Are you leading your life or just living it?
When you’re just living life, you experience the everyday frustrations of most people. Maybe you work too much, but you still don’t feel like you ever really get on top of things. You get stressed. You don’t work out as much as you should, or you might not have any down time at all. You get testy in traffic and short with your kids. You don’t get to spend as much time with your spouse as you might want. As a result, you often feel guilty. When you’re at home, you think you should be at work; when you’re working, you think you should be at home. But this is a busy time, you tell yourself. Right now life’s a little crazy and I just have to get things done. Even though you’d say you’re happy enough, most of the time anyway, there are plenty of times you wonder if life is passing you by.
When you’re leading your life, you experience everyday as a gift to be opened. You know what’s coming today, because it will be just as you planned it – or even better. You spend your time on the things that are most impactful and most important to you. At work, you’re able to tackle the challenges with confidence and ease. You feel focused, accomplished, and relaxed. At home, you feel content and at peace. No need for guilt, because you’ve made your decisions wisely and in alignment with your values. You spend time with the ones you love, and you still have time for yourself. You may be busy, but it’s a good busy. Best of all, you’re having fun! You’re invested in your life, and you feel rewarded every day.
Whether you’re the CEO of an international organization, a business owner or executive, an entrepreneur working out of your home, a stay-at-home parent, or a person just trying to get along in the world, you have a choice. You can lead your life or you can just live it. If you choose to just live it, you are leaving life to chance and risking a life of less than: less than you’d hoped for, less than you could be, less than you wanted. If you choose to lead your life – to really take responsibility for it, to take charge, to take control – you are choosing a life of possibility. You discover that you have more time, more joy, more success, more happiness, and more peace of mind. When you choose to lead your life rather than just live it, you experience a life of more than you ever thought was possible.
Learning to lead your life – what I call personal leadership – won’t just improve your leadership. It will help you expand your life.
You can test your Personal Leadership IQ by taking the survey, Your Inner Edge: A Self Assessment, available for free at www.TheInnerEdge.com.
Please join us for The Inner Edge Book Club! This month we will be reviewing all ten of the Practices of Personal Leadership – an overview of exactly what you need to do to be a better leader and lead a better life. For more information, click here or email info@TheInnerEdge.com.