Discover your Life Work and be Fulfill
The Five Qualities of an Authentic Personality
The greatest joy in life is to be significant. There are depths we can never reach until we serve. Look anywhere and you see a hurting world. As leaders, the needs of others should motivate us to action. In action we are at our best. We are authentic.
I have discover five qualities that are shared by extraordinary leaders or authentic personalities. I also observe that not everyone is born with these qualities. We have to build them into our personalities. Personally, I work very hard on myself every day to exemplify them. It won’t happen in day but we can fine-tune these qualities daily.
You might already be living out some of these qualities intuitively. What I want to help you with is to become intentional. Utilize opportunities in your daily interactions to express and become even better at them. By the way, this is your life work: bringing out the best in yourself — not an occupation.
The qualities which help authentic personalities find and pursue their life work:
1. Single-mindedness. Great personalities have more ambition for the success of those they lead than personal goals. We cannot reach our full potential until we give up on our small dreams: earn a degree, get a job, get married, have children, buy a house and a car, retire and die. Our success is hidden in making the world a better place than we met it.
2. Care deeply about people. How we relate with people impact our lives. The more we see the best in others and become helpful the more success we enjoy. To the extent that we deeply care about people, we become influential. A caring heart will pull people to you because there is no culture against love.
3. Always Ready to Serve. We are never too big to serve. This is the quickest way for promotion — anticipate a need and provide a solution before we are ask. Greatness is revealed in how we handle the small things. For the boss — if others can’t stop serving you, you should also not stop thanking them.
4. Commit to Excellence. When we discover our life work, bringing out the best in us, we start a journey on excellence. The best you can be is excellent. It means showing up early, diligently following through, reviewing to improve improve key areas, and putting a finishing touch to what we do. Excellent is not only about a neat appearance but how effective it works.
5. Empower others; Raise champions. The final quality of an authentic personality is raising champions. It means because of you others can also be single-minded, care deeply about others, always ready to serve and never make excuses. This requires that we empower people. Look for people who can do a better job than you and delegate. Be authentic and focus on what you do best and get out of the way of others.
If you’ve not yet found your lifework, the answer is the first two qualities: single-mindedness and people. For the others who want to fulfill their life work, the next two qualities: service and excellence is the requirement. But the ultimate measure of your success is empowering people; raising champions.
