Leadership means living your life out of a declaration of Who You Choose to Be

Your life is the result of the ongoing process of creating who you are every single day. All too often, people live their lives out of the mistaken notion of discovery. This is the belief that each of us must find out who we are as a result of the many trials, experiences and lessons we experience on a day to day basis. This notion assumes that we must passively accept and be at the affect of whatever life has in store for us. It is the opposite of leadership and makes us a victim. It gives us a justification for not doing what it takes to proactively bring about the results we desire. It means not risking, not designing and redesigning who we are and who we choose to be.

This is not to say that life is not without its lessons. We certainly experience growth and acquire knowledge from the process of daily living. The point is, all too often, we go through life tentatively, waiting for the next trial or problem to be dealt with - like it or not. This is not leadership.

Contrast this with the opposite approach - living life out of your declaration of who you choose to be, continually reinventing yourself as you go along. This is what leaders do.

When you live with the intention of designing your life on purpose, your actions will be in alignment with your declared image of how you envision yourself. As you create, in the moment, who you decide to be, you act in accordance with this picture.

The more you grow and become, the more you can yet become.

Declaring oneself a leader and standing in the question “Now that I’ve declared myself to be a leader, what actions could I take that are consistent with this declaration?” is the first step toward acting courageously in the direction of honoring your values while simultaneously inspiring others.

Leaders get to make up the principles they support, the causes they champion, the people they choose to lead, and the values they adhere to. There is no arriving…only the constant process of being and becoming. That is, the process of creating who you will become out of your new, empowering and constantly evolving declaration as a leader.

The primary thing that separates leaders from followers is this decision to act courageously in pursuit of a dream, a vision, a cause that serves a purpose far beyond the self-serving needs of the individual alone.

Effective leaders are charismatic and inspirational. They are adept at framing their mission in such a way that others are moved by it and want to join them in its realization. True leaders contribute to others and inspire their involvement rather than dictate their actions and apply force or coercion.

Living your declaration as a leader is simply a matter of concept evolving into experience. Take any value you hold in high regard- such as the ability to motivate and inspire others. Until such qualities are practiced and experienced, they exist only as concepts- kind of like a nice idea. When you decide to actually experience them as an acted upon value, they take on a whole new meaning.

Until you do something that actually inspires others, you have only the concept of leadership - not the experience of it.

And certainly, you do not yet have it as a distinction. You have not yet become the value you seek to experience.

Just as knowledge of a value can evolve into experiencing, so can experiencing evolve into “being.” Being is the ultimate result of “getting it” - experiencing a quality until you actually become it.

This is what mastery is all about - taking a concept beyond experience into total embodiment of the value.

That’s why successful leaders are often associated with the causes they champion and the values they represent.

Just as you can not experience that which you do not know, so too you can not be that which you do not experience. Leadership can not exist in isolation. It is more than an intellectual exercise.

It is a dynamic, ever-evolving people-impacting stand that we take when we believe in principles worth pursuing.

Leaders risk failure. Leaders know that all leadership decisions will not be popular. Leaders embrace problems rather than run from them. They know that each challenge holds within it the seeds to future breakthroughs. Leaders would be well served not to pursue perfection as such a goal is unobtainable. On the contrary, true leaders seek excellence in all they do. When they make mistakes, they admit them, clean them up, recommit to those principles most important to them and refocus on their next goal on the way to bringing about their vision.

Leaders realize that they do not have all the answers and can not possibly be prepared to deal with every challenge they will face. Rather than wait for the perfect time to take action, they realize the power of being decisive. Leaders realize that we attract all experiences to us- often for reasons unknown to us. It is through these experiences that we continually grow in knowledge, empathy, and effectiveness.

There was once a wise farmer who knew that life’s experiences are often not what they appear. He owned a beautiful mare that was the finest in all the village. One day, someone left the corral gate open and the mare ran off. The villagers said to the farmer, “what terrible luck.”

The wise farmer replied, “Good luck, bad luck, who can tell.”

Several days later the mare returned with a beautiful herd of wild stallions accompanying her.

The villagers marveled at what good luck the farmer had.

Again, the wise old man observed, “good luck, bad luck, who can tell.”

One day, the farmer’s only son was out in the yard breaking in the wild stallions. When he was thrown from his horse and broke his shoulder, the villagers remarked, “what terrible luck.”

Once again, as he was wont to do, the farmer said, “Good luck, bad luck, who can tell.”

