You will struggle to grow sales year over year if you’re not growing yourself.

“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”

Abraham Maslow

Maslow nailed it and this is something everyone must take to heart.

This isn’t just philosophy; it’s stone-cold sales reality.

Every single day, you're confronted with two paths:

• Safety, meaning playing it small. Sticking to what’s comfortable. Keep recycling the same tired script. Calling on the same clients. Hiding behind your CRM and your inbox. Avoiding the tough calls, the hard conversations, the uncomfortable questions. Safety feels nice, but it leads to stagnation. I'm here to inform you... Safety never produces growth.

• Growth, meaning stepping into discomfort. Prospecting when you don’t feel like it. Asking the client the harder question instead of skating across the surface. Sharing a vulnerable story. Admitting where you need help. Investing in your own development. Growth requires risk, growth requires courage and most of all... Growth requires choice.

Growth isn’t a one-time decision. You don’t just declare, I choose growth, and suddenly all is a-ok.

Growth is a daily choice.

It’s choosing the uncomfortable path over and over again until it becomes who you are.

Fear will always be waiting for you. Fear of rejection, fear of being vulnerable, fear of not being enough, fear of losing the deal, and possibly, fear of outgrowing your old identity.

Fear is the toll you pay on the road to growth.

Authenticity means embracing who you are and bringing your full self to the forefront. This takes massive amounts of courage. It’s way easier to hide behind product pitches, to play the part of the sales professional, than it is to be real.

Safe doesn’t sell. Empty suits don’t build trust.

Maslow’s challenge is crystal clear... You can either retreat into safety or lean forward into growth, but you can’t do both.

As we kick off our journey together, here’s the question for you, sales professionals, sales leaders, and CEOs:

In the choices you’re making daily, are you choosing safety, or are you choosing growth?

How can you expect your sales to grow if you’re not growing yourself?

Read that again, sit with it and let it sting a little, just like salt in an open wound.

Salespeople talk a big game about hitting targets, crushing their quotas, and driving growth.

Sales leaders roll out new compensation plans, bigger goals, and aggressive revenue targets every January, as CEOs pound the table for year-over-year growth.

The uncomfortable truth is this... You can’t pour from an empty cup if you’re not expanding who you are, sharpening your mindset, deepening your relationships, and stretching your capacity. Plain and simple, your sales will flatline, or worse, decline.

Please hear me out, this isn’t motivational fluff, it’s just reality. Selling is not about gimmicks, scripts, or tricks, it’s about you showing up authentically, consistently, and with heart.

Let’s cut through all the shenanigans, this isn’t about the latest tech stack, the newest AI tool, or a fancy prospecting hack. This is about you, your growth, your habits, and your heart.

Your sales growth is capped at the level of your personal growth.

Sales Growth Without Self-Growth is Unsustainable

Way too many of you chase numbers while ignoring the one thing you can fully control, that being yourself.

You can chase more prospects, you can cold call until your hearts content, and you can sit in pipeline reviews until your eyes glaze over, however; if you haven’t done the inner work, the external results will eventually expose the cracks.

Here’s the truth few are willing to admit:

• Your lack of discipline shows up in your pipeline. Disciplined habits are the bedrock of sales trust. When you don’t prospect consistently or follow through on commitments, it leaks into every deal. The Trust Formula reminds you that disciplined habits are just as critical as relationships or value.

• Your lack of authenticity shows up in your client relationships. People are starving for something real. Authenticity isn’t optional, it’s your differentiator. If you’re hiding behind scripts, corporate jargon, or chasing quick wins, clients can feel it. When they feel it, trust erodes.

• Your lack of personal growth shows up in your year-over-year results. If your skills, mindset, and heart stay the same, your results plateau. Growth in sales requires growth in who you are.

This is why so many of you get stuck in rinse-and-repeat years. You simply plateau, you burn out, and you become order-takers instead of trust-builders.

Revenue targets, quotas, and KPIs all matter, but they are outcomes. The true input, the growth multiplier, well, that is you.

• Bigger salespeople build bigger pipelines.

• Bigger salespeople create bigger trust.

• Bigger salespeople drive bigger outcomes.

When you grow yourself, everything else grows with you... Think about your conversations, your influence, your referrals, and your income.

Reflective question... How can you apply truth, love, and building authentic relationships to help you drive sales growth in a distrustful world?

The answer is quite simple but hard, it starts with you.

The Starting Point of All Growth

Sales success starts with you, not with a script.

If you’re not authentic, your clients feel it, sense it and smell it. If you’re not growing, your conversations will grow stale. If you’re not doing the inner work, your numbers will eventually betray you.

Authenticity isn’t about being perfect; it’s about being real. It’s about owning who you are, where you are, and who you’re becoming. It’s about showing up consistently as yourself, not as an empty suit chasing commissions.

Authenticity requires growth. It requires the willingness to slow down long enough to reflect.

This requires vulnerability to admit where you’ve fallen short. It requires courage to step into new disciplines and new ways of showing up.

