Favorite Quotes - Part 1

I thought this week that I would take some of my favorite quotes and write about them. So here goes with favorite quote #1.

"You will be the same person you are today five years from now except for the places you go, the books you read, and the people you meet." John Maxwell

Do something that expands your horizons, that challenges the way you think, that gets you out of your comfort zone. Allow your small view of life and way of thinking be challenged and expanded by the new.

It is so easy to get into a rut. It is so easy to get so wrapped up in our own little world that we can't see beyond ourselves and our little lives. We constantly struggle against this so we constantly need something to stretch us and pull us out of mediocrity. I love this quote because it gives one way to do just that. Pursue and experience the new and do it not for pleasure sake but to aid you in seeing beyond yourself.

The three ways, according to this quote, to do this is to read new books, see new places, and meet new people. Seeing new places doesn't require as much time and money as you think and those new places do not have to be beautiful or fun places. Seek out the new to change you. Travel to dirty, poor, and needy places to see how others live and be moved with compassion. Travel and see the different parts of nature in God's amazing creation. Travel and appreciate.

Meeting new people is easier for some than it is for others, but the more people you meet and invest in, the more perspectives you will have by which to view life. The more people you meet, the better person you will be if you constantly keep a right perspective of God and people. Meet new people and appreciate them. Allow them to be them and don't ever get prideful because you think you are better.

READ new books! This may be the one area that requires the most self-discipline but is at the same time the easiest to do. And this one is huge. Just think, by picking up a book and reading, you can get inside the brains of the greatest theologians, romantics, scientists, poets, preachers, counselors, creative thinkers, and the list goes on and on. Just by reading, you have a world of knowledge, wisdom, insight, and perspective at your fingertips that you would never have in your brain if you chose not to read. If you don't ever read, you will never grow. You will stay small in your thinking. This is probably the most important of the three. You must read if you want to get out and stay out of a rut. You must read if you want to grow.

So yeah, expand and grow. Go see some new places (maybe just drive in a new neighborhood that you have never seen), meet some new people (reach out beyond yourself - say "Hi, how's your day going?"), and most definitely read some new books (go get a library card and get started!)! It will change you for the good if you let it!