Lead Yourself - The Starting Point of Leadership

February 4, 2009 - Posted by Betsy Ringer

We are all leaders.  There are people around us that we influence.  Whether you lead your family, friends, service teams, corporate teams or organizations the starting point of all leadership is learning to lead yourself.  Books have been written about this.  It does NOT mean you are perfect in every way; but it does mean you make some conscious choices and decisions, some of which include:

  • Take care of your mind
  • Love and respect your body
  • Rest, laugh, play
  • Enjoy loving relationships
  • Make money, save money, spend wisely
  • Know peace, compassion, and share what you have
  • Trust God to guide you
  • Treat yourself with respect; know your boundaries
  • Take time to breathe

…and many more

Think about leading yourself throughout the day in the words you choose, making opportunities to laugh, making the conscious decision to be gracious.

Choose one thing you will focus on for the next week.  I’d love for you to share with me how you are going to make some conscious decisions to lead yourself.  Choose one of these ideas or come up with your own:

  1. How will you take care of your mind? Say no to junk information and media? Try something new?  Read a book that nourishes your mind and soul?
  2. How will you treat yourself with respect and keep important boundaries? Take inventory of all you are doing and let go of some of your activities?  Give yourself permission to say “no” or to let go of the pressure you put on yourself to “fix” others.
  3. Take time to really enjoy some loving relationships in your life. Who are you going to invest in?  What is something loving you can do for them?  Who is valuable to you—let them know.

I’d love to hear about the step you take to lead yourself this week.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 11:02 am and is filed under Leadership, Life Coaching, Life Skills, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

2 Comments

  1. Valisha McFarlane says:

    Your Comment…I am renewing my mind and body this month by reading a book called “Total Heart Health for Women” By Ed and Jo Beth Young.

    As leaders, we must first lead and discipline ourselves before we go on to lead and disciple others.

    ...on February 10th, 2009
  2. Betsy Ringer says:

    That sounds like a terrific book, Valisha! Thanks for sharing.

    ...on February 10th, 2009