Our theme this month is Leadership, Achievement, Courage and Magic. All of these are essentials on your journey as an empowered, high-performing professional with a powerful work life. Today's post is on the aspect of Leadership.
Tuning In To The Season
The season signals the movement towards the closing of the year, and now is the time to reflect on what you set out to do this year and perform a wrapup that will put a delightful closure on any yet-undone items. Doing so helps you prepare for your new adventures in the coming year.
Achieving your goals is always within your reach in the present moment. It’s in your very next decision, your moment-by-moment choice to live according to different rules, to heal, to flow, to be whole. The things that are holding you back are simple, and the time to get past them and reach for all you desire is now!
Taking Ownership Of Your Mission
Taking ownership of your life's mission is part of my four-level foundational teaching on leadership, achievement, courage, and magic. Use these elements to set the foundation for all you dare to dream and do.
But first, a question... do you think change takes incredible amounts of time, or it instantaneous? What about the issues you've struggled with for years, do you think it will take just as many years to get rid of them?
It won't! Change is instantaneous once you know how. Each of these is a powerful change. If you make even only one or two, you're well on your way to all you desire!
Embodying Leadership In Your Own Life
Everything you do touches and teaches others' lives, but more importantly, everything you do touches and teaches your own life. That's why it's important to take the time and attention to craft yourself as an accomplished and powerful leader of yourself toward all your goals.
Here are three simple reflections to help you learn from the year.
Reflection 1: To what degree did you as a leader take ownership of your time?
Owning the ways in which you spend your time is one of the key elements of leading yourself to new heights. To what degree did you, as a leader, take ownership of your own time in this year?
Who did you permit to use your time in wasteful ways? To waste your time, take over your life with drama, or engage in any kind of future-faking that made you wait, and wait, and wait until some promised event would finally happen (if it ever did)?
What did you yourself do that was time-wasteful, rather than time-wise? Note that this does NOT include real, true, honest relaxation, rejuvenation, and enjoyable activities. But was there slippage when you found yourself doing things you didn't want to do, that were neither restful, nor productive? If so, why were you doing them?
How much time did you spend "sleepwalking" through day-over-day priorities and urgencies? Rather than stepping back and owning the need to reflect, make changes, and think ahead into a much larger and more fruitful career arc?
Where did you handle your time well and fruitfully? What are you very pleased about that you created this year? What time wisdom helped you create it?
Start owning all the ways you spend and prioritize your time. In the end, you are the only one who controls it, through who you permit in your life, and the agreements you make.
Reflection 2: To what degree did you as a leader own your circumstances?
A second key element is to treat your own complaining like a car alarm. Complaining is a strong signal - just like a car alarm. But it's a powerless mode, in and of itself. Like a car alarm, it's useless noise unless you explore it as a need to take inspired action.
Explore what you complain about. Be gentle and nonjudgmental. Just use it as an interesting study. Are there things you've complained about all year long, as if they were unchangeable and fixed in stone? How has that made you feel?
Frame the action you'll take in the future to change it. When you stop complaining about the parts you don't like, you can realize that the locus of power is INSIDE you. You're the leader. Accept that you created all this 'stuff' in your life through one decision or another. If you don't like something, that's fine, begin to take gentle, productive action to change it. Even just changing your attitude to one of curiosity is a start.
Reflection 3: To what degree as a leader did you own your mission, its timetable, and its sacredness in your life?
Start owning that it's your mission, you guide it, and that it's sacred, desirable and amazing. Make a mark on your calendar NOW that today is the day you really begin paying attention to how much time you spend on the goals your heart desires.
How many times did you let day to day urgencies drift you away from your goal? Did days or weeks go by with no action? How often did this happen? How far did you get along in your goal, if it did? If so, why? Find the issue and fix it, gently and lovingly.
What did you let take over your life INSTEAD of your mission? Why did you make that a priority instead of what you really desired to be doing?
What will you do now to integrate your mission into your life, so that it is embodied in all your do? Own your mission. Own its timetable. Make it your priority. What will you choose to work on? What are some things you've longed to do?
Use these reflections to take on greater leadership within your own life and career. Within you is the strong, courageous and beautiful leader that the world desperately needs. You alone know the truth and the passion of your career arc and how it will impact those around you.
When you commit to reverently bringing your unique work forth into the world, the possibilities are endless. Plan to close out the year with strong intentions to do even more and go even farther in the coming year!
Make room for the healing presence of possibility and achievement through new levels of leadership. Let it come through into your experience today, and guide you in surprising, delightful and wonderful ways as you #healworklife.
Keep Growing,
© Katherine Lieber & TitaniumBlue LLC
