We're you decisive yesterday? Not just yesterday but think big picture, have you been decisive about what it is you truly want to succeed at? Speaking for myself,
I have decided I will run three miles by the end of summer. And do it in 28 minutes or less. That is going to be a challenge for me, but one I have decided to achieve.
If you missed our previous posts in this series on leadership traits do not cry out in agony, do not throw things, no no no. Simply click through the links below; easiest thing you will do all day...
Leadership 199 / Trait 4 of 14: Decisiveness
Leadership 199 / Trait 3 of 14: Courage
Leadership 199 / Trait 2 of 14: Bearing
Leadership 199 / Trait 1 of 14: Dependability
Time to tee up our fifth trait…
Leadership 199 / Trait 5 of 14: Endurance
Defined: The mental and physical stamina measured by the ability to withstand pain, fatigue, stress, and hardship.
Discovered: When we think of
endurance we quickly think of a long and grueling physical challenge, e.g a
marathon. A much younger version of myself would blurt out that a
pub-crawl requires endurance. While fun, a pub crawl is not going to help us understand this trait. And neither is a marathon quite frankly. No one specific challenge is sufficient to understand the importance that
endurance plays in our ability lead ourselves to success.
Our missions to get healthy are made up of many different
challenges; challenges that will last our
lifetimes. Lets look that deeper into that definition...
to withstand pain; what causes us pain in our mission? Exercise does. Or at least it ought to cause some degree of pain if we are properly breaking down muscle and burning fat in our quest to become stronger and leaner.
Pain is not fun, I mean hello; it is called PAIN. Yet to
succeed we have to lead ourselves to accept that pain will be there, that pain is part of the process, and that we can deal with it and
overcome it's discomfort and the doubt it will try and have us believe.
to fatigue; so many aspects of getting healthy can get tiring. Sure, exercise causes fatigue; that's too obvious.
What about doing the same thing day in day out? Eating the same 'healthy' meals, performing the same exercise 'routine'? Does doing the same thing cause you
mental fatigue as the days become weeks and months? Oh it sure does for me. Call it fatigue, call it
boredom. It wears on me, causes me to dull my focus and invite in failure. We have to lead ourselves to recognize that which cause us fatigue, and make changes necessary to
maintain focus, maintain motivation to get up each day and choose success.
to stress; oh how we can put
pressure on ourselves to do what we know we should. When we know we ought to exercise today, just knowing that can
eat-away in the back of our minds until we do. And should we opt out, find an excuse not to do so, well multiply that eating-away by ten. Leaders know that
we are our greatest stressors, and those tasks that stress us the most. Leaders also know that there if no way to relieve the stress of a
challenge other than to
tackle it, defeat it and
remove it. You know you need to exercise today, do it now. Don't wait, get to it. Can't do it now because you are in a meeting at work reading my blog from your handheld, well good for you; now switch over to your calendar app and plan precisely what time today you can exercise and block that time off. Leaders
manage stress, they are not managed by stress.
to hardship; why can't this always be easy? It is true, losing weight, getting and being healthy is not easy at times. As if the pain, fatigue and stressors weren't enough to overcome in our mission, we have a host of additional hardships
confront. I could list 74 off the top of my head, but to keep this short and to the point I'll reference two.
People, others around us make this harder at times. Well, they only really make this hard if we let them. They
will toss a wrench on our well planned day at 4:29 p.m. when they come home and say, "can we order pizza and wings for dinner?" Or when they see what we are planning for lunch and say, "you expect me to eat that?"
Ourselves, we can make this hard for us just the same as anyone else can. When you look in the mirror and
see yourself, do you think to yourself, "wow, I am one gorgeous, healthy, amazing creature!" No, you don't. What do you say, something like, "ugh, I am a fat slob of a pig who needs to be skewered."
Ever see youself in a negative sense and acknowledge it? If yes, you are making this harder than it needs to be.
Stop looking at yourself and seeing what you are that you dislike.
Start seeing yourself for who you are becoming.
Da-Point: Stamina is the bridge between succeeding today becoming victorious for a lifetime.
How heavy is the pain, fatigue, stress, and hardship in your life today?
And what are you doing to lead yourself to victory in spite of it all?
Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!
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