A New Year – A New You!

So what about our leadership and New Year’s resolutions?  The new year is always a great time to start, but the issue is always finishing, accomplishing and celebrating the achievement of our goals and dreams (You still do dream don’t you?).  As leaders, ”finishing” is an important aspect of our influence.  It says a lot about our character without us having to say a word.  That is the power of finishing.  We say what we mean, mean what we say and back it up by doing and finishing what we said we would do.  That’s influence, that’s leadership whether at home or work.  

However, sometimes we just don’t quite get there and at that moment we have a choice to make.  We can make excuses and blame others or our “circumstances” for why we didn’t finish.  We can get down on ourselves and allow negative thinking to cause us to quit.  Or, we can be leaders and choose what leaders do when they fail…get back up, learn from the experience, make the adjustments and KEEP ON GOING after our dreams!!!  It’s kind of like when I was playing high school basketball, dribbling the ball down the court all by myself for an easy, uncontested lay up to win the game.  The crowd was excited, the anticipation grew, the noise got louder as I went up and….missed the shot!  Ohhhhhhhhh…went the crowd in disappointment and disbelief that I could not finish such an easy shot.  Can you imagine how I felt…never mind, I don’t want you or me to know and remember how I felt at that moment. 

Since that time, I have had many other victories and failures but the key is I never chose to let that moment define who I was.  Oh it has been a battle…a battle of the mind.  To learn how to control my thought life and reject the loser mentality, fear of failure, and temptation to never try anything new that would take me out of my comfort zone and do anything that I was unfamiliar with or that required trusting others to show me a new way.   

You see, failure has a way of leaving its mark on your sub-conscious mind.  It kind of numbs you and leaves you “gun shy” to put yourself out there again.  And if you let it, it will control your life and keep you “existing” but deny you “thriving” and soaring to the heights you were created to explore and excel in.  Thoughts like – “I’ll never do that again” or “I knew better than to think I could achieve that goal” or “I’m just not like other people that seem to get all the breaks”. - But I can hear some of you saying, “That could be a good thing Richard, to avoid putting myself in a bad or dangerous situation again” – Your’e right…BUT I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THAT “DUDE” (sorry girls – although in California girls call each other dude too…go figure).  I’m talking about LEADERSHIP…INFLUENCE…VICTORY…GROWTH and SIGNIFICANCE. 

The fact is we are out front and our life is in the fishbowl and nothing inspires others who are watching us more than to watch us overcome failure, hardship and disappointment.  Leadership is not about us…you know that…it is about the path we are helping others along in finding their voice and taking them to another level of their potential.  And why do they believe they can grow, achieve more, win and thrive in life???? – Not because we leaders are perfect, but rather because sometimes we fail…hey, we are normal people too! But the difference is that we don’t let our failures define our character and therefore we never quit!  So they look at us and say to themselves – “Shoot, if he can do it, so can I”.  Ordinary people can do extraordinary things and thus the challenge below. Our theme for this year is  – BE GREAT IN 2008!!! -

Remember, “good is the enemy of best”, so we are not talking about just being ”good enough”…we are talking GREAT…”isn’t good, good enough?” NO (You asked me).  So where do we start? Too many people think you have to have a title to be a leader, or own a company or get elected to office or be the Boss at work.  Not so.  You can lead right from where you are at home, work or business.  It starts by leading yourself, making small promises to yourself and following through; FINISHING.  Then watch how your influence-leadership will grow with your kids, spouse, co-workers, boss and community.