Becoming Your Best Self

Copyright ©2003 by Don Blohowiak
Don@LeadWell.com http://www.LeadWell.com/

Most of us have an image in our mind of the person we'd really like to become.

Take a moment. Clear your head.

Now, picture your ideal self.

Honestly, how does that image square with your candid assessment of who you truly are at this very moment?

For some people the resulting gap can be traversed with a little stretch. And for others of us, that chasm between how we are now and how we want to be feels like trying to cross the widest gulf in the universe.

FROM KNOWING TO DOING

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do," wrote the German philosopher and playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

How can you actually become the person you want to be? Read self-help books? Imitate the actions of people you admire? Seek critical evaluation from those around you? All such tactics likely will help. But it takes more.

For the better part of a half-century, I have imagined and worked toward evolving into the person I truly want to be. (And that has been the case even when my actions offered powerful testimony to the contrary....)

In my own eternal quest, I have discovered an amazingly powerful technique that you can put to work for yourself. It requires but five easy-to-implement steps.

1. Define the person you want to be. Think about this question: What kind of person am I striving to become?
   
   
2. Describe key actions that exemplify the person you've described; specify behaviors that would typify "your best you."
   
   
3. Identify and write down specific behaviors you commit to practicing regularly in order to live the life you've declared for yourself.
   
   
4. Remind yourself frequently of your commitment to acting in ways that are consistent with your declared, self-defined identity.
   
   
5. Several times a day, stop yourself and assess your actions: How consistent are they with the goal toward which you're striving? What do you need to do so that you are, in fact, acting in accord with your own code of conduct?

DAILY MEDITATION

As a result of using this method, I start my day, every day, by reciting a meditation that captures my commitment to living in accord with my defined actions.

This personal creed has evolved to 99 words that I strive to live by day in and day out. I share this daily meditation, below, in the hopes that you will find it helpful in your effort to craft your own.

Morning Meditation

99 Words for Every Day

I live today with gratitude, humility, and patience, accountable for:

Serving others;

Building, never destroying;

Sharing my gifts freely and abundantly, needing neither notice nor credit;

Treating everyone with compassion, candor, and fairness;

Encouraging others generously;

Honoring others' feelings;

Regarding everyone as peer and teacher;

Appreciating differences while withholding judgments;

Trusting others, assuming only good intentions;

Forgiving quickly when I feel wronged;

Holding my tongue when I want to criticize or condemn;

Complaining only with love;

Being a source of comfort, inspiration, and joy for all I am privileged to meet;

Living as I want the world to be.

~~~~~PARTING THOUGHT~~~~~

May your efforts to define your life, and your disciplined commitment to live it, enable you to lead -- and enjoy -- the very life you intend.

Let us know how we can assist.

Lead On. Lead Well.

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Don Blohowiak, a management consultant and popular conference speaker, is the author of several business books. The executive director of the Lead Well® Institute in Princeton, NJ, he may be reached at http://www.LeadWell.com/.

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Copyright © 2005, Don Blohowiak, Lead Well Institute

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