When it comes to productivity and time management, procrastination can be the biggest culprit of ineffectiveness and inefficiency, but the roots lie deeper than just a wondering mind and its associated distractions. Procrastination is the hideaway place for deeper issues rooted in fear and insecurity.
Going all in doesn’t mean we must do or die, it means we must create a strategy that allows us to maximize our potential, identify the support we need, identify the skills we must develop, while ensuring our well-being is not an afterthought and therefore keeping us sane.
I have stopped using perfectionism as a crutch to justify my fear of criticism and my lack of self-confidence, and instead have combined my love for continuous improvement to put out great, imperfect work each day and keep working consistently into perfecting my craft.
Having a huge dream can feel intimidating and unfortunately, many people quit on their dreams and settle for less, because they don’t realize how manageable an “impossible” task becomes the moment we start moving just one little step forward towards achieving it.
The success in reaching such goal lays in visualizing it daily, as if it’s already a reality and then putting all of our focus and commitment to make it come true.
Yet, we can never approach it with a plan B at hand, that right there means we have accepted defeat before even launching.
Leadership is not a role one can take on lightly, I’ve said this before, but I think is worth repeating. If we want others to believe in us and to willingly follow us, we must give them something worth following. At home, we cannot ask from our spouse and children, or from our parents, something that we are not willing to give. It always boils down to self-leadership. We reap what we saw.
As leaders we are always creating something. We create opportunities, we create a vision, we create solutions and creativity is a requirement for high performance and dedicating time to enjoy our hobbies, allows for that creativity to flow freely.
Doing the hard things, the ones that make us uncomfortable, will become second nature once we learn to act – leaders are first movers. Instead of overthinking and anticipating everything that could go wrong, focus on all that can go great while keeping a realistic but positive approach. Remember that self-believe comes first. How can we expect others to believe in us, if we second-guess our every move?
Kindness is like a muscle, the more we exercise it, the stronger it’ll become. And as a result, we’ll become more grateful, more expectant, more intentional, and way more engaged. It’s easy to criticize others and to allow our self-righteousness to boost our ego and pat us in the back, but the truth is, nobody has it absolutely right. We all make mistakes, we all struggle, and we all have a long way to go when it comes to growth. Yet with kindness and compassion to self and to others, the load will always become lighter and more manageable.
Our continuous growth, will support our efforts to support the growth of our people, these two, are intrinsically linked. This is not solely linked to the marketplace, but it applies to our family and friends as well. And growth my friend, has to be intentional, it doesn’t happen by accident. It takes planning, it takes time, and it take consistency, it takes sacrifice, but the results will be worth it!
