The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.
If I were to spend a day with you I will be able to tell if you were heading for success or not. Arrogant? No it is not, I will be able to experience first hand what you spend time on.
You see you will never change your life until you change something you do every day! You see, success doesn’t just suddenly occur one day in someone’s life. For that matter neither does failure. Each is a process.
Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken
“Road at Chantilly” by Paul Cézanne
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
From: The Slight Edge Chapter 6
I have titled this introduction: The Ritual of Self Leadership
Why Self Discovery?
Self Leadership = Conquering and Mastering Self
- Cannot give what you don’t have
- Cannot like another person until you like yourself
Mastery George Leonard
It resists definition yet can be instantly recognized. It comes in many variations, yet follows certain unchanging laws. It brings rich rewards, yet it is not really a goal or a destination but rather a process, or journey. We call this journey mastery and tend to assume that it requires a special ticket available only to those born with exceptional abilities. But mastery is not reserved for the supertalented or even for those who are fortunate enough to have gotten an early start. It’s available to anyone who is willing to get on the path and stay on it – regardless of age, sex or experience.
The trouble is that we have few, if any, maps to guide us on the journey or even to show us how to find the path. The modern world, in fact can be viewed as a prodigious conspiracy against mastery. We’re continually bombarded with promises of immediate gratification, instant success, and fast, temporary relief, all of which lead in exactly the wrong direction…..
From: The Slight Edge Chapter 7
From: The Monk that sold his Ferrari Author Robin Sharma
The Ritual of Self Leadership
There is nothing noble in being superior to others. True nobility lies in Being superior to your former self.
Ancient Indian Proverb.
I will incorporate with the 5 Principles, support from Jeff Olson author of The Slight Edge and John Maxwell author of Today Matters.
- 1. Discipline of Personal and or Self Renewal
To busy:
So busy driving no time to fill up.
Time will either promote you or expose you.
Running next to the bicycle.
Positive If I stay on this road long enough, I’ll get the result I seek.
John Maxwell teaches the toys we had and their link with Leadership and one of them is the Rocking Horse.
From this toy he concludes the following: Activity is not necessarily accomplishment.
Also There is an American Indian custom: You should consider yourself as a:
Three roomed house: your mind your body your spirit
Each one requires some attention
- 2. Discipline of Abundant knowledge Your Mind
The type of leader and the kind of person you will be five years from now will be the result from two primary influences:
The books you read
The people you associate with
From The Slight Edge Jeff Olson calls it the Law of Association which is for example that your income tends to equal the average of the incomes of your five best friends.
- 3. Discipline of Physicality Your Body
As you care for your body so you care for your mind.
17000 Harvard Alumni researched it was found every hour you exercise adds another three hours to your life.
The person that does not make time for exercise must eventually make time for illness.
Jeff Olson talks about:
The Power of Habit
Your habits come from your daily activities compounded over time. And your activities are the results of the choices you make in the moment.
Stephen Covey talked about sharpening the saw.
Abraham Lincoln said, Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the ax.
If you had a Million Rand race Horse would you allow it to smoke cicarettes, drink whiskey. stay out all night?
- 4. Discipline of early awakening
If you do not control the day it will control you.
The first 30 minutes after awakening sets the tone for the entire day.
There exist a gap between where you are and where you want to be. Peter Senge calls the force that drives you to close this gasp Creative Tension.
What is it that you think of in those first moments?
Example of the Long distance runner that measures his resting pulse rate before he get’s out of bed.
- 5.Discipline of Death Bed Mentality
Each day may be your last day .Urgency drive
Indian Maharaja celebrated his own funeral every day chanting
I have lived fully
There was an article written about funerals:
On average only ten people cry at a funeral
The number one factor that will determine how many people would attend the actual burial will depend on………. the weather
Why am I spending so much time worrying what other people think of me?
For whom do the millions mourn?
Mother Theresa, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela
They are the people that did what others were not willing to do. Were they driven by the desire to satisfy other? No think not
Philosopher Emerson
To laugh often and love much: to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children: to earn the approbation of honest critics: to appreciate beauty:
To give one’s self, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition : to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exaltations : to know even one life breathed easier because you have lived – that is to have succeeded.
Finally, all truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer
If I may be arrogant enough to suggest a thought pattern for a conference it would be to ask ourselves what are we contributing to the process of Self Leadership for both ourselves and others?
Concluding:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.