Finding Your Own Way

There are two parts to positive self-direction. Part one is self-knowledge.

Self-knowledge is knowing who you are and what you want to do with your life. It is knowing how you feel about yourself. Self-knowledge has a lot to do with your philosophy, and your philosophy has a lot to do with shaping your attitude. It helps determine how you feel about yourself, about life, about your direction, and about others around you.

You’ve got to gather up enough knowledge and information to know what’s right for you. How do you gather up this information? Well, you can start with your own experiences. The best way to know if something works for you, to find the right way, is to do the wrong way. You can’t keep doing it the wrong way. You’ve got to be smart enough to say, “Hey, this isn’t working,” and change it. Start doing it the right way.

Then search for the knowledge and apply what’s right for you to your life. Develop your own attitudes and philosophies around your own experiences and the experiences of others. Take all of the information you have gathered and compile it, consider it, debate it, tear it apart, turn it upside down. Look at it from your own perspective and refine it to suit you. Rearrange it. throw some of it out. Keep what you think will work for you. And most importantly, make sure that what you end up doing is the product of your own conclusion. Make sure that the knowledge that you are building is your own self-knowledge.

The second component of positive self-direction is preparation: being ready for the opportunities when they show up in your life; being ready for the sales call that may make you a fortune; being ready for the meeting that may positively affect your career; being ready for it all, in expectation that it will come.

For those of you who are parents, when you found out that a new member of the family was going to come along in nine months or so, what did you do? You started getting ready. You started reading the books on how to best handle a baby. You started buying everything you needed to care for the baby. You started asking advice from friends and relatives who’ve already had a baby or two. You asked questions, defined your parenting style, got ready for a major change in how you life, the hours you keep, and the financial obligations you have to live up to. You started getting ready.

Preparing for your own life is pretty much the same. With enough planning, dedication, and hard work, you’ll meet your goals. You know that it will be tough for the first few years, but the sacrifice is well worth it. In the meantime, you’ve got to ready for it.

If you wish to be ruler over many, you’ve got to be faithful with few. If you wish to have power and influence over many, be the leader of many, and get the return from many, be faithful and disciplined when there’s just a few. And do it in your own enlightened self-interest because that gives you the best chance to have power, influence, and a place or honor among the many. Be faithful when there’s just a few.

Someone says, “If I had a big organization, I’d really be on top of things. But I’ve just got a few employees, and I don’t know where they are.” Come on! When you’ve just got a few employees, you should know where all of them are. Let’s say we were interviewing the parents of a fairly large family whose children have all grown up and gone. What is we said to them, “What happened to all of your children?” and they answered, “I don’t know, they just all wandered off.” We’d ask, “Well, where did they all go?” If they say, “Who knows? They’re just all gone. We’re just going to have some more,” that’s clearly not an acceptable attitude.

If you’ve got a few employees, if you’ve got a few distributors, if you’ve got a few people you deal with, that’s the time to sharpen your communication skills–of being in touch, getting prepared, giving the most of your heart and soul. In your own enlightened self-interest, give it your all when there’s a few. Be totally absorbed when there’s just a few. Improve your reputation and skills so when a leadership position opens up, you’ll be called.

The same thing goes with your money. Someone says, “Oh, if I had a fortune, I’d really take good care of it. But I’ve only got a small paycheck, and I don’t know where it goes.”

Nobody would ever respond to the person who says “I don’t know where it all goes,” with “Oh, we’d love to have you run our company.” Or, “You don’t know where it all goes… wow! You should be in charge of the world.” Come on!

Positive self-direction means paying very close attention to every dollar you have, really keeping track of where they come from and where they go. Create the discipline when the amount is small, and you’ll be on your way to handling your money when the amount is large. Be ready for tomorrow by doing all that you can today. That’s positive self-direction.

* Source: Leading an Inspired Life by Jim Rohn