Another challenge for you
The mind is everything. What you think you become.
– Buddha
Last week, I dared each and every one of us to work towards a fairer, kinder and more joyful world. I dared each and every one of us to inspire and motivate each other to be the best we can be.
Of course, this is never easy to remember in our day-to-day existence.
We can often feel like the swirl of all the different parts of our life take over and we are sucked into a vortex of doing-doing-doing. We lose our sense of self.
If we are facing new challenges, we may be full of self-doubt and uncertainty.
If we have lost the sense of who we are, how are we going to inspire and motivate others?
I believe part of the answer is by seeing ourselves as leaders –self-leaders for everything we do.
I imagine you are wondering why do I need to be a leader? I don’t want the responsibility, obligation and angst of other people expecting me to be their “go-to-person”. “It’s just too demanding and I have enough on my plate”
Leadership is a way of being and acting throughout your life.You do not have to have all the answers. You are just the facilitator of the solutions.
Leadership is a lens that you can view your life through so that you can be at your best for everyone around you. This act alone will guide, inspire and motivate those around you to be their best. Our only real belongings are the actions we take each day.
A leader is someone who guides and inspires. A leader is anyone who helps or enables others to reach a common goal or solve a mutual problem and holds themselves accountable for this potential and the outcome.
Think about the qualities that you admire in the leaders around you.
One of the qualities I admire in wonderful leaders is that they care. They genuinely have concern and interest for those that are around them and the project or business they are working on.
Great leaders genuinely want the best for themselves and everyone around them.
This is not easy to do every day because, as humans, we love to compare, contrast and criticise. It’s the safety mechanism of our minds. Our mind wants to keep us safe and happy and is constantly assessing what happens to us around this default.
Our challenge is to be able to notice our messages and still choose to look for the best in each other.
It’s almost like we need a “be nice” filter for what we see and hear and say. My favourite movie line when I was growing up was in Bambi. Thumper said to Bambi – “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.” I’m sure my daughter was sick of hearing this when she was growing up!
Imagine if our mainstream media adopted this message – an interesting concept!
A friend said to me recently that we need more bonhomie and less bastardry. I concur.
So, another challenge for you. Become aware of how you are seeing your life and the world around you and adopt a leadership lens through your “be nice” mind filter. I’m interested to hear the outcome.
As my quote for today says, the mind is everything. What you think you become!
Dare I say it! All of this and much, much, more is provided in my Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Program. The next program is on 5th and 6th April. http://denise-gibbons.com/
