“The day we stop growing is the day that we begin to die” – A mentor by the name of Tommy Lee (not the drummer) said this to me back in 2005. That phrase has always been a foundational philosophy in my desire to cultivate my personal net worth. If you are in a place of stagnation in your life… this may be the post for you.

Fast forward to 2023. Have you met your personal goals? Have you made tangible measurable progress today? Did you increase in your finances? Did you take 10,000 steps today? Did you hit the gym at 5am? Those are all fair questions we ask ourselves to gauge our growth. If you have not made any progress today… Let’s change that.

John Maxwell speaks often about altitude. He mentions that our attitude has a direct relationship to our altitude. Since we’ve been in Central Oregon my wife has found that the soil and climate here are radically different than our tropical garden we had in Hawai’i. In our yard we grew everything from papayas, pineapples, Hawaiian Chili Peppers and various vegetables with ease. The constant 80 degree weather and daily rain is almost a cheat code for growing food.

Planting seeds in a desert definitely has a different set of rules especially in the area of timing. With winter fast approaching we have discussed building a climate controlled greenhouse so we can grow our own food even in winter. Yesterday we opened a new account at a local credit union… and in the bank was a banana tree! After discussion with the employees we found that they have had the tree in that bank for two years!

I think this is a good place to land this plane… Sometimes to have growth we have to adapt our vessels so we can produce growth. It would be nice if we had the cheat codes of a Hawaiian tropical climate to grow… The truth is growth is not controlled by the climate but rather by the vessels that we use. Jim Rohn has one of the greatest quotes ever: “In order for things to change, you have to change”.

I hope this post stirs up something in all of us to become what is necessary to encourage growth. I also want to leave you with this thought… Is your growth affected by your identity? We will expound on this in my next post. Until then Mahalo for reading this far! See you soon.