maxwell, I want to do what you do." Maxwell said,
"What do you think I do?" The kid said, "Well, you write all
these best selling books. You speak at conferences. You impact
lives." Then Maxwell said, "Young man, it's not a matter of
doing what I do." He said, "The important thing is do you want
to do what I did so you can do what I do." In other words, do
we want to pay the price in order to have that kind of life?
See, the point is, you can't have a million dollar dream with
a minimum wage work ethic. That's painful, isn't it?
Another kid who was there said, "John, I love your leadership
principles." He said, "I wish I had somebody to lead. I wish I
had a team, or a company, or a department to lead." He said,
"Where should I start?" Maxwell said, "Good question. Start with
you. Start with you." In other words, if you wouldn't follow
yourself, why should anyone else follow you? In fact, I've read
where 44% of the wealthiest people wake up three hours
before they go to work and only 3% of poor people do that. Well,
the point is, before you can lead anyone else, you must learn
to lead yourself. In other words, start developing the
leadership qualities in you that you want to teach somebody else.
Have the leadership values in you that you want to impart in
someone else. In fact, for me, a good way to think about this is
just imagine a teenager saying, 'I want to learn to be
successful. Can I just shadow you for the next five days, and
just kind of watch your habits?' What would they see? Now, you
might be groaning a little bit; but what would they observe
about your daily life, your routine, your rituals, your
habits that would motivate them to want to be like you? I mean
really think about it. You may have heard stories how after I
graduated from college, I worked 11 years and did not grow myself
at all. 11 years. I would wake up, I would sleep to the last
minute to get dressed, run out the door, and go to work. I
would go to work just barely on time. I'd listen to music on the
way to work. I did the same thing on the way home. I'd come
home, turn on the TV, all evening, get intrigued in other
people's lives; basically watching them live their dreams
until time to go to bed, and then do it again the next day.
Well now it makes sense to me why in 2002, when my life was
completely falling apart, I didn't have any vision for my
life. The Lord said to me in my prayer time, I'm learning to
listen, to journal my time with the Lord. I heard this phrase
just come up in my spirit. The Lord said, "Don't be average,
and your life won't be average." Emphasis on the understood
'you.' You don't be average, and your life won't be average. That
applies to everything. You don't be average, and your business
won't be average. You don't be average and your friendships
won't be average, your finances, your vacations, your body. You
don't be average, and your career won't be average. See,
your life will only grow to the extent that you grow. Again,
that applies to everything. Your money will only grow to the
extent that you grow. Your ministry will only grow to the
extent that you grow. Your career, your business, your
family. It's all going to grow to the extent that you grow.
What do real leaders do? They grow themselves. I just made a
decision to start doing simple disciplines every day for 21
days. You've heard the stories how I did it for 21 days, then
that led to 30 days, then that led to two months. Here's the
thing: I haven't stopped. Well, I had no idea that these simple
habits were enabling me to distinguish myself, to grow
myself. Those are the things that took me from ghostwriting
books for other people to authoring books, from attending
conferences to speaking at conferences, to watching TV for
hours to hosting a TV show. Well you know, most people call this
... successful people call this the hour of power. The hour of
power. Do you know the most successful people in the world
have routines and habits that cause them to grow? I'm talking
about everybody from Mick Jagger to Lady Gaga, Tony Robbins, Bill
Gates, Richard Branson; you name it. The most successful, high
achievers, CEOs, celebrities, pro athletes. Anyone you can
think of that's achieved great success, they practice the hour
of power. I'm telling you, this is a great place to start and
you can do this. This is how you start. You take the hour of
power, and it's 20 minutes of prayer, 20 minutes reading, and
20 minutes exercising. Now, that's something you can wrap
your faith around, can't you? We can do this. 20 minutes in
prayer. That doesn't mean you pray the whole 20 minutes. You
could start with journaling your time with the Lord, reading
positive declarations, writing in your gratitude journal. 20
minutes reading a book that's going to build your faith. It's
going to motivate you, and 20 minutes of exercise. Just a walk
around the block. I began to learn that the most successful
people in the world, they practiced what we call 'mind
over mattress.' In other words, they cherished the morning hours
to get up and invest in themselves. In fact, Jon
Acuff says, "Be selfish at 5:00 am." He said the only
way he could learn to be consistent in his personal
growth, and pursing his dream, in edition to a full time job
and a family, and all that was to start being selfish at 5:00
in the morning. To do what? To read, to listen to messages, to
journal, to write, to grow. He said, "You know, the thing is,
not one time has my wife complained that I wasn't
spending time with her at 5:00 in the morning." He said, "Not
one time has my daughter complained that I wouldn't go
jump on the trampoline with her at 5:00 in the morning." He
said, "No. This is your time to focus on you, your personal
development, your growth. You know, where you want to go to
the next level." I'm not saying you have to get up at 5:00 am.
