DO YOU WANT TO LEAD OR WANDER AIMLESSLY?

LEADERSHIP FROM ABOVE

Lindsay Ali

Are you a leader?  Want to be one? Working on improving your leadership skills?

How would it feel to be at the point where you are confident in how you are leading and how others view you as that leader you aspire to be?

As someone who is striving to achieve leadership qualities and skills, this devotion spoke to me and I just had to share it because maybe you are looking for the same thing.

In this post, I will share with you some insight as to how we can choose to lead or we can choose to wander aimlessly like the Israelites did for 40 years in the wilderness for forty years. (Numbers 32:13).

DO YOU WANT TO LEAD OR WANDER AIMLESSLY?

LEADERSHIP FROM ABOVE

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Did you know that from what I read it only would have taken them about 2 weeks to enter the promise land?

I did not know this, but I can relate it to my experience building online and inside my network marketing business for sure.

Can you think back to a time when you saw a leader emerge and you think to yourself, “Wow!  They JUST joined how did they do it so fast?  How did they rank up so quickly?  What are they doing that I am not?  Why do they get that faster or before me?  I have been working so hard, why can’t I have that?

Have you said these things or thought them?

Not going to lie I have totally said this.  So here is my thinking in this area and the few things that I know and can tell myself, and you should too, in situations like this.

Next, we have to think about the possibility that they had a better and/or bigger following than we did.  I think back to a particular leader in my company that started long after I did and exploded so quickly.  Those thoughts and questions came flooding in or course.  But what I had to tell myself is that I had not fully committed.  I had not given up what she had to get where she is.  She didn’t get there by chance.  No one does and if for some reason they do, they won’t be there long because if they have not or don’t learn the skills sets their success will be limited and they will fade.  I also told myself that this person had a huge following and I had nothing lol.  So, obviously, someone with a huge following and the right skill sets and the willingness to sharpen those skills will explode faster than someone who has no following.

To add to the list, I also believe that what little we do have we must take care of it.  If we have one client then we love love love them.  If we have one team member, then we pour all of ourselves in them to help them succeed.  When we take care of the little that we have been given, I believe God will see that and give us more because we have shown will can handle more.  We show are ready and equip to do or willing to get equipped to lead.

So what do we need to effectively lead?

We can not effectively lead without self-discipline.

If we can learn this, then our journey will be shorter and not so difficult.  We will reach that ‘promise land’ of growth, more clients, more teammates, and freedom.

Just like the Israelites, success is not far away.  It’s right around the corner just like it was about two weeks away from them.  It took them 40 years to get there because they did not learn this lesson 

We don’t want to take 40 years to see success.  So away to speed this process up a bit is to develop self-discipline 

• Remove Temptations

You have heard that old saying, “out of sight, out of mind.”  Follow this!  Removing all tempatations and distractions from your evnironment is a crucial first step when working to improve your self discipline.  Turn off the cell phone, close down social media (even email) for a time period.  Doing this will set yourself up for success.  And we want you to be successful, right!?

• Develop, Follow & Make it a Goal

You have heard this one before too.  “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”  You have to develop a plan of action to get to your goals.  What take priority in your business?  What will move you forward?  What nees to be done and when does it need to be done.  Once you have a plan in place, follow it.  Be consistent with your efforts not matter what. Even if you don’t feel like it…more on this in a few.  Once you have developed yor plan of action make this a lifestyle.  You know in fitness and nutrition they said to make it a lifestyle change not a ‘diet’.  Diet’s come and go but if you change your mindset to this concept of it’s here to stay and it’s not going anywhere, then you are making it a lifestyle and you will achieve your health goals.  I believe the same here.  Don’t expect this to end.  If you are in this business for the long haul, then a self-disciplined life needs to become your lifestyle.  And why not?  This will help in ALL areas of your life.

• Eat Healthy & Exercise 

Now, yes I have a health and fitness business with network marketing so I am a little bias here. BUT, don’t we choose our company because it spoke to us or it hit us where we are passionate about?  So yes, this is an important part because I have a passion for helping others do that journey.  But, it’s also important to nearly all successful people out there.  I have studied successful people and one thing almost all of them have in common is they have a daily routine of fitness on some level.  Studies have also shown that low blood sugar often weakens a person’s resolve. (according to an article from Forbes)  When you are hungry or not feeding your body the right way, your ability to concentrate suffers because your brain is not functioning at it’s highest potential.  Not only is it hard to focus but if you are anything like me you get grumpy and pessimistic.  And no one needs a grumpy person around and NO ONE needs negativity when trying to build a business!  So grab a healthy snack and make sure you don’t go too long without eating so you can improve your decision-making skills and concentration.

• Don’t Feel Right?  Do It Anyway!

