You can have all of the accomplishments, accolades, and wealth in the world but still not feel the confidence that these things afford. It’s especially challenging when you’re rising up, trying hard to make a name for yourself, grow as an expert and successful professional, but you feel, at times, ill-equipped in the field that you’re in.
There’s an old adage that says you’re only as strong as your weakest link. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately and what it means for us in leadership. As much as we can set the standard for ourselves and for our team members, we truly have to think about how much impact those standards really have—how much weight they truly hold—when you have a weak link in the chain.
It may be showing my age to talk about the transformative nature of technology in the world, but I’m old enough to remember the pre-Internet age. I can remember the rise of email, Blackberries, then smartphones, and social media. While technological advancements have always turned the tide of the world as we know it, we’re living in an age where technological leaps are moving so quickly and condensed that just ten and twenty years can create whole shifts in our culture.
When we consider all of the ways that our health can decline, we don't usually think about cognitive function. Our minds still turn first to weight gain, arthritis, high cholesterol, or heart problems. As dementia and Alzheimer's become an increasing part of our dialog, however, the more it becomes a part of the same conversation.
I think many of us underestimate the value in a good night's sleep. Oftentimes, we'll trade a few extra hours of perceived productivity “getting ahead” rather than hitting the hay. We think back to our college days of all-nighters and getting by on only minimal hours of sleep and it leads us to believe that we can make that sacrifice.
Doing the same workout day in and day out can get monotonous. There are times when we just need to change things up and do something different. However, simply switching up your running route or the order in which you do things just doesn't seem like enough. Why not look for ways to truly freshen things up?
We live in a perpetually anxious world. It's particularly true where money is concerned. When it comes to obtaining financial peace of mind, most of us seem to believe it is out of reach. Even as we try to get a grip on our financial health, we find that even knowing good habits doesn't help us feel any better.
In leadership, there is a temptation to be successful in every single pursuit that we take on. We are, in a way, not allowed to fail. Because we know we are being watched, either by an audience or by our team, we feel as though giving up on a pursuit or a passion is a failure. We've let down not only ourselves but those we feel we're supposed to be leading in our footsteps to successful lives and careers. If we not only fail in our efforts but give up on them completely, what kind of message does that send?
Our dream is to be able to do one specific, targeted workout and lose weight in our problem areas. Unfortunately, that's just not how our bodies work. We can't control how and where we will lose weight when we exercise. Doing an arm exercise to try to get rid of some fat and flab may only result in belly fat burn at first.
If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you can tell that I have quite a wide range of interests. I’m passionate about leadership, investing and finance, endurance running, nutrition...lots of different things. I don’t see this as a hodge-podge, but rather as a holistic set of interests that leverage and influence on another.
I do a lot of public speaking. When you're doing a big conference talk, a workshop, or even a digital presentation, there's an energy present that lets you gauge how you're doing. If you pay attention, you can feel it. Sometimes it's just this ever-present acute awareness of eyes on you. The electric energy of attentiveness.
In a position of leadership, we all understand the burden and responsibility of leading others. Whether you're an entrepreneur on-the-rise with a small team, a long-time leader with a huge network of employees, or something in between, we all have people working for us and with us who make it all work.
Hearing the word “audit” can strike terror into the hearts of the most confident among us. But there are applications in which an audit—a careful assessment of your finances and accounts—can be indispensable. For all of us, a self-audit allows us to expose where in our financial health we can stand to improve, what strategies are working and which are not, and what we need to do to more fully and comprehensively meet our financial goals, both personal and professional.
Who among us doesn’t want to be more productive in the day-to-day? If you want to succeed in your career and average, daily goals, you have to be able to focus on what is before you. If you’re distracted and find your attention torn not only by external distractions but your own internal thoughts, you can’t expect to excel.
Entrepreneurs can take many forms. When you have a vision for yourself, a company, or an idea you believe in, striking out to make that vision a reality is always both a labor of love and an exercise in frustration. It comes with long nights, joy, sacrifice, tears, and immense pride. And even though I have found great success in my career in real estate, I also wish I'd known a few things before I really struck out in my own entrepreneurship ventures.
