Day 402 - Leadership 199 / Trait 6 of 14: Enthusiasm

Good Morning everyone. Hope Monday was a great day. If not, then you get to try again for greatness today.

Over the past couple of weeks we've been diving into the leadership traits we need to embrace to successfully lead ourselves to our goals. We've covered 5 of the 14 traits thus far. To catch up or freshen up on them, these links will help you do just that...
Leadership 199 / Trait 5 of 14: Endurance
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


I can't wait to get on to the next one so let's not waste a moment and jump into our sixth trait…

Leadership 199 / Trait 6 of 14: Enthusiasm

Defined: The display of sincere interest and exuberance in the performance of duty.

Discovered: When starting a mission to get healthy most of us are stoked and full of enthusiasm. Sure, some start their missions less enthusiastically, under duress more likely, due to peer or family pressure, perhaps medical needs dictate lose weight now or perish. But for most, once we've mustered the courage and decided we're going to do this, we can't wait to get started and achieve our goal.

That rush of 'can-do', that desire to 'make it happen', that thirst for 'how to' knowledge; all of those highs we feel are brought upon us in that wave of enthusiasm we've embraced when we start. Some of us will recognize early on the role our enthusiasm plays in our mission and work just as hard to keep it up as they will at meal planning and getting in exercise. Others will not look that deep into what is required to be successful and likely wont notice the correlation in the fade of their results with the drop in their enthusiasm.

They key to enthusiasm, is your sincerity for what you want to achieve. Regardless whether your desire is for a need or a want, when you truly desire that something, the probability that you'll attain it increases 396 fold, or more.

Huh? That is crazy talk you say? Yes, you really do want to lose weight. You know you should do so, and you have a good reason why you want to? Great, so can I. Does that equate to sincerely desiring to doing it? Nope, it is the spark of enthusiasm, but it is not going to ignite into the fire storm needed to get this done unless we feed that spark.

Ok big boy, how do we do that you say? At least I hope that's what you said. Perhaps some of you chose to chuckle at what I've scribbled out here thus far and feel more like heckling in reply to my thoughts. If you did, bravo for you, this is your lucky day!

So many times I started an effort to lose weight, all of those times I figured I knew what I needed to do and success was just a matter of doing those things and that's it. Sound familiar? Someone who is supposed to know hands you a sheet of paper with a 1800 calorie a day diet on it, pats you on the head, and wishes you well; happened to me some fifteen years ago courtesy of a doctor who figured just because he is a doctor he had the answers I sought. Or, you buy an exercise video with a zillion exercises that will have you looking fine in no time, just so long as you do the exercises.

Ok, those failed me. What failed you? Better yet, why?

The answer for me, in large part, is that I did not sincerely want this. More specifically, I did not know that my building my enthusiasm for what I want is as important as doing the work to get it.

Sincerely defining a purpose, not just a reason, for this mission, amps up our enthusiasm.
Sincerely understanding what we need to do and how to do it, amps up our enthusiasm.
Sincerely believing in ourselves, seeing ahead to what achieving it will bring us, amps up our enthusiasm.
Sincerely acknowledging the benefits of success and the side-effects of  failure, amps up our enthusiasm. 
Sincerely celebrating accomplishments, tasting victory (not via cup cakes), amps up our enthusiasm.   

Da-Point:  Interest plus Purpose times Belief divided by Sincerity equals Enthusiasm.

Have you done the math on your mission?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 398 - Leadership 199 / Trait 5 of 14: Endurance

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!!

Day 397 - Leadership 199 / Trait 4 of 14: Decisiveness

For those interested in our weekend at the hunting property turkey hunting, building a box blind, you can check out my post of pictures & video on my hunting blog.



If you missed our previous posts in this series on leadership traits it is easy to catch up, the quickest links on earth are right here...

Leadership 199 / Trait 3 of 14: Courage
Leadership 199 / Trait 2 of 14: Bearing
Leadership 199 / Trait 1 of 14: Dependability



Read, Set, Go time it is for our fourth trait…

Leadership 199 / Trait 4 of 14: Decisiveness

Defined: Ability to make decisions promptly and to announce them in clear, forceful manner.

Discovered: The quality of our lives is a direct reflection of our decisions. Each day we make a gabagazillion decisions, give or take a couple. Should I eat this donut or that carrot?... Not interested in work today, should go in I just tough it out or call in sick?... I have an hours time, shall I exercise or watch rare Three Stooges episodes on YouTube?... The basement is flooding, should I open the door and go fix it or ignore it because it will dry out eventually?

Some can make a decision with near zero angst or reservation. Others need an iron-clad guarantee against risk before they are comfortable doing so. Sure some decisions are easier to make than others. Just as sure, some of the hardest decisions we make are about ourselves.

It is easy to look across the street at a 420'ish pound woman struggling to walk to her mail box and decide she needs to lose weight and lose it NOW! Nope, no delay there in seeing anothers obvious need and being decisive about the solution.

Yet that same day we climb a few stairs in our own home, or walk across the mall, to arrive gasping for a full breath before doing going on. Often our own obvious struggle do not result in the same decisiveness.

Decisiveness is seeing a need, identifying how to satisfy that need, weighing the opportunities to be gained by satisfying it against the opportunities to be lost by not doing so, and then making a decision.

Decisiveness is not looking away from a need, over analyzing options to hide fear of making a decision, making excuses or procrastinating.

Once you have made a decision it is time to act upon it. That very first action needs to be announcing your decision with all involved. Whoever it is you will rely on for support, or those who will be affected by your decision, they need to know. Progress starts with a decision, results follow when decisions are clearly and firmly shared.

Da-Point: You only achieve success when you decide to pursue it.

What endeavor awaits the decisive leader within you?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!