Day 390 - Leadership 199 / Trait 3 of 14: Courage

Leadership traits were on my mind last night while attending Honors Night at my daughters High School. As many of these young women & men were being recognized for their efforts they had the opportunity to step up and exercise their bearing in addressing the crowded auditorium. I was very impressed with how they conducted themselves with confidence and courage in a situation, public speaking, which is a challenging opportunity for most.

If you missed our previous posts in this series on leadership traits be sure to catch up on them here...
Leadership 199 / Trait 2 of 14: Bearing
Leadership 199 / Trait 1 of 14: Dependability


Let us see what our third trait has for us…

Leadership 199 / Trait 3 of 14: Courage

Defined: The mental quality that recognizes fear of danger or criticism, but enables you to proceed in the face of it with calmness and firmness.

Discovered: To understand courage you first must understand fear. When we recognize danger, fear is our innate survival mechanism that kicks in and prompts us to flee from or confront the present danger. The use of the word danger is a bit misleading because fear does not come over us only when we are in situations that are truly dangerous to our well being. Fear is also present when we face challenges which we believe we are at risk of failing at.

For the purposes of honing our self-leadership ability into higher degrees of effectiveness let us focus on those challenges we face for bettering ourselves. Weight loss,... training for your first marathon,... the treatments and recovery that lay ahead to care for injury or disease,... going back to school to get that college degree,... employment search,... starting your own business,... and so on. These are just a few obvious challenges many of us are facing now.

What other challenges are you facing today which will require you to address your fear of failure to overcome?

Books large and small have been written on how to overcome fear. I promise that this post will not run on into book length. Therefore I must cut to the chase on what gets us over what we fear. Courage!

Courage, like fear, is innate; we have it with in us. The funny thing is fear just pops out quickly in the face of challenge. While for many the courage within us has to be poked, prodded and sometimes pulled out.

However it is that you reach inside and get courage to come forward, do it. Courage enables your inner strength, your ability to stand up for what it is you deem right and necessary. Courage applied to challenge brings discipline to the task, provides you the required calmness to control fear versus fear controlling you.

Our challenges do not come with certainty of success. To succeed we must function effectively in our mission no matter how long, how difficult it may be. Along the way set backs may occur, the difficulty of the mission may rise. Fear will attempt to take back control with such occurrences. Perseverance comes from courage, our ability to persevere will ensure we endure through to the missions successful completion.


Da-Point: Respect Fear, Embrace Courage, Achieve Victory!

Is it hard for you to bring the courage within you to bear on your challenges?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 389 - Leadership 199 / Trait 2 of 14: Bearing

Did you get a charge out of Trait 1: Dependability? I know I got fired up writing it and reading your comments. Fired Up I Tell Ya!! No way I was going to have a bad Tuesday after the high I was on from writing that post. And a great Tuesday I had. Looking forward to Wednesday being just a great if not more so.  

Deep breath, clear mind, let's power ahead into our second trait…

Leadership 199 / Trait 2 of 14: Bearing

Defined: Creating a favorable impression in carriage, appearance and personal conduct at all times.

Discovered: Conduct, personal-conduct, is a noun in that sentence. Mrs. English, yes I really had an English teacher named Mrs. English, well she would not approve of this but I choose to see 'conduct' as a verb here. And if noun-abuse is not to be tolerated, then I offer another sentence...

Bearing is the manner in which you conduct yourself.

Just how do you behave in your mission to get healthy? Do you go through the motions of whatever program you are following while longingly looking forward to being done with what you are doing?

Be honest! If you answered 'Yes' to that follow-up question and that is how you conduct yourself some of most of the time, well then allow me this moment of boldness to say that your bearing is OFF.

You cannot lead effectively just going through the motions! 

Leadership with bearing is to...

• Arrive Alert in the face of your challenges & with Desire for the results you deserve.
• Stand Competent & Confident, that you have what it takes to succeed. 
• Conduct yourself so that you Control the motion that is your life.

Da-Point: Conduct yourself against the highest of standards. Never accept that behaving in a manner less than the maximum of your ability is acceptable.

  

Is your bearing up to the challenges you face?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 74 - Semi Complete

The last day of June is here. Half of 2010 is just hours away from being history. Did you hear me; HALF! Where does the time go?

Seriously; Where does the time go?

