FOUR DAYS IN A GROWTH ENVIRONMENT

I spent four days of the first week of August attending the International Maxwell Certification Workshop in Orlando, Florida. Those were four days of intensive experience in a growth environment.

To begin with, it was one of the most difficult journeys one has made. I had booked the flight and hotel as part of a vacation package long before the trip. I had also paid the workshop fees well ahead of time.

So, as far as I was concerned, I had tied up all loose ends and everything was now settled. We got to the airport well ahead of time. Everything seemed to go well until we got to the check-in counter.

Then we were informed that we needed a transit visa for Dublin, where we were to take a connecting flight to the US. It was a terrible experience! We discovered our mistake – we had relied on the airline to inform us whether we needed transit visa for any leg of the journey. That was a valuable lesson that would save us from embarrassment in the future.

We had to return home, book another flight and then travel the following day. Fortunately for us, we had planned to arrive 3 full days before the workshop, so we did not miss any part of it. However, we lost the opportunity to visit Disney and some other tourist sites Florida is noted for.

Again, fortunately for us, we were able to secure a refund from American Airlines without much hassles although we are still struggling to obtain a refund from the hotel because we were able to notify them of the incident before our scheduled date of arrival.

Well, those are the pains we went through to put ourselves in a growth environment.

And what about the experience? Incredible! From the warm and cautious attendees from across the globe to the conference officials always happy and willing to assist.

Apart from the training itself, we were challenged by the stories of people who conquered apparently insurmountable obstacles to make something out of their lives. I was particularly challenged by the story of Bonnie St. John.

Here is her incredible story.

“Despite having her right leg amputated at age five, Bonnie St. John became the first African-American ever to win medals in Winter Olympic competition, taking home a silver and two bronze medals at the 1984 Winter Paralympics in Innsbruck, Austria. In recognition of this historic achievement, Bonnie was quoted on millions of Starbucks coffee cups and was honored with her portrait in the Main Hall of Trinity College at Oxford as a distinguished alumna.

Bonnie has achieved the highest levels of success in a variety of endeavors throughout her life. In addition to her success as a Paralympic athlete, she is a bestselling author, a highly sought-after keynote speaker and leadership consultant for the Fortune 500, a television and radio personality, and an experienced conference facilitator.

She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University, and won the Rhodes Scholarship. Upon her return to the United States, Bonnie was appointed by President Clinton as a Director for Human Capital Issues on the White House National Economic Council.

Today, Bonnie travels the globe speaking, leading seminars, and researching her various writing projects. She frequently donates personal appearances at schools, homeless shelters, community groups, and other organizations in hundreds of locations while traveling for corporate clients.

As CEO of the Blue Circle Leadership Institute, Bonnie leads several international virtual leadership programs including Transformational Leadership – designed to address the unique challenges of multicultural women in the workplace. The celebrated author of seven books, Bonnie co-authored her latest work, MICRO-RESILIENCE: Minor Shifts for Major Boosts in Focus, Drive, & Energy, with her husband, former entertainment industry CEO, Allen Haines.”

As I sat there and listened to her story, I said to myself, “if this lady can overcome such impossible circumstance to make something out of herself, and make the world a better place, then I have no excuse”.

To be sincere with you, I used to think that I have come a very long way, given my own exceptionally difficult circumstances. At some point it was doubtful if it would be possible for me to go beyond elementary school. But here am I today.

While maintaining an attitude of gratitude for all that God has done for me, I am also fully conscious that there is still a lot of room for improvement. Especially, in the light of the experiences of people like Bonnie St. John.

I don’t know about you, but I do not want to appear before my maker only to discover that I had sold myself short. I do not want to discover too late that I could have been more and done more, if only I had striven harder, or had put myself where I could receive enough support to go further.

How does that sit with you?

Shake of the sense of helplessness and dependency. Don’t hang your destiny on the goodwill or benevolence of others. Nobody owes you any such things. If Bonnie St. John, a young African-American woman, walking on a prosthetic leg can surmount all the odds to achieve what she has, no one has reasonable excuses.

It is no longer acceptable to blame the government or politicians, or any other factor for that matter for our failure. The day we stop whining and start moving in the direction of our destinies, providence will also move to our support.

One other thing I heard that made such impact on me is this: “If I can do it, You also can”. That came from Mark Cole, the CEO of five of John Maxwell’s organizations. That may look innocent or meaningless to some. But to me it simply makes great accomplishment look ordinary. I could only respond with, “Yes, if you can, so can I”.

As we returned from the event, I felt as though my system had been completely reset. I returned home re-energized to pursue my purpose with renewed vigor. My wife, who had just joined the elite rank of the twenty thousand certified independent coaches, trainers and speakers returned a totally new person. By her testimony, her limiting beliefs had been mercilessly slaughtered, and she liberated to achieve, succeed, and impact her world. Here she is all fired up and ready to go.

Well, as I said in my earlier post on growth environment, a healthy growth environment is where you have people ahead of you, who encourage and support you as you reach your potential.

Are you in a growth environment? Note that you cannot flock with the chickens and expect to soar like an eagle. It will never happen. They will pull you down!

2 Comments

  1. Elijah A Idowu on September 5, 2018 at 1:37 am

    This is awesome sir, and we thank God for the opportunity to benefits from these great words of growth even when we were not at the workshop, but most of the lessons are well grounded out for our consumption.
    Thank you sir for sharing this with us and welcome back.



    • Emmanuel Udo on October 17, 2018 at 5:22 pm

      Dear Bro. Elijah,
      You are welcome.
      God bless you



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