Week 3 Reading Chapters 5-8

I have found that many times a person in authority demands respect or honor as if it was something they automatically got because of the position or title they hold. What gives you honor or respect is not necessarily your position but your attitude. You can be the CEO of a company and be hated by everybody or you could be a janitor and respected and admired by your colleagues. True leaders do not demand respect; they earn it because of who they are. I love the statement that Zanders made in the fifth chapter of the book, “a leader does not need a podium”. To me this describes a leader en every sense of the word. One leads no matter where they are or the circumstances.

At times people in this position takes themselves so seriously that they become calculated and often cold. I have been accused of this many times. To which I tell them that I may be calculated but I am never cold. I never take risks without weighing the options. In a sense I take everything I do very seriously and am a perfectionist. My motto is, if you are going to do something do it right or don’t do it at all. I guess I could learn a thing or two about letting loose and not taking myself so seriously.

I consider myself a realist. I see things for what they are and not what they could or should be. For many this is a terrible quality and I have been criticized for this many times but to them I always say that it is better to have your feet firmly on the ground than to have your heads in the clouds. Even though I am a realist this does not mean that I do not try to look for the best qualities in things. It simply means that I make the best of what I have. If you are always wishing for something else you will never be happy and appreciate what you have. Strive and aspire for goals you have not yet reached but do not obsess over them because you will soon become very frustrated with the life you have.

Many times the best things that ever happen to us happen when we reach a point where we are willing to break free of our comfort zone. That place where we’ve been stuck for so long that it seems like second nature. That place that has become our own personal security blanket in which we have all the control and nobody can hurt us. The moment we leave this place we expose ourselves to discover brand new possibilities and reach goals that we previously never fathomed possible.

Image by Nicholas Loran
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