Responsibility 199, what is it?

Responsibility 199 is a belief; I believe that to be healthy and to increase my longevity I need to weigh 199 pounds or less...
Responsibility 199 is a need; I need to reduce my weight, reduce my percentage of body fat, and the elevated threat of disease my present condition presents...
Responsibility 199 is a mission; I recognize that achieving 199 will be a challenge, perhaps the hardest I have ever undertaken...
Responsibility 199 is a commitment; I acknowledge that I must commit to action, commit to change, commit to myself and those I love to achieve this mission, to increase my longevity...
Responsibility 199 is ME.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Day 388 - Leadership 199 / Trait 1 of 14: Dependability

Who is it that is in charge of leading you to accomplish your mission to get healthy?

If you answered that question with a name other than your own, PLEASE do comment below. I really want to discuss how it is that someone other than yourself is on the hook for accomplishing your mission.

I am my own leader. While my actions and outcomes may affect others, and while I may depend on others for input and assistance in my tasks; at the end of each decision it is "I" who must lead myself to success, or failure, whichever I choose to deliver.

Are we clear?
I am MY own leader!
You are YOUR own leader!!

Now for the real question: Am I (are you) ready to lead?

Leadership is an innate ability which can be honed into higher degrees of effectiveness with education and experience. Note I said 'and', not 'or'. You want to lead yourself to victory, then you have to 'do' it, not just think about it. For the outcome of what you do to be successful you need to first know the success factors of leadership.

These success factors, or leadership traits as I prefer to refer to them, were taught to me nearly 30 years ago. Learning them, and living them are two different choices. To get myself from here, to my goal of 199, I am going to have to live these traits each day along the way. On any given day where I can reflect and see that I have come up short, you can bet that I can identify one of more of these traits which I did not hold true to.

Let us get busy learning these leadership traits, there are fourteen of them. Yes 14; no moaning or sighs of hot air allowed! Anything worth learning is worth learning in detail. Therefore we are going to learn all 14 of them. To increase the potential of learning and retaining them so that we can put them to practice, we are going to learn them one at a time; one per day over the next fourteen days.

Without further introduction as to my intent here, away we go…

Leadership 199 / Trait 1 of 14: Dependability

Defined: The certainty of proper performance of duty.

Discovered: Duty, a very powerful word as I see it. When we have something to do, the degree of importance which we associate it with goes up if we accept it as our duty. If we associate it as something less, then I would suggest it is a 'want' and not a 'need'. Would you agree that getting healthy and living healthy is something you need to do? Myself, I do. The it is our duty to do just that, get healthy and stay healthy.

Certainty, a word that infers an absolute. This word, I like! Absolutes are empowering, motivating, as they demand accomplishment. "For my duty this day I will certainly exercise by running 2 miles and executing my push up & sit up routine"; if you see this as your duty you would proclaimed it just as I wrote it there. However if you do not see this as your duty, you probably have proclaimed it as follows; "I need to exercise today and will do so as soon as I can."

Da-Point: Your success is dependent upon your ability to perform your duty as required.

Can you depend upon yourself to do your duty?

 
Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

9 comments:

  1. Hmmm....leadership traits......jarhead....HEY! I bet I can guess what the other 13 are!! Somehow related to J.J. Did Tie Buckle??

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is funny, I do consider myself my own leader with my workouts & health - I control it.. but in real life, I am not really a leader. Hey, at least I am where my health is concerned! Great post!

    PS: GoDaddy is screwed up again & did not send out notification of my today post... yes, I did post! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hmmm. I can depend on myself to do my duty, yes. Actually, today's blog post is a good example of my stepping up to "do my duty" even when all I wanted to do was to run and hide.

    I do have a hard time depending upon other people to do THEIR duty. I mis-like placing expectations on other people; it usually ends up with me being disappointing, but it sells other people short in the process.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm liking where this is going. 8 months ago, I became the leader in my quest for health and overall, I think I've stuck by this. Like all leaders, sometimes the actions are questionable but it is seeing through the obstacles to come out better on the other side that leads to success.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love this post but I am way down on the dependability list right now. Today I've committed to sticking to the plan I have made for myself. I will have to add the exercise later. One step at a time, I will get back to the level I should be. Today and this week will be about my food choices. My duty, as I see it, is to stick to my plan.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's funny. I would lead people all the time in my career but never took the time to lead myself when it came to my health. Now, I'm putting my leadership skills to work on ME. Getting my own ass in gear!

    Great post!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is a great post and I look forward to being reminded of the rest of them - one at a time. Good food for the body and soul!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. * sigh * This is why I regret not reading blogs lately. Great post, Patrick! Hope all is well with you...I have some catching up to do!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love this post. It is sooo important and integral to this journey!!!

    ReplyDelete