John C. Maxwell Book Quotations

What I did in the book, Today Matters is I tried to help a person make their day - every day - their masterpiece.

I tried to write the book [Today Matters] with integrity and say, health is one of my daily dozen, and I work on it, but I don't have this right.

I thought if I was open and honest, it would help the reader to get open and honest, and they also would realize sometimes when you write a book, people think you're an expert and that's not always true.

I literally wrote a book on it called Your Roadmap For Success. And in it I said success is three things: knowing my purpose in life, I think it's impossible for anybody to be successful until they really discover why they're here on earth and what God has planned for them; secondly, growing to my maximum potential.

I was greatly affected by a guy named Rob Briner, who died about five years ago, who wrote a book called "Roaring Lambs", which is a book on how to be salt and light in the secular community.

Now what I do is I manage that decision. And I teach them in the book how - know what decision to make and then how to manage those decisions. It's a very - it's a personal growth book [Today Matters]; that's what it is.

I say this in the book [Today Matters], we either spend our day repairing or preparing, and if I haven't taken good care of my today's, they accumulate. So all of a sudden today what I'm doing is I'm going back, I'm repairing bad relationships and wrong decisions, and I'm digging a hole. I'm not making any progress because I'm in a repairing mode, versus if I really make today count that prepares me for tomorrow. Tomorrow really will take care of itself if I do the right thing today.

There are pockets of the church that will "give up," and reap a bountiful harvest. They are going to have huge success, like the church has never experienced since the Book of Acts.

In the book [Today Matters] I talk about successful people make important decisions early in their life, and then they manage those decisions the rest of their life.

People say, "John, what's your personal growth?" And ask "How do you grow?" And I tell them. I thought, "Why do I keep telling them, why don't I just write a book on what I call personal growth?" And that's what this [Today Matters] book is.

When you finish reading the book [Today Matters], take the daily dozen and list them in order of how well you do them. For example, the one that I would put at the highest for me is attitude or relationships because I'm really strong at both of those. At the bottom would be health. What I tell people is, "Take one month and work on one of the daily dozen for a whole year." And so it's really a one-year personal growth plan.

I talk about my daily dozen in the book [ Today Matters]. Twelve things that are certainly attainable by any of us that we need to manage every day.

It was in the mid-70's, '74 or '75 I started doing leadership conferences for pastors and in '79 I wrote my first book "Think On These Things".

I kept saying to myself, this is a calling that God has given me. And so with intention I said, "Okay I'm going to write books not only for the Christian community, but also for the secular community." I found it really rewarding because the last one to use my gifts and advantages to people who look at church as not on their radar screen at all, it gives me favor with - I do a lot with Fortune 500 companies now.

I've worked very hard at giving excellent training and good materials, resources, books, and then the corporate community gives me respect. And I'm finding now that they really want a relationship with me, they're letting me in their lives, and of course, when you get in their lives you find a tremendous need for God.

I wrote the book [Today Matters] because I have a passion to help people personally grow. Really what it is, it's a personal growth book.

I hold conferences, and the result of that was that the secular community also started picking up my stuff, and pretty soon they wanted more. So I realized I could not only minister to the Christian community, but I could also minister to the corporate community. So my books started crossing over, and then I began to intentionally have them cross over.

Most people who decide to grow personally find their first mentors in the pages of books.

42% of college graduates never read a book after college.

The Compound Effect is a must-read book for success seekers. You want to know what it takes? You want to know what to do? It's all in these pages. The Compound Effect is a clear and concise success operation manual!