by Carrie “Arlene” Young-Hall

Gifting without growth produces ineffectiveness. You can be great – even the best – at something, but if you never try to improve yourself beyond that it won’t be long before you find yourself surpassed by others. Think of any world record that you know of. It broke an earlier record, and it will fall in due time.

The same is true of personal and business growth. As soon as you become complacent with where you are, someone will come along who isn’t complacent. When they break the current records, or become better than you at what you do, they’ll be the one that people turn to instead of you.

Growth prevents stagnation. Everybody goes through down periods, but if you are constantly striving for growth, those periods will come less often and disappear more quickly. Growth has its own momentum: when you start growing, its easier to keep growing. Only when you stop do you stagnate. Then it becomes much harder to start growing again.

Continuous improvement guarantees success! If you keep reaching for the goal you will eventually reach it. It’s inevitable. Practice may not always make perfect, but it gets you a lot closer to it than those that don’t practice. You can never go wrong trying to improve.

And while I may not see the growth potential in a gas station or deli, there are those who do. You just need to decide if making a good sandwich is enough or if you want to strive to make the best sandwich, or provide the best customer service, the most cutting edge hair styles, etc. Wherever you are, whatever your niche, look for those opportunities for growth. Find them and attack them with vigor. I have no doubt that once you do, you’ll see endless opportunities before you. I see those endless opportunities so lets all go to the top and remember… the best is yet to come!