The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth – Chapter 10 - The Law of the Rubber Band

Chapter 10 – The Law of the Rubber Band

What is the one thing that rubber bands have in common?

They are only useful if they are stretched!

To Be Successful and to Become a Leader, You Must Stretch Yourself.

Too many people settle for being average in life.

Read this description by Edmund Gaudet and then you decide:

‘Average’ is what the failures claim to be when their family and friends ask them why they are not more successful.

‘Average’ is the top of the bottom, the best of the worst, the bottom of the top, the worst of the best.

‘Average’ means being run-of-the-mill, mediocre, insignificant, an also-man, a nonentity.

Being ‘average’ is the lazy person's cop-out, it’s lacking the guts to take a stand in life; it’s living by default.

Being ‘average’ is to take up space for no purpose; to take the trip through life, but never to pay the fare; to return no interest for God’s investment in you.

Being ‘average’ is to pass one’s life away with time, rather than to pass one’s time away with life; it’s to kill time, rather than to work it to death.

To be ‘average’ is to be forgotten once you pass from this life. The successful are remembered for their contribution; the failures they remembered because they tried; but the average, the silent majority is just forgotten.

To be ‘average’ is to commit the greatest crime one can against one’s self, humanity, and one’s God. The saddest epitaph is this: Here lies Mr. and Mrs. Average – here lies the remains of what might have been, except for their belief that they were only “average.”

Settling for the Status Quo Ultimately Leads to Dissatisfaction.

Abraham Maslow said, “If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”

Stretching Always Starts from the Inside Out

Every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will the tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings, on the other hand, have been given the dignity of choice. You can choose to be all, or you can choose to be less. Why not stretch up to the full measure of the challenge and see what all you can do?

Stretching Always Requires Change.

Stop looking over your shoulder. It’s difficult to focus on the past and change in the present - Yesterday ended last night.

If you want to grow, you must take risks. A.G. Buckham said, “Monotony is the awful reward of the careful.” If you want to grow and change, you must take risks. Innovation and progress are often initiated by people who push for change.

Stretching Sets You Apart from Others

Excellence seems to be moving farther and farther from the norm. I hear way too often “I guess good enough is good enough”.

The way you get ahead is to over-deliver. Improving yourself is the best way to help your team. Successful people set themselves apart because they initiate the improvement others need.

Stretching Can Become a Lifestyle

When we stop stretching, we stop really living. “If you won’t be better tomorrow than you were today, then what do you need tomorrow for?”, Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav asked.

Stretching Gives You a Shot at Significance

Significance is birthed within each of us. If we are willing to stretch, that seed can grow until it begins to bear fruit in our lives. What’s fantastic is that the change within us challenges us to make changes around us, and our growth creates a belief in us that others can grow.

Stretching to the End.

Growth stops when you lose the tension between where you are and where you could be. Most famous athletes keep challenging themselves. For most people, as time goes by, they lose the tension that prompts growth – especially if they experience any success.

Ask yourself:

1. In what areas of your life have you lost your stretch and settled in?

2. Be strategic to maintain the tension between where you are and where you could be continually resetting intermediate-range goals for yourself.

3. If you need an overarching goal to keep you stretching, think about what significant action you could take if only you become what you could be. Dream big and set this as your lifetime goal.

The Law of the Rubber Band – Chapter 10 of the 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John C Maxwell