No Limits: Blow the Cap off Your Capacity
We often treat the word “capacity” as if it were a natural low of limitation. Unfortunately, most of us are much more comfortable defining what we perceive as off-limits rather than what’s really possible. Could it be that many of us have failed to expand our potential because we have allowed what we perceive as capacity to define us? What if our limits are not really our limits?
In No Limits, leadership expert John C. Maxwell identifies the abilities and choices that make up our capacity. Some are things we all already possess, such as energy, creativity and leadership. Others are things we must choose, such as attitude, character and intentionality. Maxwell examines each of these capacities and provides rich insight on self-awareness as well as clean and actionable advice on how you can increase your potential. He teaches you how to identify, grow and apply your critical capabilities. Once you’ve blown the “cap” off your capabilities, you’ll find yourself more successful — and fulfilled — in your daily life.
In this course, you will learn:
• To become aware of the possibilities that can increase your capacity and make you better by recognizing your value through self-awareness.
• How to identify and develop the capacities that are already within you and understand how each capacity works together to improve you and your life.
• To make smart choices that allow you to reach your fullest potential and become successful by building up your existing capacities.
Lesson Summaries and Learning Objectives:
1. Energy Capacity — Your Ability to Push On Physically
There are many capacities that we can increase, but there’s nothing we can do to expand time. That’s why we need to focus on our energy. That’s something we can influence. If we want to get more done and make a greater impact on the world, we need to increase our energy capacity. How should you focus your energy? This lesson will teach you the 3 R’s that can be used for prioritizing your energy.
It’s vital to increase your energy as much as possible. It’s also crucial to use the energy you have wisely. Use it when you need it, conserve it when you don’t, and know the difference between the two. How much have you thought about your energy capacity? Have you assumed that your energy capacity is fixed? That you can’t change it? If so, you need to change your mindset. Start paying close attention to what increases or decreases your energy, and begin making adjustments to what you do. Tap into things that increase your energy capacity, and manage your energy for the things that matter most to you.
Learning Objectives:
· Discuss the 3 R’s that can be used for prioritizing your energy.
· Learn the 4 principles for managing your energy.
· Discover the 5 reflection questions that help you maximize your energy.
2. Emotional Capacity — Your Ability to Manage Your Emotions
Emotional capacity is the ability to handle adversity, failure, criticism, change and pressure in a positive way. All of these things create stress in our lives. The inability to deal with stress or emotional pressure takes a lot out of people. They give up, break down or do unhealthy things to try to escape the pressure. However, emotionally strong people are able to manage their emotions and process through difficulties. That allows them to increase their capacity, and moves them closer to reaching their full potential.
Maybe you can’t control your emotions completely, but you can change them through your actions. All of us are hit in the gut by unwanted surprises, blindsided by negative relationships, and knocked down by the blows we didn’t see coming. There are times when we want to tell the world how unfair life is. But only by taking action can we pull ourselves out of the pits we find ourselves in. The faster we can recover from the shock of the emotion, process through it and move toward action, the quicker our recovery time will be, and the more emotionally strong we will become. The choice is always ours. We either continually work on mastering our emotions, or we will be continuously mastered by them.
Learning Objectives:
· Discuss the most important thing that emotionally strong people do.
· Learn the principles for increasing your emotional capacity.
· Discover the 6 primary areas that you should devote your emotional energy to.
3. Thinking Capacity — Your Ability to Think Effectively
If you want to increase your overall success capacity, then you need to increase your thinking capacity. Most people do not recognize the value of good thinking. They have thoughts, but they let them go and don’t do anything with them. However, when you value good thoughts, it makes all of your thinking more valuable.
Once an idea has been put on the table and improved by a key group of people, it’s time to take the idea out and let more people see it. You learn a lot when you present an idea to people who don’t know you or who won’t automatically give you the benefit of the doubt. It’s always easier to think an idea than to practice it. An idea always sounds better when it hasn’t been challenged. But an unchallenged idea is rarely able to live in the real world.