For me it used to get thrown away waiting 6 cars deep in a drive-thru line for a Big Mac value meal and 2 double-cheeseburgers off of that lovely dollar menu (where was that when I was in college?). The doubles were my appetizer before the Big Mac main feast; anyone else do that before?

Time was also given up to watching hours, 4-5 hours an evening, of TV. Crap like reality shows and how-to shows. Did I really need to learn taxidermy & how to grout tile on the same day? Will there ever be a time I do either; let alone do them both on the same day?

Oh let's not forget those hours I punted by napping on weekends if I didn't have anything else to do or because I was stuffed from stuffing my face. Just how relaxed does one person need to be? Plus dreams from naps aren't as good anyhow.

That's where too much of my time used to go to waste when this year began. Today Big Mac's have been replaced by balanced & portion controlled choices, most TV time has been replaced by blogging, and extra sleep has been replaced by weight lifting & walking.

How is today different for you from your days just six months ago?

Did you make any resolutions on Jan. 1, 2010 (I didn't) and if so how are you doing against them?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 23 - Change #4

Hope everyone had a good weekend and a successful week last week. A new week is here, welcome to another Monday.


Monday's are change days for me in my mission. These have been the hardest posts I make each week. You would think it may be easy since I am in no doubt making many changes from the old-unhealthy me to the new-healthier me. When it comes to this post it is not just about changes, but about a sincere commitment to that change. As well they are meant to be beyond the obvious, e.g. eating better, getting in some exercise, etc. This is only my 4th change and identifying impacting changes that really define a new me are not no-brainer's, I take them seriously.

This week's change may not seem like a real change to some at first but instead a want or a goal, however it definitely is a change for me.

Change 4...

• REWARD MYSELF FOR SUCCESS

Huh... Reward myself? Yep, rewarding myself is not a behavior, or better yet not a discipline, which I have ever practiced genuinely when it comes to my health. In the past if I wanted something, I went and got it. Not much thought to whether I deserved or needed it. If I didn't want something then I avoided it. Not much thought to whether I might be better off for having it. Sound familiar at all? It sounds like my old eating / exercise habits to me.

What I've been missing is a discipline to identify that bridge between my health behaviors (good and bad) and which are in my best interest and that of my family both today and in the future. Rewards may be part if that bridge, that discipline, I'll need to sustain momentum and motivation through to the end of this mission and then maintain a healthy lifestyle forever onward.

Is self-reward really necessary? Can't I just get it done without a 'carrot' to chase? Perhaps, probably, or; maybe not. Let me try and add a hint of I am placing self-reward into perspective. Here I am talking about rewards for healthy behavior. What about my professional behavior? My career is filled with plenty of risk and thus plenty of consequence & reward is present. I've done well to attain much reward. Why? Because I've always known what my efforts can bring me if I work smart; the tangible financial gain and the intangible sense of being valued if not necessary. Knowing these rewards are there to be had, I've chased them. Same could be said for my behavior towards family and marriage. The tangible fulfillment of the want for love & companionship, and the intangible sense of pride from providing for the needs of those I love. Knowing these rewards are there to be had, I've worked smart at being a good husband and father.

So, what about being healthy? As all of us driven to lose weight have made the decision to learn what healthy behaviors are and finally acknowledged the tangible and intangible benefits of being healthy are there to be had if we want them. But, for whatever reason, as clear and righteous as those benefits are now becoming apart of us; we've really known them for years but ignored them until recently. For some of us decades of ignorance is in our wake. Together we could fill hundreds of blog pages listing these benefits. But listing them is not my intent here. My intent with committing to a new change weekly is to forge behaviors that will increase my chance of succeeding in my health mission so that my health becomes as great as the successes I have achieved in career and marriage.

I chose to see myself as victorious!

I acknowledge my accomplishments by celebrating my successes small & large in ways that motivate me to go on and achieve my ultimate goal.

I control who I am, I've acknowledged that several times in this blog. Part of that acknowledgement means realizing I control what makes me feel good and keeps me going for more.

There you have it, my change for week four; I will reward myself for success.

What about the actual rewards. Oh worry not, my mind is in hyper-drive working through that detail believe me. Those thoughts aren't ready to put on paper and share yet, but they will be very soon; later this week soon. I've all but decided to set up rewards as I achieve each 10% mark in my mission; for me 10% = 12 pounds. As I am close to that first mark now, I have to get this nailed this week. Stay tuned...

How about you, do you reward your successes and if so how?

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!