How to Multiply Your Growth

Are you too busy to read/listen? I'm too busy NOT to read and listen!!! I believe leaders are learners and will take any and every opportunity to grow. However, it's like food: if you don't choose what you will eat, you end up eating trash fast food and eventually start looking like it also! If you don't intentionally feed yourself with learning materials you will consume what someone else wants you to feed on - social media, news etc etc.

I like to listen to audiobooks and, more recently, podcasts. If I find a podcast or audiobook that is REALLY good, I buy the physical copy to keep. If I find a book REALLY REALLY good I will buy extra copies to give away. In this post I will unpack WHAT I'm listening to/reading, WHY I am listening to that specifically, HOW I listen and what I'm learning. My goal is to stir you up to do the same.

1. WHY I listen/read

I want to grow. There's so much I don't know. I want to stay sharp. I want to learn from people who have gone before me. Not learning is simply arrogance and sets you up for stupid mistakes because we don't learn from the mistakes and wisdom of those who have gone before us.

2. HOW I listen/read

I'm busy. I am married to my best friend and have four teenage children plus three dogs, chickens and ducks. I lead business people all over the world and have friends and family spread everywhere. I also have a 3 acre property whose landscape was destroyed by fire in 2018 and is still being restored. Needless to say I have every reason to be 'busy.' OR I CAN GET CREATIVE.

• I read a couple pages of a physical book before I go to sleep every night
• I read a few pages on Saturday mornings before I start on chores
• I snatch a few pages here and there during the week
• I listen to audiobooks/bible if I wake in the night (on a timer as I will fall back to sleep)
• I listen to audio/podcast as I do chores, drive in/out of town and do exercise

The point is this - there is ALWAYS TIME for what is most important.

3. WHAT I am listening to/reading at present

The themes I sense Lord speaking to me about for this year are leadership and the Kingdom of God. So I have intentionally sought out books/resources that feed that. I also get recommendations from friends all the time and if one or more of these resonate with me I will grab a copy.

Current or just finished:

Jack Taylor - The Cosmic Initiative

E. Stanley Jones - The Unshakeable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person
Myles Monroe - Gods Big Idea. Rediscovering the kingdom. Applying the kingdom
RT Kendall - The Lords Prayer
Ford Taylor. Relactional leadership (Ive been giving away LOTS of copies of this one)

Alisa Childers. Another Gospel (I've been giving away copies of this one)
Eliyahu Goldratt. The Goal. Theory of constraints
Patrice Tsague. Biblical Entrepreneurship

Current Podcasts
God is not a Theory (Ken Fish)
Alisa Childers Podcast
Ford Taylor Talks

What book or podcast are you listening to at the moment that you think EVERYONE should be listening to also?