Something powerful happens when a person moves from believing in an idea to owning an idea. Believing in an idea can be good, but it’s very limiting. When you believe in an idea, it’s like investing in an endeavor with someone else’s money. You give it a try and hope it works. However, when you own an idea, it’s like putting your own money into an investment. You do what it takes to make it work. The greater the investment, the more you feel that it has to work. When you launch an idea, you need to be clear about what you want people to know and what you want people to do.
When a thought lands and makes a positive difference, the temptation is to celebrate and move on. But if we do that without looking for a way to upgrade the thought, we’ve missed a great opportunity. Growth requires your thoughts to be continually upgraded. If you want to increase your potential, maximize your capacity and be successful, then you need to develop your thinking.
Learning Objectives:
· Discuss the 5 key starting points for enhancing your thinking capacity.
· Learn the greatest test of any idea.
· Discover the 12 principles for increasing your thinking capacity.
4. People Capacity — Your Ability to Build Relationships
We are defined by our relationships. People can usually trace their successes and failures to the relationships in their lives. You cannot increase your people capacity unless you value people and care about them. If you don’t like people, don’t respect them and don’t believe they have value, it stands as a barrier to your success with them. You can’t secretly look down on others and build them up at the same time. However, if you value people, it shows through. And it makes the development of positive relationships possible.
Put yourself in the position to meet and spend time with the right people. Be intentional and show initiative by moving toward the relationships you desire in life. If you wait for the right people to meet you, you won’t meet the right people. People capacity really does make a huge difference in a person’s life. And your people capacity will go to a new level once you realize how much you need the right people in your life. The more you value people, put yourself into their world, seek to add value to them and be their friend, the better your life will be.
Learning Objectives:
· Discuss the Power of Proximity Principle.
· Learn the 4 keys to relational health.
· Discover the 7 principles for improving your people capacity.
5. Creative Capacity — Your Ability to See Options and Find Answers
Is it true that some people are born highly creative? Of course. There are the rare few who create to create and are gifted to change the world in that regard. In fact, some argue that all of us are born creative, but most of us lose that creativity as we grow up. You can rekindle the creativity that’s already in you, as well as cultivate new pathways of creativity.
Creativity is changing the question from “Is there an answer?” to “What is the answer?” Creativity always takes time, patience, and experimentation. You just have to enter into the process believing there is an answer. Creativity is a mindset. You have to believe that answers and solutions are out there if you’re willing to keep fighting to find them. Questions always spur creativity. Why? Because questions cause you to explore, to seek out.
Creativity is about connecting things. Focus on a particular idea and then look for ways to make connections to it. This is called “connection creativity.” With an idea fixed in your mind, look for ways to connect it with experiences, people, quotes, stories, opportunities, questions — anything you can think of. If you want to increase your creativity, begin looking for connections.
Keeping our imaginations sharp is essential to creative thinking and problem solving. That requires practice. Unfortunately, as we get older, most people practice creative thinking less and less. Working with half-baked ideas forces us to use our imaginations and practice creative thinking. If you desire to increase your creativity capacity, you can do it. You can train yourself to see possibilities. You can learn to find answers. You can become someone who always offers options. And you can work with others to become inventive and innovative. If you can harness that with productivity, you’ll really be able to increase your capacity.
Learning Objectives:
· Discuss the 4 primary questions for becoming more creative.
· Learn “the triple E formula” for creativity.
· Discover the 8 principles for enhancing your creative capacity.
6. Production Capacity — Your Ability to Accomplish Results
Production capacity can be increased dramatically and immediately if you are highly intentional about it. If you’re willing to work at it, you can be successful. No one has ever had to work at limiting their capacity. That happens naturally. The world tries to talk us out of working hard. We convince ourselves that we can’t get ahead. There are even people who will tell you that the system is rigged, that successful people have pushed you down and have gotten to the top by stepping on you.
Everything worthwhile in life — everything you want, everything you desire to achieve, everything you want to receive — is uphill. The problem is that most of us have uphill dreams but downhill habits. And that’s why we have a cap on our production capacity. To increase production capacity, initiate many tries at one thing, not one try at many things.
Downhill is easy. It has no requirements. It doesn’t take any effort. A downhill lifestyle is characterized by unintentionality, complacency, inconsistency and excuses. There is no big-picture vision for the future, only instant gratification.
