I've always wondered what the world would look like if every person were operating at their highest level - whatever that level is.

As a teacher, I've always thought that helping my students grow in knowledge was part of helping to get every person to operate at their highest level - and it is.

But there's something that's more important than that. And that is personal growth.

What does personal growth mean? Personal growth will be unique for everyone.

If you want to discover your purpose, you need to grow in self-awareness. 
If you want to become a better human being, you need to grow in character. 
If you want to advance in a career, you need to grow your skills.
If you want to be a better friend, you need to grow in your relationships.
If you want to reach your financial goals, you need to grow in your knowledge about how money works.

If there was one idea I could go back and give to myself as I was starting out in the adult world, it would be this idea of intentional personal growth, which means growth does not happen on accident.

And that's what this class is about. We will use John Maxwell's book, "The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth," as a guide to apply growth to our own lives. While we will read this book together, the lessons will be individual and unique to the person doing the growing.

You will need a copy of the book, and we will start each class by reading the chapter together. The learner also needs to be motivated towards their success - this is not a class for those that need to become motivated - it won't work for those students who aren't ready to push themselves.

We will then highlight the ideas that are important to us and share them with the group. As the leader of the class, I will start first to model what is expected. 

Then I will have some questions to further discussion and deepen our understanding of the subject before we decided on an action step that we will take during the next week.

That action step will be unique to the student, and each week after the first week, students will share how they accomplished their action step and how that affected their lives. By the end of the 15 week class, the goal is to see intentional growth within the student.

Remember, no on improves by accident. We must be intentional in our actions, and it helps to have people who support us in those actions. I hope that's what you will find in this class!

Schedule for the Term (may be subject to change):

Week 1: Class Structure - Chapter 1 - The Law of Intentionality 
- Growth doesn't just happen. If you want to get better at anything, the best results will come if you do it on purpose. This chapter will give you structure on how to intentionally move toward success.

Week 2: Chapter 2 - The Law of Awareness 
- You must know yourself to grow yourself. Self-awareness is a wonderful tool to help you be successful. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What are your blind spots? All of this information can help you make better decisions.

Week 3: Chapter 3 - The Law of the Mirror 
- You must see value in yourself to add value to yourself. A strong self-image helps you continue the path to growth. We will talk about the best tools for building a strong self-image and defeating self-limiting beliefs.

Week 4: Chapter 4 - The Law of Reflection 
- Learning to pause allows growth to catch up with you. Experience is not the best teacher - reflected experience is the best teacher. What is the best process to get the most out of your experiences?

Week 5: Chapter 5 - The Law of Consistency 
- Motivation gets you going - discipline keeps you growing. In this class, we will learn that your daily agenda predicts your success. We will start to think about what you can do every day to help you be successful.

Week 6: Chapter 6 - The Law of Environment 
- Growth thrives in conducive surroundings. Who you surround yourself with, and what does your physical environment look like are important pieces of the puzzle towards growth. We will talk about those things and others here.

Week 7: Chapter 7 - The Law of Design
- To maximize growth, develop strategies. Designing your life takes systems and processes that will help you be successful by helping identify your priorities and putting a plan into motion.

Week 8: Chapter 8 - The Law of Pain
- Good management of bad experiences leads to great growth. Every problem introduces a person to themselves. Everyone will have bad experiences in their lives, but how we manage them can help our growth tremendously or hold us back.

Week 9: Chapter 9 - The Law of the Ladder
- Character growth determines the height of your personal growth. The inside influences the outside - who you are will determine how successful you will be. Talk and action matching, and the ability to build and maintain trust with others is essential to your success. We will learn about those principles here.

Week 10: Chapter 10 - The Law of the Rubber Band
- Growth stops when you lose the tension between where you are and where you could be. Being comfortable is the end of growth if you stay in that comfort zone. There must always be a tension as you strive to become the best version of yourself.

Week 11: Chapter 11 - The Law of of Trade-offs
- You have to give up to grow up. You will not be able to have or keep everything you want as you move to become more. Sometimes, you will have to let go the things that currently believe or value most to reach the things that will matter most to you in your life.

Week 12: Chapter 12 - The Law of Curiosity
- Growth is stimulated by asking why? Wonder can be a powerful motivator if acted upon. Curiosity helps a person wonder what can be changed, what can be better, and how can I get there? 

Week 13: Chapter 13 - The Law of Modeling
- It's hard to improve when you have no one but yourself to follow. This chapter will discuss how to find a good mentor that has walked a similar path that you want to walk and who can help stretch and grow you toward the success that you want to achieve.

Week 14: Chapter 14 - The Law of Expansion
- Growth always increases your capacity. This chapter is where we lay the foundation for the idea that growth doesn’t have a finish line. If you practice growth on a daily basis, with the intention of becoming the best version of yourself, then there are no ends to the possibilities!

Week 15: Chapter 15 - The Law of Contribution
- Growing yourself enables you to grow others. This chapter discusses becoming a river, not a reservoir. As you grow, you can serve others to help them grow. As we grow together, our capacity to achieve more becomes multiplied.