Good Leaders Are Targeted To The Future
The prevailing characteristic of big leaders is that most of the time they are thinking about the future. We are worried about where they are going instead of where they were. They cultivate a positive attitude and think about tomorrow’s possibilities instead of concentrating on past issues. Only about 10 percent of people have this forward-looking quality. This small percentage includes all different kinds of movers, shakers, businessmen, company owners, top salespeople, designers, performers, and producers.
You have to practice “idealization” in every area of your life, to think like a leader. To make the most of the use of idealization, you can begin by imagining that you have absolutely no limits to what you can be, do or have. Imagine having all of the time and money you need for a moment. You’ve got all the information and the skills, talent, experience, contacts, and friends. You are a “no-limit” person who is capable of doing anything you really put your mind to. If you were the best professional business person you could possibly be, what specific characteristics of expertise, abilities, and leadership would you have built to a high standard?
You can then apply this process to your family, your economy, and your physical health as you continue the practice of idealization. If, in any way, your family life was great, what kind of lifestyle would you live? And if your financial situation were perfect, how much money would you have at the bank, and how much would you receive every month and every year from your investments? And if your physical health and fitness rates were perfect, how far would you be from today? Once you start developing leadership qualities, you start engaging in what’s called “long-term thinking.”
Great Leaders Must Maintain A Positive Attitude
Top individuals possess a positive attitude and are long-term thinkers. Regular thinkers just think of the moment and instant gratification. Yet major leaders are talking about where they want to be in five and ten years, and what they need to do every hour of each day to make their ideal future a reality. Great leaders inspire us because they are inspired by themselves, their mates, clients, colleagues, and even their kids. They’re excited about the possibility of making their own exciting future.
They get up every morning and see every effort they make as part of a great plan with their lives to accomplish something wonderful and push forward with a positive attitude. When they write a new novel, they realize that each page they’re writing is a step closer to their target. They even focus on the good that will come out of it when progress comes slowly, rather than dwelling on the sense of foreverness.
Officials are positive. In everything that happens, positive or negative, they see possibilities and potentialities. They in every situation and in every person are searching for the positive. We are looking for the valuable lessons of every question or setback. I never suffer “failures,” but write them down as “experiences of learning.” Most of all, great leaders in every area of their lives have a sense of meaning and purpose. They have specific goals and plans written which they work on every day. Leaders are clear where they’re headed, and what they’re going to have to do to get there. Their behavior is purposive and goal-driven. As a result, they achieve five to ten times as much as the average person who works with little concern for the future from day today.
The Best Leaders Take Responsibility For Themselves
One of the most important qualities of leadership is that of recognizing personal responsibility. Leaders never grumble, they never demonstrate. They are making progress, instead of making excuses. They say to themselves when they have a failure or difficulty: “I am responsible! I am accountable! I am liable!” Great leaders see themselves as victors in circumstances rather than as victims.
When something goes wrong we do not accuse or blame anyone. We focus instead on the answer, on what to do.
Leaders are intensely focused on practice. We are in constant motion. They’re trying something, and then something else, and then again. They’re never giving in.
Leaders, at last, have dignity. We always tell the truth. They deal with themselves in truth and we live with others in reality. It’s a massive responsibility to accept leadership. It is both terrifying and uplifting. When you decide to become a leader in your life, you throw off the shackles of fear and dependence that hold back most people and adopt a positive attitude towards life. You devise your own future with your own hands. You are putting yourself on the road to becoming all that you can become.