It could be six, it could be seven; but the point is you're
getting up a little bit earlier to invest in you. Here's the
thing: if the idea of setting your alarm 30 minutes earlier or
an hour earlier sounds horrible to you, then you may not be
ready to go above average. In fact, Jon Acuff said, "If
your dream isn't worth 30 minutes of your time." He
said, "You've either got the wrong dream or you're just
pretending to have one." That's a bold statement, isn't it? In
fact, I heard someone say this; they said, "The word 'poor,'
this is what it stands for. P-O-O-R, passing over
opportunities repeatedly." Passing over opportunities
repeatedly. You might say, 'Terri, I haven't had any
opportunities.' Here's the argument: you do. Every morning
at 5:00 or 6:00, you have an opportunity to get up and invest
in yourself. I'm telling you from experience, as you grow,
everything around you is going to begin to grow. In fact, Zig
Ziglar, he said he encouraged people, goal oriented people, he
said, "Replace the term 'alarm clock' with the word
'opportunity clock.'" He said, "Immediately when the
opportunity clock goes off, your mind is headed in a positive
direction about what the day will bring. Remember, the words
from the Lord were, "Don't be average, and your life won't be
average." If the average person sleeps until the last minute,
you decide to get up early. Here's some examples of people.
Howard Schultz, Starbucks. He gets up at 4:30 am. Xerox CEO
gets up at 5:15. Chrysler CEO said he gets up at 3:30 in the
morning. General Motors, same thing, 4:30, 5:00. Apple CEO,
4:30 in the morning. Disney CEO, 4:30 in the morning. I
don't know about you, but I'm starting to see a pattern.
Successful people get up early to invest in themselves. Arnold
Schwarzenegger made this statement, he said, "People
complain and they say, 'But Arnold, I need to eight to ten
hours of sleep.'" He said, "My recommendation, "Sleep faster."
Okay, I can't sound like Arnold, but you get my point. When you
consciously take charge of the first few hours, it sets you up
to succeed the rest of the day. It's just like when you get on
an airplane. When you get on the plane, they always tell
you, make sure you put your oxygen mask on first; because
when you take care of yourself first, then you can take care of
others. Well, it's the same with life. You have to take care of
yourself, invest in yourself first thing before you invest in
everyone else. I want to challenge you. Set a goal to do
this for 21 days. Condition yourself to establish a habit of
leading yourself. Then imagine ... a teenager watching you for
a week, and just observing your habits and saying, 'Man, you are
so consistent. You do this every day?' You say, 'Yeah. The secret
of your future is in your daily routine.' I want to challenge
you with the hour of power. Do something every single day to
lead yourself. We can do this, can't we? I'm telling you from
experience, if I can do it, you can do it. In fact, I want to
mention real quick, our YouTube subscriber this week is Hannan.
This is what Hannan writes: "I'm so grateful that I came
across your video. I was feeling so lost and confused
for the past two years, to the extent that I couldn't do any
goals that I was setting. I thought I'd moved on, but that
wasn't the case. Soul ties are for real." I understand. She
said, "I have started using your techniques to break them. Thank
you so much. God bless you." Well you know, Hannan, I am
cheering you on and believing that you have the drive to
achieve every goal that God has put in your heart. I want you to
know your best days are ahead, they're not behind you. To
encourage you, to help you stay motivated to distinguish
yourself this month, I have a free download for you. Now this
download includes a calendar with a little checklist every
day so that you practice the hour of power, where you read
for 20 minutes, you pray for 20 minutes, you exercise for 20
minutes. Now, this is just a little printable calendar that
you can hang up on your wall or maybe your bathroom mirror, so
every day, you're focused on the hour of power. The link for the
download can be found in the description below. For more
consistent motivation, be sure you follow me on Instagram,
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right there for weekly videos to make this your best year yet.
Thank you so much for watching today. I'll see you next week.