Never waste a day…
A contact of mine has the tagline “Dead fish go with the flow” on his WhatsApp profile.
The line got me thinking about life and how easy it is to drift from one day to the next without steering yours (life) in any direction. Have you ever wasted a day (or longer) doing nothing, drifting, flicking, browsing, criticising, blaming or just dreaming? If you’re like me the answer is probably yes!
Take back control of your life…
Personal leadership will help you take back some of this lost control for your life and help you steer it in the direction you choose. It involves the development of a positive self-image that gives you the courage and self-confidence necessary to make a conscious choice of a specific course of action. This course of action will motivate you to follow that path and accept responsibility for the results.
Let’s be honest, we all practice some form of personal leadership. However, few of us practice it to our full potential. Consequently, the personal leadership we practice is often inconsistent because we aren’t quite trained in how to apply this “stuff” on a consistent basis. Further, we often lack experience in it’s application and this lack of experience makes us reluctant to apply it for fear of making further mistakes.
Personal Leadership is created by our responses to events…
The truth is we ALL have the potential to practice personal leadership on a consistent basis. Personal leadership is not created by situations but by your response in relation to them. Nothing restricts your personal leadership potential except the artificial limitations you place on your own subconscious. The greatest limitations we will ever face are all self-imposed.
The 3 steps to developing Personal Leadership…
The starting point for the development of personal leadership is in identifying the talents and abilities you already possess and leveraging these to develop your potential. Next you need to understand yourself and develop a strong self-image and self-motivation for yourself. Finally, you need to become a practitioner of goal setting.
Each of these steps requires a small bit of preparation and a lot a self-discipline and focus.
Let’s briefly look at each of these 3 steps…
1. Leveraging your strengths and abilities – use the following tools-
- Believe in your potential– once you put your current potential into action, it grows and gains momentum.
- Exercise self-reliance– you are the only one who can discover and use your potential. Trust in your ability. Back yourself.
- Act with initiative– be decisive. Refuse to wait for someone to tell you what to do.
2. Self-image is not the same as conceit or over-inflated ego. Instead, it is a genuine self-respect or a positive mental picture of yourself that grows out of recognition of your untapped potential. If yours is negative, every decision you make will be filtered through a collection of unconscious fears and doubts. Unconsciously you will refuse to achieve very much. You keep listening to the “doubting self”. The opposite is also true for those with a positive self-image. They tend to achieve a lot. They listen to the “dreaming and planning self” and take actions. It is a simple psychological fact that you act like the kind of person you think you are. Accordingly, if you have a negative self-image why not change your future by changing your self-image!
Self-motivation is the drive necessary to kick start this whole process. It is the drive that incites a person into action. It is the desire held in expectation with the belief that it will be realised. In order to sustain it, you need to be self-disciplined and focused.
3. Goal setting is the final step in preparing for maximum growth in personal leadership. It is that characteristic that makes it possible for you to FOCUS all your strengths on the overriding purpose you choose for your life.
Set a course direction for your life…
So if you find yourself going with the flow just like the dead fish, take some time to steer a direction for your life, or even just a part of it. Start with a blank page and set yourself some daily, weekly and monthly goals to get you started. By the end of week one you’ll be amazed what you’ve achieved. By the end of month one there’ll be no going back!
We only get one chance in this life – never waste a day in yours!