A week later, war was declared by the government, calling into service all able bodied men from the village.

All went to war with the exception of the farmer’s son who was still healing from his injury.

When all the young soldiers from the village were caught in an ambush and killed, the villagers again remarked to the farmer, “What good luck that your son broke his shoulder and was spared.

And so, on goes the story.

Good and bad, right and wrong are merely interpretations that we attach to experiences. As with all opposites, we can not have one without the other.

Likewise, health and illness are opposite states called into being at our request on some level. We can not experience one without experiencing the other. This duality is true of all opposites. We can not experience up without down, left without right, good without bad, happy without sad, etc.

All of life’s experiences present themselves as tools for our own creation. It is entirely up to us to decide how we will experience any aspect of life as it presents us with an opportunity to decide who we choose to be - given the circumstances. Leaders realize that life presents us with a never-ending series of obstacles along our path that allow us to learn and grow. As with all people, leaders possess this duality of wisdom and ignorance, light and darkness, the ability to accomplish great things and to make terrible mistakes.

Instead of being a victim at the effect of whatever it is that life presents us, we can step into leadership and choose to be the source, the co-creator of how we will respond and be affected by the challenge. Our response is our opportunity to define the leader we choose to be.

Analyze the following areas to determine which ones currently support the definition of the leader who you have decided to be and which ones detract from it.

Your integrity level Your ability to make and keep commitments Your willingness to tell the truth no matter what the circumstances Your commitment to being punctual and reliable Having Respect and an appreciation for others Showing gratitude Taking initiative Living passionately Trusting your intuition Living responsibly and assuming a leadership role in our lives and businesses means that we take responsibility for everything that shows up around us in life. On some level, we must assume that we have attracted whatever it is for a reason. And, likewise, we have the ability to attract something different if we decide that what we have attracted does not serve us.

Leaders have the power to manifest results that align with their actions and most important values.

If you decide that what you are attracting to you - scarcity, illness, anger, loneliness, whatever- does not serve who you are or the leader you have chosen to be, decide now to do otherwise. It’s up to you to decide to manifest those things that support who you choose to be consistent with your invented declaration as a do whatever it takes leader.

Leading from Your Declaration 1) Define some prominent qualities possessed by inspirational network marketing leaders.

2) In what ways are you attracting things that do not support the definition of the kind of leader you choose to be?

3) Declare the sort of leader you have decided to be. How will you manifest your intention to lead others? What qualities will you be known for and what values will you honor as an inspirational leader?

4) What will shift for you by stepping into effective leadership?

5) Develop a detailed vision of what every aspect of your business would be like as an effective, inspirational, charismatic leader.

Dr. Joe Rubino is an internationally acclaimed network marketing and personal development trainer, life-changing success coach and best selling author of eight books and two tape albums on topics ranging from how to achieve network marketing success, personal and leadership development to restoring self-esteem and maximizing business productivity.

A speaker and course leader, Joe is known as a top network marketing trainer, and for his work in leadership development, listening and communication skills, life and business coaching and team building. His best selling books and tapes are available in 19 languages and in 48 countries.

In addition to The Ultimate Guide to Network Marketing Success, these include: Secrets Of Building A Million-Dollar Network-Marketing Organization From A Guy Who’s Been There Done That And Shows You How To Do It, Too. THE 7-Step System to Building a $1,000,000 Network Marketing Dynasty: How to Achieve Financial Independence through Network Marketing. The Power To Succeed: 30 Principles For Maximizing Your Personal Effectiveness and The Power To Succeed, Book II: More Principles For Powerful Living.

Financially free as a result of network marketing, he retired from his successful dental practice at the age of 37. Dr Rubino is the CEO of The Center for Personal Reinvention, an organization committed to the personal excellence and empowerment of all people.

Dr. Rubino was featured on the cover of Success Magazine in December of 1995 and in their cover story, “We Create Millionaires: How Network Marketing’s Entrepreneurial Elite Are Creating Fortunes at Break-neck Speed” for his ability to impact people’s lives. He is a certified success coach in life planning technology and the co-developer of the life- changing course, Conversations for Success, a program that provides network marketers and others with the tools to maximize their self- esteem, productivity, and personal effectiveness. He can be reached at: DrJRubino@email.com or by calling 888-821-3135. Visit his website to subscribe to his complimentary newsletter: CenterForPersonalReinvention.com, and learn more about his life- changing work in championing people to restore their self-esteem at http://www.TheSelfEsteemBook.com