#JustStartYourGoals
What is the first thing to do to achieve your dreams?. This question comes in everyone’s mind. The most probable answer seems to be waking up (pun intended). I too have a dream of becoming a leader one day, leading people towards something meaningful and simple yet so out of reach. Nobody is a born leader. You can be born with a silver spoon or a golden spoon in your mouth but you are not born with leadership. It is something that you develop while you are growing, not just physically but mentally. A growth mindset enables you to question the reality around you. Should your dreams follow your reality? or should your reality match your dreams?. Every leader in the history of the world had really humble beginnings. Let me quote here the example of Margret Thatcher. Born in Grantham, a small market town in Eastern England, Margaret Thatcher was the daughter of a grocer. Her family’s social life was rooted in the principles of self-help, charitable work and personal truthfulness. Thatcher went on to become Prime Minister, and she successfully revived the economy, reformed outdated institutions, and reinvigorated foreign policy. Not bad for the daughter of a grocer.
These leaders developed leadership skills through harsh realities of their life. They had dreams of doing something great, they took initiatives and reached the top. Leadership skills cannot come in a gift wrap box nor do they come in candy wrappers rather they come from rough experiences that people make us go through like lies and deceit or may be a trust breach, a heart break, poverty, abuse (mental and physical). You can always learn from a good book. A book can teach you all the knowledge about anything that it’s author took years to learn. It’s the sweet fruit that the author gives you. One of my favorite books on Leadership skills is On becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis.
In this book he defines leadership as a whole of everything
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“The truth is, we’re products of everything — genes, environment, family, friends, trade winds, earthquakes, sunspots, schools, accidents, serendipity, anything you can think of, and more”.
Pretty inspiring stuff indeed. I’ve started working on Leadership skills today. I have this goal because the day I find my vocation, I want to be ready to lead myself and the people following me in the right direction. In the past I didn’t had much exposure towards my goal because I wasn’t sure about the idea of life. I wasn’t sure about my Why’s. I had no mentor and no proper guidance. During the week, due to my hectic routine, I had to work and do multiple tasking to get things done. It was challenging and tiring but now it is giving me a sense of achievement. I mostly had to manage time during business hours, tending customers along with doing project. Maintaining social life and work balance. I’ve learnt that I have hidden abilities of time management and I can deliver on deadlines and sometimes even before them. Now as I focus on my next steps, I’ll probably be continuing this routine because this is make or break time for me. It will be hard to manage but not impossible. I’m really hoping to learn, to change and to conquer.