Uphill is hard. Moving uphill requires intentionality, energy, determination, hard work and consistency. It requires you to keep an eye on the big picture, be determined, demonstrate character and put in the time. The right thing to do and the hard thing to do are usually the same thing. More and more people resist doing the right thing because it’s hard, so they choose the easy thing. They go downhill instead of uphill.
When you want to accomplish something, you have to have a vision for what you’re trying to do, but you also have to be willing to take action in the face of uncertainty. You need to tap into your thinking capacity to know what you’re shooting for, but you also need to have a bias for action to be productive. You have to be willing to take a step, probably a small step.
That’s the mindset you must have to become more productive. Whatever you have, or don’t have, you’re willing to start regardless of how little you know about how you’re going to get where you want to go.
Learning Objectives:
· Discuss downhill sliding vs. uphill climbing.
· Learn the 9 principles of highly productive people.
· Discover the 3 reflection questions for improving your production capacity.
7. Leadership Capacity — Your Ability to Lift and Lead Others
Communication is the language of leadership. Leadership is a two-way street. To find the people who want to help you as a leader, you need to ask questions and actively listen. Questions open up doors and allow us to connect with others. They place value on the other person. And they give us a different perspective. Before we attempt to set things right as leaders, we need to see things right. The highest compliment you can give someone is to ask them their opinion.
However, none of that works if you don’t listen. If questions unlock the door, listening keeps the door open. Questions start the conversation, but listening encourages it to continue. Questions + Listening = Quality Conversation. Quality Conversation = Quality Leadership.
If you’re a task-oriented person, connecting may be something you have to work at to achieve. If you’re a people person, building relationships may come naturally. But making the transition from relationship building to movement requires a leadershift. That “shift” is the transition from connecting with people to helping them make the changes necessary for the benefit of the team.
How we as leaders see others determines how much we will invest in them. But how they see themselves determines how much they will invest in themselves. Value assessment determines investment. The value you place on yourself determines the level of your commitment to yourself and others. Self-worth is foundational to belief. The moment that your belief in yourself goes up, so can your commitment to help yourself. If the people on your team don’t believe in themselves, as the leader, you need to try to help them find that belief. You need to encourage them. You need to speak positive words of affirmation.
Learning Objectives:
· Discuss the greatest gift that leaders can give their team members.
· Learn the 6 vital steps to set expectations.
· Discover the 3 most important factors to shift from me to we as a leader.
8. Responsibility Capacity — Your Choice to Take Charge of Your Life
One of the reasons successful people are successful is that they see and seize opportunities. Often, we see them going through doors of opportunity, making the most of them, and we think to ourselves, I wish I had that chance. We see the results, but what we often don’t see is the deep level of personal responsibility they had to take to make the most of the opportunity. Without increasing their responsibility capacity, they could not have increased their opportunity capacity.
The way you take control of the direction of your life is to take responsibility for yourself and for your everyday actions. People who do this see dramatic results. Can you control everything? No, of course not. But, you can choose to control the things that are within your control. First, acknowledge that you have the ability to choose. Then, identify which parts of your life you can control and which you can’t. Once you begin taking charge and making choices, your life will begin to change.
Learning Objectives:
· Discuss the relationship between opportunity and responsibility.
· Learn one of the primary reasons that successful people become successful.
· Discover the 6 principles for increasing your responsibility capacity.
9. Character Capacity — Your Choices Based on Good Values
Values create the foundation of character, and character provides the foundation for success. The results of developing character are life changing. Good character is a choice you make every day. When you choose to do the right thing based on a positive value, your character expands. With each right choice, you develop the strength to make other right choices and more difficult right choices. In contrast, every time you choose to cut corners, compromise on your values or turn your back on what you know to be right, it shrinks your character. The smaller and weaker it gets, the more difficult it is to make another right choice. Good character uses the same standard in every situation. If something is right, it’s always right. If it’s wrong, it’s always wrong.
People with good character are consistent. People who try to use multiple standards with different people and in different situations live fragmented lives. When a person lives a fragmented life, others never know what to expect from that person. They don’t know how the person will act in any given situation. Whenever you make a commitment to another person, you create hope. When you keep that commitment, you create trust. Good character helps you follow through on that commitment and develop trust.