Changing up your normal routine is awkward and uncomfortable.  But that is anything new you are trying to do.  At least until you get comfortable doing it and it becomes a habit.  Improving your self-discipline means you must change up your normal routine and implement activities that will help your business grow and help you to become a better leader.  Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, explains that habit behaviors are traced to a part of the brain called the basal ganglia – a portion of the brain associated with emotions, patterns, and memories.  Decisions, on the other hand, are made in the prefrontal cortex, a completely different area.  When a behavior becomes a habit, we stop using our decision-making skills and function on auto-pilot.  Therefore, breaking a bad habit. and building a new habit not only requires us to make active decisions, it will feel wrong.  Your brain will resist the change in favor of what it had been programmed to do.  The solution?  Embrace the wrong. Get comfortable with the uncomfortable.   It’s going to take a bit to get you to feel comfortable and right and good AND natural in your new activities.  Keep pushing through and that awkwardness will become your new norm.

• Challenge Your Excuses

Alright, we just talked about do it anyway no matter if you don’t feel like it or not.  If you feel yourself making excuses then you need to learn methods to kick those to the curb.  Develop a rule to not speak or use words or phrases that blame shift why things are not happening for you or why you are not wanting to do this or that for your business.  When an excuse pops in squash it with a thought or true that will knock it down and not allow it to rear its ugly head.  Figure out why you are making that excuses, how can you overcome it or change your outlook on the activity you are avoiding and then back it up with true so you can move forward in confidence.  For example, a common thing I see in NM is that we make excuses as to why we don’t want to talk to people about our business opportunity.  Why? Most likely we fear what others will think of us and what we are doing.  Here, for myself, I have to come to realize and believe that NM is a good business model and I needed to be proud of being in the industry regardless of what others thought.  Once I started saying this true in my head, I became more confident in moving forward with sharing, talking about it and creating my plan of action. So do this because it works!  We should not care what others think anyway, but apply this to any excuses you are creating.

• Breaks, Rewards, and Treats

You don’t have to be a drill sargent here giving yourself no wiggle room.  In fact, I advise against this as its not sustainable and you will quit before the habits are formed.  It will lead to more failures, disappointments and it will take you right back into your old ways.  Schedule in breaks and rewards for your accomplishments.  If you are on a new nutrition plan and you go cold turkey with your new plan and cut out all the bad.  I personally think it’s a great idea to schedule in a cheat meal.  Don’t go crazy but definitely give yourself a little break.  Same with work.  Create this new plan but schedule in some breaks so you don’t go crazy and have a downward spiral into I suckville and give up altogether.  Self-discipline in any are is hard so reward yourself!

• Forgive and Go

The one thing you can count on is that life will happen.  Which means that your plans will definitely not go perfectly and you are going to have to be flexible, go with the flow.  When you do what you said you were to yourself or you do have to change it up a bit, you will need to accept that your plan needs to be adjusted and/or forgive yourself for not completing your tasks.  Success is a bumpy, windy path filled with failures, detours, road closures, Uturns, and construction zones all over the place.  But you will see success and it’s born in the moments when you feel like nothing is happening and you think you are sucking at this new thing.  But, you decide to keep pushing forward…there!  Right there is where success is born!  So embrace the struggle and NEVER STOP!

• Focus On The Activity NOT the results

This is not to say you should not think of the end result and your end goal.  We absolutely should!  But we should not leave our focus there.  Create that goal and turn your focus on the activities you need to do to get you there.  With losing weight, since that is a huge thing in my life and one of my business, I create a goal of losing 100lb (yep, by the time I am done from heaviest to goal it will be 100lb lose…yay!).  If I keep my focus where my mind will start to think about how much weight that is to lose and how long that journey is going to be and OH MY GOSH I can not have ice cream (my weakness) until I lose all that weight.  This will quickly send me to a bing fest in the pantry or freezer.  BUT, if I focus on the activities I need to do to get me there like choosing better cleaner foods for my meals, meal prepping, getting in my workouts etc… Then I will accomplish small little goals, make progress and eventually feel the success of that larger goal!  Make sense?  We can apply this to any business goals as well.  Focus on the activity and the success, growth, and leadership will come!

In short, we should never trade what you want at the moment for what you want most overall!  Create self-discipline and shorten that growth of leadership and success in any area. 

Don’t wait 40 years in the wilderness…yikes that would not be fun!

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That’s it! That’s what I have for today!

So…I like convos where it’s two way you know right? so I just spoke for a while so now it’s your turn.

Hey, thank you!

Thank you for jumping on this post!

Hopefully, I have added value to you here.  I would love to hear from you on this post and/or on the live stream!  Tell me what your experience is and what tools you use.

Until next time, have a great day!