Welcome to the New Year

In times of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, how we show up for ourselves and others is more critical than ever.

As a leader, your challenge is to show up differently than others, to rise above the fray, and help others pull themselves up as well. It’s important to do this with humanity and compassion and kindness. And that’s a tall order. But the world needs leaders, more now than ever. Your family needs leadership, your team needs leadership, your organization needs leadership, and your community needs leadership. What part are you willing to play?

As we enter a new season, think about how you will challenge yourself. And think about what kind of role model you will be and what example you will set for others. Here are three topics for you to reflect on.

What is your vision for the next twelve months? 

What is your picture of the future? How do you see yourself? What is the picture of the future that you can paint for others? How can you help them connect to that future vision? How will you achieve It? 

When you look at the last six months, to what degree have you maintained your vision? Often, we are just trying to cope, to survive, to adjust and adapt to the changing or challenging circumstances of life. And it’s easy to lose your way.

So, if now is the time to hit the reset button, what does that mean for you? What can you imagine for yourself, your family, your team, your organization and your community? How can you make a difference?

You can gain clarity by spending some time thinking about this, talking about it, and journaling about it. How will you elevate your vision for the future?

What do you need to be more consistent about?

In a chaotic, uncertain world, we all tend to seek out comfort, ease, and convenience. Sometimes, we let ourselves off the hook. We give in to the collective turmoil. We let go of discipline and allow distractions to win out. 

The root cause of inconsistency is lack of necessity. As a high performance coach, I’ve learned that raising necessity is one of the key habits for reaching high performance in any field.  And the research supports this.

What would it look like for you to raise your level of necessity? What would it mean to take back your agenda, and make intentional choices about how you spend your time? How can you take more personal responsibility for full engagement, for progress, and for leadership?

As you turn any corner, I'm challenging you to do your part to raise the level of necessity. This means a commitment to re-engage, re-focus, and re-calibrate.  And, to determine how to make that part of your daily, weekly and monthly schedule. Re-gaining consistency will create progress and momentum.  It will build your motivation and increase your confidence -- and that will reflect back to the people who look to you for leadership.

How can you increase your level of persistence and determination?

If you think about just the last six months, how many things have you started, then stopped, because you met resistance -- maybe your own, maybe from others? I know I can make a list and I can also justify every decision. In other words, I can easily make excuses. But I also realize that thinking ahead, creating a future vision and re-building a level of consistency to achieve that vision will require me to resurrect a level of perseverance that has helped me succeed over the long run - what about you?

Once you raise the level of necessity and create a schedule to become more consistent, you will need to commit to it with a renewed level of determination.

Part of the process of looking toward the end of one season and the start of another is to determine what you gained, what you learned and what you contributed. What is it that you want to carry forward into the new season?

Another step in the process is to recommit to your vision, your life priorities, and your core values. And to remember your place as a role model for others. In the crush of life as we know It today, it is easy to forget this or to underestimate its importance. 

These questions and reflections have helped me to turn the page from one season to another. I’d love to hear your reactions, your comments and your questions.

My work as a coach is all about helping to improve the lives of other people. In doing that, I get to improve my own life in big and small ways. I’m so grateful for that. Do you know anyone who needs some extra help and support right now? I will be starting a new group high performance coaching program early in the year.  If you want to learn more about it, click here.