People are increasingly striving to cultivate resilience, balance and leadership in their personal and professional lives. They need to adapt quickly as leaders — especially through change and adversity. How do we best prepare ourselves to recognize and avoid what pitfalls we can and quickly and properly manage those we can’t?
The sooner we each face it, the better: Much of life on Earth is beyond your control or mine. Only by embracing that fact can we fully realize the value in developing one of our greatest individual super-powers: self-control. Self-control is the key to effective self-leadership, and excellence in self-leadership is the key to overcoming the adversity, savoring the fruits, and even leading others in life. And it requires strength, balance and discipline …
Rollercoasters: I love them. Stepping off the new Jurassic World VelociCoaster recently, I felt strong, invigorated, as if I’d “conquered” something bigger than me, and eager to go again. Boarding an emotional roller coaster is an entirely different thing. We’re not necessarily wired, willing or braced for psychological whiplash. Stepping away from an emotional rollercoaster, we typically feel confused, undermined, destabilized, beaten up, and eager to mentally and/or physically quit. Great leaders are strong in Emotional Leadership. People follow them because they want to, not because they feel trapped. What kind of ride are you engineering?
If you’ve ever endured a life ambush, you understand the common effects: The mental-emotional tidal wave can present very real physical, biochemical and cognitive effects as the mind and body react by default mechanisms to the perpetual stress. If you’re in the midst or on the verge of this, hold on. You may not know any other way, but there is one. This article focuses on the REACT action step “A.”
When I talk about balance in life, I’m referring to an ongoing investment in strength and readiness across a broad enough base to keep me stable, grounded and positive through all the ups and downs of life. I build this stability by a reasonably equal distribution of focus and attention within all areas of what I refer to as the Pentagon of Peak Performance, one of which is Mental Leadership. The demands of leadership can be relentless. Great leaders are highly effective in part because they constantly flex their mental muscles in pursuit of knowledge, wisdom and intellectual growth.
Of all that transpired to save my life during and after that enemy ambush in 2007, only two had been within my control. One of them, according to the medical teams who put me back together, was my rock-solid physical fitness, which had prepared my body for its best chance at survival and healing through the extreme compound trauma. If Physical Leadership hasn’t already been a consistent focus for you, I recommend you make it your primary goal starting today. Start here …
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