How To Be Your Own Best Leader
You have to be your own best leader. No one else knows you as well as you and no one can understand what your real needs and desires as thoroughly as you.
There was a time when it wasn’t too hard to find a mentor to shepherd us through the trials and pitfalls of professional growth and personal development, but that’s no longer the case.
Nowadays, we must learn to rely on ourselves, and that’s good. So often, too often, we live by making tentative decisions and incomplete plans that are at best half-heartedly executed. We wait to see if our co-workers, our friends or family approve of what we do, if things get better at work or worse, and we never really proceed with any declaration about our own lives.
Being your own leader means taking the initiative to make your life into the vision of what you want it to be. That can be very scary.
Consider that if you do seize the reins of your life instead of drifting, you’ll truly be responsible for all successes and failures when they happen.
You’ll also be able to reap the rewards of the wisdom that comes from failure, and your accomplishments will be even greater—if you become your own best leader.
Here are a few ways to take that step into leading yourself.
Discover and clarify what you want
Figuring out what we really want out of life is a lot more challenging than it seems. The process is intimately tied to self-discovery and personal freedom. Personal freedom is involved because we must examine our desires without making those needs and wants and dreams dependent on the approval of other people.
Give yourself permission to fail, as long as you fail by doing something.
The only real failure that can’t help you is failing to do what you know you must do. I’m not advocating doing something reckless or impulsive. Sometimes complex situations work themselves out better without our trying to micromanage every detail. But failure to try is a failure to lead.
It’s a way of staying in one place, except that doesn’t work well. Remember, you’re aiming for a better life or making the life you love even better. If you don’t work for positive changes by taking charge of yourself, nothing will happen.