The questions everyone must wrestle with are simple, though not easy:

• Am I the same salesperson I was last year?

• Am I becoming more skilled, more empathetic, more trusted?

• Am I recycling the same tired approaches and hoping for a different outcome?

Your clients don’t just buy your product, they buy you. If you’re not growing, if you’re not deepening your heart, your habits, and your humanity, eventually it will show in your conversations, your relationships, and in your sales results.

Grab you copy of Selling from the Heart.

The Silent Multiplier of Growth

Dwayne "The Rock " Johnson said it best,

"Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent work leads to success.”

Growth isn’t found in a one-off seminar, a workshop, a flashy new sales book, or a January burst of activity that fizzles by February. Sustainable growth is quieter, slower, and more revealing. It’s about who you are becoming every single day through the habits you practice and the disciplines you refuse to abandon.

How consistent are you, really?

• Are you steadily building your pipeline, or do you stumble into panic mode at the end of every quarter?

• Are you sharpening your mind and skills daily, or still recycling the same playbook from years ago, maybe even decades ago?

• Are you showing up for your clients with genuine care, or only when you need something?

Consistency compounds over time. It quietly multiplies in the background, creating momentum or it exposes your shortcuts when it’s missing.

Scripture puts it this way, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”, Galatians 6:9

The habits you practice, or neglect today are seeds. They will reveal themselves in your results tomorrow. The question isn’t whether consistency works. It always does.

Just gotta ask... What kind of harvest are your habits producing?

Why Sales Leaders, CEOs and Presidents Need This Too

Those in a leadership role, I ask you to think about this... When was the last time you truly grew as a leader, not in title, not in activity, but as a person guiding others toward possibility?

This is all about the example you set every day, in small decisions, in the tone you take with your team, in what you celebrate and what you ignore.

Ask yourself:

• Am I living the growth I expect from my team, or just managing their output?

• Do I create space for learning, curiosity, and even failure, or do I demand perfection in pursuit of results?

• Am I willing to confront my own blind spots, stretch my comfort, and evolve, even when it’s uncomfortable?

Growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it starts with you. True leadership growth is intimate and personal. You can’t demand cultural transformation without first committing to your own.

Every action you take, every word you speak, and every standard you set, all ripples through your team.

Stagnation is contagious, as much as growth is.

The quiet question you must face is this... Am I growing enough to lead my team to where they can truly go?

Until you're willing to answer that honestly, the ceiling for your company’s potential will be the same as the ceiling of your own growth.

The Cost of Stagnation

What happens when you stop growing?

• You plateau, and yesterday’s wins start to feel hollow.

• You burn bridges, because complacency erodes trust faster than failure ever could.

• You get commoditized, indistinguishable from everyone else chasing the same quota.

• You get quietly get replaced, inevitably, by someone hungrier, sharper, more committed.

The marketplace doesn’t wait. Your clients have endless choices. Competitors are sharper, faster, and hungrier than ever. If you’re standing still, you’re moving backward.

No one, and I mean no one, can outwork a salesperson who is also outgrowing themselves, who is stretching, learning, evolving, and showing up differently every day.

Your competitors may have the same tools, the same CRM, and maybe even the same training; what they don’t have is your heart.

They don’t have your commitment to growth, and they don’t have your authenticity.

All this only works if you choose to develop it every day, in the quiet, uncomfortable moments when nobody is watching.

Stagnation is easy, growth is hard. So, ask yourself... Which path am I walking today?

Ways to Grow Yourself and Your Sales

Growth requires taking massive action.

1. Do the inner work – Journal, self-reflect, ask hard questions of yourself, get rip-roaring honest with yourself.

2. Feed your mind – Read daily, not just sales books, but leadership, psychology, and personal growth.

3. Sharpen your craft – Practice your prospecting, refine your discovery questions, role-play objections.

4. Seek mentorship – Get around people who stretch you. Iron sharpens iron.

5. Invest in relationships – Not just with clients, but with colleagues, mentors, and your community.

6. Commit to disciplined habits – Prospect daily. Follow through on promises. Track your consistency.

7. Lead with heart – Care more, listen more, and serve more.

Growth is never a one-time event, it’s a lifestyle.

Final Reflection, Your Growth is a Choice

Year-over-year sales growth doesn’t begin with bigger quotas, new products, or fancier compensation plans, it begins with you.

You want bigger results? Then become a bigger version of yourself.

As Proverbs 4:7 teaches, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.”

The work of growth is not easy, it costs time, energy, and sometimes comfort but it pays the only dividends that matter, and that is lasting impact, trust, and influence.

If your sales goals for next year require more than who you are today, here is the reflective question you cannot escape... What is your plan to grow yourself first, before you try to grow your numbers?

Proverbs 12:24 reinforces all of this, “The hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy will be put to forced labor.”

Your clients and future clients are watching. Potential is waiting for those willing to choose growth every single day.

Originally published on Larry Levine's LinkedIn.