The School of Greatness - 813 Live Intentionally

Episode Date: June 21, 2019

WRITE YOUR STORY. Everyone has a story. You do. I do. Your life will be recorded. The question is, is your story the one that you want to be told? We often let other people write our pages instead of taking the pen and doing it ourselves. If you want your life to be a masterpiece, you’re going to have to live intentionally. For this Five Minute Friday, I revisited a conversation I had with John Maxwell where he shared the gift that inspired him to live an intentional life. John C. Maxwell is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, coach, and speaker who has sold more than 25 million books in fifty languages. In 2014 he was identified as the #1 leader in business by the American Management Association and the most influential leadership expert in the world by Business Insider and Inc. magazine. The recipient of the Mother Teresa Prize for Global Peace and Leadership from the Luminary Leadership Network, Dr. Maxwell speaks each year to Fortune 500 companies, presidents of nations, and many of the world's top business leaders. John says that in order to live intentionally, you have to bridge the gap between knowing and doing. You have to take your good intentions and act them out.

This is 5-Minute Friday! Let me introduce you to today's guest. He is an incredible human being. His name is John C. Maxwell. He's a number one New York Times bestselling author, coach, and speaker who has sold more than 25 million books in 50 languages. sold more than 25 million books in 50 languages. And in 2014, he was identified as the number one leader in business by the American Management Association and the most influential leadership expert in the world by Business Insider and

Inc. Magazine. He's also been voted the top leadership professional in the world on leadershipgurus.net for six consecutive years. He's trained more than 5 million leaders. In 2015, he reached the milestone of having trained leaders from every country in the world. He is the recipient of the Mother Teresa Prize for Global Peace and Leadership from the Luminary Leadership Network. And he speaks each year to Fortune 500 companies, presidents of nations, and

many of the world's top business leaders. Most people don't lead their life, they accept their life. Will you say that again? And because most people don't lead their life, they accept their life. And if you lead your life, you're intentional. If you accept your life, you're letting someone else determine your life for you. And yet 99% of people get up every day and they say, well, I hope something good happens to me. I hope something wonderful is good.

But they're not intentional. And so I wrote the book to say, okay, here's what's beautiful. Every person can be intentional. And here's what I mean by that. If somebody said, John, I really want to be successful. I want to be significant in my life, and I really want to make my life matter. What do I need? What's the quickest, easiest way to do that?

I would just look at it and say you have to become intentional. What does it mean for you to become intentional? It means that I do this on purpose. I choose to take action on what I already feel. You see, the greatest gap in life is the gap between knowing and doing. Most people don't lack knowledge of success that keeps them from success. They just don't do it. And intentional living means I take my good intentions and I act them out.

You know, the word intentional means it means deliberate. It means consistent. It means willful. I mean, deliberate means I do this on purpose. Consistent means I do it on purpose all the time. Willful means it's a choice I have made for myself. I've willed this. And in the book, I talk about this is how you

live an intentional life, and this is how you begin to add value to people. Let me tell you a story. This is probably the most important thing I want to share because this is what happened to me, because why I wrote the book, and what I want to happen

to the readers of this book. I was in my 20s, and my assistant, she was my secretary, but for Christmas, she gave me a book, and I unwrapped the book, and the title was The Greatest Story Ever Told. And I loved to read, and I said, boy, thank you, this is going to be a great book. I mean, my gosh, The Greatest Story Ever Told, are you kidding me? And I mean, before I even opened the book, I'm always thinking, what's the greatest story ever told? And, you me? And I mean, before I even opened the book, I'm always thinking, what's the greatest story I've told? And, you know, here we go. And I opened

the book, and much to my surprise, the pages are blank. And Eileen Beavers, up in the corner of that first blank page, wrote these words, Jai, and your life is before you. Fill these pages with kind deeds,

matters of your heart, things that matter. live a life of significance and I'm telling you Lewis I said okay I got this I'm not going to read my life I'm going to write my life I'm not going to be passive about this I'm not going to

let somebody else write my own story and I literally took that book with the blank pages and I started writing just thoughts that I had. And it wasn't my first book, but it was really my, it was when I began to say, I'm going to become the author of my life. That

totally changed me. That day I woke up and I said to myself, my life is going to be recorded. That is the question. The question is, am I going to control that life? Am I going to be intentional with that life so that it really matters? Am I going to make every day my masterpiece?

So when I wrote this book, Intentional Living, I started off in the first chapter. I talk about everybody has a story. You have a story. Everybody has a story. That's not the question. You have a story. The question is, is it the story that you really want for your life? The only way it's going to be the story

you really want for your life is you're going to have to write it. You can't let someone else write this story. And so I challenge people throughout the book, go begin doing acts of significance, and significance is about others. So be intentional, do something and significances about others. So be intentional. Do something intentionally every day for others.