The Price Tag of Leadership…
To become a great leader we must lead with self-control. You may know a leader who is really talented and smart, but has no self control when it comes to…let’s say… their anger! They constantly blow up at you with harsh words and say things that shut you down. We most likely will not want to follow this person, no matter how smart they are!
Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. When you accept Jesus as your Savior and walk by faith, the Spirit inside of us helps guide us to his ways. When we are in a state of spiritual discipline we will bring ourselves in front of the Lord each day and this will help us create a relationship with Him to help us deal with leadership problems.
Leading with self-control does take awareness along with some self- discipline. Thankfully self-discipline is a teachable skill if we are willing to change our ways. Self-discipline comes before leadership success does! It is called “self” discipline because it is up to YOU, we can’t blame anyone else when we are lazy and lack drive of discipline. It is a discipline controlled by your habits and your will to strive for excellence. Self-discipline is really the “price tag of leadership” and we must all learn this skill to achieve a team that will follow us.
To become an influential leader who people want to follow we have to start leading ourselves first. When we transform and grow on the inside first then we can transform and grow the outside! Being a Christian who spends time with God and His Word is a needed practice for a heart change. This takes intentional investment in ourselves and our time given to God. We can only do this by committing to take action for our faith growth and then actually do it! This requires self-discipline and moves you from “the talk” to “the walk.” Action is required my friends!!
Our goal as leaders is to take people to the top of the mountain with us and the only way this will happen is if we know ourselves first versus just being an expert at what you do! When we know ourselves and can lead ourselves, we then can then start to lead others. It should never be lonely at the top of the mountain, because your team should be there with you!
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” John Maxwell
Self-discipline can be difficult to stay consistent with and you may have to “give up” to “go up.” Short term difficulty is a real thing when you want to grow in an area of your life. You may need to get up earlier, stop wasting time binge watching TV, make time to exercise, actually stay off social media for hours on end, read more books, show up early to work or stay late, prep healthy food on Saturday for your busy week, give up fancy vacations to save money, give up sugar, and most importantly sit on the floor and play with your kids. Whatever the short term “difficulty” is, it will end up giving long term gains if we stick with it and are consistent in our self-discipline.
Let’s talk about consistency! Self-discipline makes consistency possible. The great thing about consistency is that it compounds over time. Remember consistency does not prove itself quickly, so be ready to have some “patience and commitment” in your vocabulary of life as you compound slowly what you are trying to gain.
We want to encourage you to take this path of consistency and we feel it is a prerequisite to excellence. Improvement in what you want to achieve will only come through persistent consistent practice. Nothing worthwhile comes easy, hard work is a must and lots of prayer helps too!
A self-discipline mountain personally for me is… I took back up the game of golf in March. The only way I will lower my score is by practicing consistently along with being coached. This is what I have to do: Practice at the range, play rounds, attend clinics and hire a golf pro to work with me. This takes a time commitment, financial commitment, plus a personal commitment from me. Now it is up to me to play often and be at the driving range hitting and practicing to improve. Sometimes this is hard and frustrating and hot and a time crunch and did I mention hard…but excuses are not allowed when striving for excellence. Some days I feel it and some days I don’t, but I must commit to consistent self-discipline and an attitude of hard work! I commit to hitting 5 good shots per club and go through all my clubs, starting over with that same club if I hit a bad shot. When I do this, I get better! I embrace short term difficulty in consistent practice to eventually see the compound of gains with a lower golf score. What we do outside our work life will reflect our work life leadership! (This is huge…lazy at home then lazy at work! Self-discipline at home, this will reflect self-discipline at work!)
The road to get to where you want to go is consistency. Consistency compounds and if you want to become a leader who people follow, you need to pay the price of self-discipline.
Self-discipline in your life unlocks the door to so many abilities as a leader. Our character will blossom and remain true, priorities will become correct, we will influence people through our actions, and we will learn to serve people first. These are all abilities each leader must develop to lead with their heart and for the people.
With self-discipline as part of our lives… we talk it, walk it by consistently practicing it…to become it! Self-discipline is the price tag of becoming a great leader who people want to follow.
What self-discipline “mountain” challenges you the most in your life? Share below!!
Talk about it!!! It is the first step to change!
Stay Rooted,
Lisa & Heather
#selfdiscipline #intentionalinvestment #takeaction #investinyourfaith #startwithJesus
