Stop Chasing — Start Leading
The How-To’s of Leading Ourselves
SUCCESS is a loaded, enigmatic term for many. The rubric for success at City EC is this:
Success is liking/admiring who you are, what you do, and how you do it. If you like, admire and take pride in who you are, what you do, and how you do it, you are enormously successful.
Passion can also a loaded, enigmatic term. It’s worth pointing out too that in business and career, passion is a particularly tricky commodity.
Passion is a deep, intense form of enthusiasm that’s associated with persistence. People refer to passion as something one finds, a secret sauce of some type, or an edge that one either does or doesn’t have. While it’s true that passion often correlates with motivation and momentum, there are additional truths to note about passion:
- Research confirms that passion is not something one finds, but something one develops. Studies by University of Pennsylvania Professor Angela Duckworth’s measure the development of passion and how passion contributes to grit and self control.
- Second, it’s relatively easy to feel passionate when things are working out. When things fall apart and roadblocks are never-ending however, motivation and passion are typically much harder to summon.
- Third, passion tends to grow with success. Passion increases as one successfully progresses toward a goal or an end. A loop is created — a cycle that looks like this:
- Success generates Passion.
- Success and Passion together generate ENERGY, and
- Energy is what ultimately paves the way to Success.
The circle then is this — Energy helps move us toward Success, Success generates Passion, and the combination of Success and Passion generate Energy.
Energy Moves People and Ideas. Energy Generates Success.
Time is limited, but energy is different.
Our personal energy can be actively cultivated, renewed, and expanded, and CULTIVATING our personal energy is time particularly well-spent.
Cultivating personal energy is a risk-free investment that correlates with numerous positives.
Again — Energy steers us toward Success, Success drives Passion, and Success loops back to increase Energy and Passion.
Do successful people actively pursue Success?
They do.
Successful people pursue success, and they tend to do so systematically by investing in and protecting personal energy, and by actively developing what interests them.
Using Energy to Gauge How, When and Where Time is Spent
To pursue success in a consistent and effective manner, Research recommends the cultivation of well-considered habits, habits that automate over time and join together to create systems. A simple system that all of us can invoke in our pursuit of success is this: Make choices that maximize your personal energy.
Using energy as a metric to gauge where and with whom we spend our time is a powerful maxim and tactic.
Energy lifts people and causes, spurs ideas, and helps move us uphill.
I run, lift, study, pursue credentials, write, and travel because these pursuits energize me. When my energy is solid, I’m solid.
I’m also more at ease, more enthusiastic, the quality of my work improves, and I’m better company for my friends, family, clients, and co-workers.
The same is true for everyone — better energy makes people happier, healthier, and more prone to reach personal and professional milestones.
To maximize and use energy as a system to pursue personal and professional success, consider the following:
1. Exercise — Physical exertion clears the mind, zaps fatigue, and over time will build a storehouse of energy you never knew you had. Start where you are and move bit by bit toward rigor, exertion, and pushing yourself a few days every week. Develop an uncompromising attitude about exercise. Schedule it. Prioritize it. Dress and show up for it.
2. Manage Your Attitude — Controlling your attitude rather than allowing circumstances or environment to dictate how you receive and frame people and events is a superpower that is always one decision away.
3. Make room for what brings peace, rest, and renewal. Time to rest, reflect, and renew is critical for body, mind, and spirit. Rest and renewal refresh and energize.
4. Arrange opportunities and experiences that move you. A can’t-miss way to maximize our energy is to arrange things in life we can’t wait to do — things that excite us about the day to come, about work, about people, about places, challenges and opportunities.
The takeaway? Think about what charges and energizes you. Then, make and protect weekly recurring time to move toward those things.
Know that Energy is what moves people and Ideas. It is THE thing that consistently, bit by bit generates success.
This is your life — your time — your shot. Make room for that which fills you with energy and enthusiasm, and success won’t be far behind.
I’m Meri Krueger. I share practical principles for leading your life and work.
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Meri Krueger is a quiet-force teacher and advisor who works with Executives, Entrepreneurs, Knowledge-Workers, Artists and Educators on Self-Leadership, Craftsmanship, Mind/Body Fitness, and Personal Operating Systems.
Originally published at www.merikrueger.com .
