The Hardest Part Of A Leader..
Go to any book store, find the leadership section and you will be flooded with an endless selection of books on leadership. You will see that many talk about principles centered around leadership ideas, laws of leadership, and values of great leaders. Books like “The Leadership Challenge” By Kouzes & Posner, “The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership” By John C. Maxwell, “Leaders Eat Last” By Simon Sinek, “Extreme Ownership” By Jocko Willink & Leif Babin. And many, many more!
All these books bring great value and further awareness to the great potential inside of us. Yet there is an underlining message. This message has been giving to us for thousands of years from great spiritual leaders, sages, generals and kings. The message reminds us of the hardest and most difficult part of being a leader.
The most challenging part of being a leader is…. Leading yourself. We've been reminded of this throughout history. Great leaders have told us.
-Leonardo De Vinci: One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”
-Jesus: “He who rules his spirit has won a greater victory than the taking of a city.”
-Buddha: “One who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand men on the battlefield.”
-Sun Tzu: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
-Aristotle: I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self.”
-Marcus Aurelius: “You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.”
I was listening to a podcast where David Goggins, the self proclaimed “hardest man on the planet” that lives up to his tittle. David, is Navy Seal, Ultra Runner, that has overcome, in his words, a fuck up past. In his interview he recalls a moment where he was going out for a run. He was putting his shoes on slowly, like real slow. 30 min had passed and he still was putting his shoes on. He did not want to run. But yet he finished putting on his shoes and went for the run. David, had conquered his mind in that moment.
“Leading yourself is a conquering moment of how we feel and what we know we should do.”
One of the biggest misconceptions is that we expect the feeling of not wanting to do what we know we should do to go away. We then beat ourselves up asking ourselves the wrong questions like “What's wrong with me?” “Why can't I just get myself to take action?”
Here is the reality. The battle never ends!
You've probably have heard of the story of two wolves. An indian tribe was sitting around the fire as the chief tells the story of the battle of two wolves. One represents fear, the other courage, one represents laziness the other discipline, one represents evil the other good. The wolves have been at war since the beginning of time. One of the kids that was sitting around the fire asked, “So who wins the battle?” to this the chief responded “the one you feed the most”
It is in the nature of life to live up to our greatest potential. Take a seed and plant it, immediately the seed springs into action! Through the act of living it multiplies. Abraham Maslow puts it this way “What one can be, one must be” Could we not come to the conclusion that our purpose is to live up to our fullest potential, by conquering ourselves and leading our lives through self discipline?
This is the leadership challenge. Leading oneself in compartmentalize moments. Each victory giving us confidence for the next moment. But careful, the battle never ends. Take it one step at a time, and lead your life moment by moment looking for opportunities to practice taking action in the moment you don't feel like it. The secret to a great life is to master a day. For a series of great days leads to a week, a series of great weeks leads to a month, a series of great months leads to a year.. You know the rest of the story.
Follow me @ IG: evolving_david