Learning Objectives:
· Discuss “low-road” people vs. “high-road” people.
· Learn the relationship between values and character.
· Discover the 7 principles for increasing your character capacity.
10. Abundance Capacity — Your Choice to Believe There Is More Than Enough
Why are people who embrace abundance so readily able to say yes? It’s because they possess high belief in many areas of life. They believe in themselves. They say, “There’s more to me than what people see.” Beliefs drive behavior. Lack of belief, which is a characteristic of scarcity, holds us back. We hesitate not because we are unable to do something but because we don’t have confidence in ourselves.
Abundance people seize the moment because they see potential in it. They believe they can do more than they’ve done before. They believe they can perform at a higher level than they have before. They believe they can grow more — and keep growing. This belief not only keeps them going but it also allows them to be the first to take action. Our perspective is not determined by what we see. It’s determined by how we see, and that comes from who we are.
Two people can be in the same situation and see things completely differently. While a scarcity person often looks at a situation and thinks, “There’s no way!”, an abundance person sees the same thing and thinks, “There’s got to be a better way!”
The world is a better place as a result of people whose perspectives were shaped by abundance thinking. Change your perspective from one of scarcity to one of abundance, and you open the door to innovation and positive change not only for yourself but also for others.
Learning Objectives:
· Discuss having a scarcity mindset vs. an abundance mindset at work.
· Learn the 4 primary areas where you need to possess high belief in life.
· Discover the 3 characteristics of people with increased abundance capacity.
11. Attitude Capacity — Your Choice to Be Positive Regardless of Circumstances
Coaching and encouraging yourself is huge when it comes to choosing a positive attitude regardless of circumstances. It is the single best thing you can do to help yourself. There are some foundational things you can do to put yourself in a positive position most of the time. By doing these three things, you make it easier for yourself to bounce back from difficulties: Become humble: It is much easier to face life’s difficulties and respond positively when you display humility. Doing small things that may seem unimportant to us but that benefit others helps us cultivate humility. Doing them with love builds on that. Become teachable: Teachability is wanting to learn from every experience and every person. It requires an appreciation for everything we experience and knowing that we can always learn something — if we have the right spirit. Become resilient: To maintain a positive attitude, you need to be resilient and not let anything negative take hold of you. Time spent on being angry about the past means less time moving forward and doing what you desire to do. Your attitude is one of the most pliable and resilient parts of you. Regardless of your age or circumstances, you can change if you’re willing to.
Learning Objectives:
· Discuss 3 truths of change.
· Learn the 9 characteristics of Finish Line Leaders.
· Discover the 3 primary behaviors of choice for improving your attitude capacity.
12. Partnership Capacity — Your Choice to Collaborate with Others
If you want to multiply your effectiveness, you need to work with others. To enjoy great partnerships, you need to be a great partner. If you want to partner up with others, then be the first to meet them where they are. Find common ground, and place their agenda at the top of your agenda. In essence, become a servant leader, and measure each day by the seeds you sow more than by the harvest you reap. Adding value is the only way a partnership will work. Partnerships begin to disintegrate when one person starts receiving more than they are giving. The only way that we will be given an opportunity to partner with others tomorrow is to add value to them today.
If you want to be a good partner and benefit by increasing your partnership capacity, you need to add value to your partners. Trust is the foundation of any solid relationship. Trust can’t be established quickly; it must be earned, proven and tested over time. Once it has been established, your partnerships benefit from a trust advantage, which makes them function more smoothly.
Learning Objectives:
· Discuss the 3 types of resources that you should strive to give your teammates.
· Learn the 7 reflection questions for a partnership mindset.
· Discover the 7 principles for increasing your partnership capacity.
Conclusion:
Your Life with No Limits
If you are aware of yourself and your ability to improve, if you develop the abilities you already possess and if you make the everyday choices that help you improve, you will reach your capacity. Your life does not have to have limits! As long as you’re breathing, you can improve. You can make a greater difference. It’s all within your reach. All you have to do is seize it.