Growth Optimizers

To optimize growth can be a painful process. Thinking and feeling comfort and ease are great safety nets, but growth, never, never occurs when we stay too comfortable - we might as well be in a cemetery - it's safe but our life is over. Below, you will read some quotes by great growth optimizers...

"You can't dream your self into a character,

you must hammer and forge yourself one."

Henry David Thoreau

"Circumstances don't make a person,
they reveal him."
James Allen

"The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing,
we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger,
but jump in and scramble through as well as we can."
Robert Cushing


"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."
Francis Bacon

"Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self confident and more and more successful."
Mark Victor Hansen

"He who moves not forward, goes backward."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Finally, I life to add one of my own-

"Seek potential,
go beyond purpose to achievement
and life will be magical!"
Laura Reider Novakowski

Nurture Growth and Embrace the Results

“Live your beliefs and
you can turn the world around.”
Henry David Thoreau

There is a parable that tells of a farmer who decided to plant a Chinese Bamboo tree, one of the most difficult trees in the world to grow. He planted the seed. For days, weeks and months, he gently and faithfully tended the seed.

At the end of year one, no tree had grown. People in his community thought he was crazy. He was tending a mound of dirt. Didn't he know that the seed was dead. Another year passed and still he tended that mound of dirt. Another year passed and still he tended the spot where he had planted the seed. This continued for two more years, no sprouts, nothing. By the fifth year, people really believed he had lost his mind and ridiculed him.

Suddenly, three months into the fifth year the trunk of a tree shot out of the soil stretching high into the air. Five years and three months later a seemingly dormant seed grows 90 feet!

My point...

Often times, we make the choice to start taking action on a dream and plant a seed. At first, we receive a great deal of support People are excited for and with us. Cheering us on, they want to share in our idea, our dream our passion. Time passes and nothing has sprouted. No tree has broken the ground; people stop asking us how our idea is going. We still want and need to talk about it but we are alone.

We still want and need to talk about it. Rain or shine, our dream still needs to nurtured and tended. Economics cause us to tighten our belt as money, resources and support become even more scarce. Once in a while there are a few believers but for the most part we are on our own. Rain shine. Seasons pass and still we trudge on investing time, blood, sweat and tears.

To keep our dream alive we find new ways to nurture the soil. We repair strained relationships, cultivate new ones. We seek advice. Learn more lessons. Network more. Play and work differently. Adding different perspectives, we travel out of our comfort zone because although we are tired our and bloodied, our head is unbowed.

BAM! One day, that tree bursts from the soil and stands in front of us 90 feet tall.

Just planting the seed would not have been enough. Day-in, day-out, investing talent, courage, determination and passion has to continue. Then the day comes when we can see, feel, taste and touch that 90 foot tree in front of us.

Are you willing to not just plant that see, but to cultivate and nurture that seed that will generate significant growth so that one day you too can embrace significant growth in your business, your community, your life?

Promoting Health & Wealth - Own Your Goals - own your life

I practiced with a group an exercise w using the Wheels of Life. It was amazing how quickly people discovered that they needed to look at ALL the key elements of the personal and professional (organizational) Wheels of Life as they checked in with their goals. Next they identified that s when connected with the essential Skills and Knowledge (S&A) element is a powerful process.

As we worked with these Wheels of Life, people realized that they now could also appreciate that their goal setting experience had helped or hindered them in their work and life. For example, many had completed their education, achieved certificates, attained degrees and/or landed jobs. This helped to validate to them that they had at least a basic understanding of goal setting. They also came to understand that they didn't realize how setting goals is not necessarily aligned with goal achievement. But it certainly is a great start.

How do the goals we set actually do more than just nudge us in the direction of accessing our skills and knowledge? Or, do our goals actually position us for achievement, success and powerful results?

What if we have a great deal of challenges with conflict, personally and professionally. We set a goal to increase our knowledge of conflict and we will read a book. This is a nice goal, even a good goal, but then what? Remember applied knowledge is even more powerful and setting a goal that will lead us to do something MORE than just read a book takes more work and planning but nets us even greater results. So we set a goal to read a book specific to conflict management such as Crucial Conversations;Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny,Ron McMillan & Al Switzer in the next 30 days. After we read the book, .will identify at least one tip or take away, put that tip into action and then evaluate the effectiveness of that tip.


We just created a WHY -Written, Habit-forming and YOURS, SMART goal - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistically High and Timed. Each individual pen the goal and decided to own the goal- no one gave us the goal - we each penned our own. Someone else may write. After reading the book, I will teach one technique to my team.

The more we own the goal and make it apply to what we need to enhance with our skills and knowledge the more likely we will be to succeed.

Using the Wheel of Life to help us to identify at least one area for growth or enhancement a month over the course of 12 months will help us to build new habits.

The biggest tip I can give for goal setting is make the goals your own and change your life!

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura