If you want your life to be the way you want it to exactly be, then you’ve got to lead it there.
You have to lead yourself, and how you live out your life.
These tips I’m about to share with you, have allowed me to escape all the prisons and excuses I found myself in. That I myself unknowingly chose.
Leading your life is about making choices, and making better and better choices.
What are 5 things you can do to take the lead in your life?
Believe in your power to change your life.
This is the beginning. Until I realized this, and put this into action, my life never changed.
I always felt trapped. I felt I could make decisions, but I never really believed that they had the power to improve my life, and bring me to a higher level.
Belief is what shapes, and creates, power.
I thought I believed in my power to change my life, but I kept saying to myself, “I can’t do anything, this is what I was given.”
I felt myself powerless. I was being dragged along by the current of life, that I had no control over.
That where life would take me, that’s where I would be, no matter what it was that I wanted.
But then, I realized I was lying to myself.
If that was what I believed, that would come true. Since I was being dragged around by life, I would just have to be content where I end up, and what choices life would send my way.
Believe in your power to change your life. To make an impact in your life, in the areas that it counts the most.
It all starts with believing.
Because if you believe, then you start to see possibilities, when before you could not see anything.
Be accountable and responsible for your choices.
When I began to see the possibilities, I then realized that I could make choices. Choices different from the ones that I was making before.
Instead of always feeling that I had no choice, I began to feel like my choices had weight. Had a power behind them.
The next step then of taking leadership of your life, is to make better choices, and be accountable and responsible for them.
Don’t expect others to make choices for you. You have to make the choices for yourself.
In the same vein, you can’t expect others to plan your life for you. They’re too concerned with planning theirs, if they are planning at all. And what you want in life, may not be necessarily what they’re planning for you.
Plan your life, and make choices to get to making those plans a reality.
Or maybe, you have a dream you want to achieve. Instead of just dreaming about it, how about asking yourself how bad do you want it?
Because if you want it bad enough, you’ll begin to make choices that will lead you to getting that dream.
I used to dream of having a fit body, and a strong lower back, coming from my injury.
I also used to believe that I’ll never be a fit person.
Instead of bitching about how I’ll never be a fit person, I decided to act on it, and began exercising.
Small steps. I began exercising just by doing 1 push up a day.
Let me tell you, the start was painful. Not only physically, but psychologically, and emotionally was well.
It was easier to just quit and stop exercising, and go back to couch potato mode.
Instead, I choose to go through the pain, and soldier on. I’m better for it, now.
We make choices often, and instead of blaming the consequence, or cause, of our choices on something else, we take responsibility and accountability. We make the choices, so either we follow through, or we stop.
Accept your power and choice. And live with the consequences. Don’t blame others.
Our life is a product of all of the choices we’ve made in the past.
Want a better life? Begin making better and better choices, and take responsibility and accountability for them.
Create support systems.
Making choices is one thing, and sustaining that choice is another.
In the times when I was just beginning to exercise, I would find ways to make making the decision to get up and exercise easier.
To eat healthier, I also stopped buying junk food and soda, so then it would be easier for me to just grab a piece of fruit when I’m hungry, or to drink water instead.
Make your environment work for you to support your decisions. A simple sign is a start. That’s the beginning of a support system.
This can also mean people. Jim Rohn said that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
The people you’re with, also serve as your support system.
So if you’re around people who support the decisions you’re making, support what you want in life, and call you out on your bullshit when the going gets tough, or you’re avoiding making a decision, then that sounds like a pretty solid support system to me.
Create support systems to help you keep making decisions, believing in yourself, and making choices.
Give yourself permission.
Ever since we were young, our parents, schools, and society, has taught us to seek permission before we do anything.
Of course, that practice has its proper place.
What happens though, is that this creeps in to other areas of our life as well.
Before we make a decision, a change, a plan, or even a simple action, we look for permission, outside of us.
We’re cautious. How will other people see this? Will my wife like it? How will my parents take it? If I do this, my colleagues will take me for a fool!
The list goes on and on. So does the feeling, and the learned helplessness.
See, what happens is if we feel that we’re not getting permission from other people, our audience, or society, then we’re not supposed to do what we want to do. It feels bad doing it.
Like stealing a cookie from the cookie jar that mom told us not to touch.
But life isn’t like that.
Life sets you free, and allows you to make all the decisions you want to make, as long as you’re accountable and take responsibility for the consequences.
Give yourself permission to dream, to fail, and to succeed.
If you won’t give yourself permission, no one else will.
Taking leadership of your life is about acceptance.
It’s acceptance of where you are, and what you need to do to get to the next level.
Give yourself the permission to be more of who you are, and not somebody else.
Remain calm, and accept that you are where you are right now. That’s the first step to getting out.
No one saved themselves from drowning by struggling and panicking. Certainly not the panic part, especially.
Calmness amidst ambiguity, as my mentor shares. Calmness begins with acceptance.
Of your place.
Of who you are.
And of your innate power.
Use that power to lead yourself, well.
What do you do to take leadership of your life? Please share in the comments below!
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