How Does It Feel to Lead?

Your brain is not built to make you happy and fulfilled,
it’s built to help you avoid danger and survive.

How many gifts do you have in your life right now?

In how many ways are you extremely blessed?

If I ask you to quickly tell me three things that you’re grateful for, can you do it without hesitation?

What does this have to do with leadership?

Everything.

Leadership is first and foremost taking control of your own life.
Leadership begins in your mind.
True Leaders think differently than the masses.

girl thinking deeply

You see the fact is that studies of Ultimate Performers prove they focus more on how they’re going to feel than anything else.

What drives Ultimate Performance is feeling not thinking, doing or achieving.

I never ask if something is going to make money.
I only ask is it going to be fun.
~ Richard Branson

You see, whether you’re consciously aware of it or not, the primary driver of all your actions is how you think it’s going to make you feel.

Many want to tell me that they’re driven by logic. This is a lack of understanding.

We’re all driven by emotion. For emotion is nothing more than energy in motion. It moves the body to act.

True Leaders Have Emotional Strength

Even the staunchest analytical who swears up and down he is driven by logic is actually driven by how strongly he feels something is logical.

The thing that drives me is that I want to be able
to think about the future and feel good about that.
~ Elon Musk

Look, I’m not suggesting that you’re going to automatically feel good every single moment. 

You’re not and you won’t.

But what I am suggesting, is that you develop the mental toughness and emotional strength to get back to a good and resourceful feeling space as quickly as possible.

There are several strategies for doing this. Much too complex to go into depth and detail here. But here are some thoughts:

  1. Your vison should be long-term and for the long game. Measurements on the other hand should be short-term; and the shorter the better.




If you’re measuring the accomplishment of your grand vision day to day you’re most likely going to feel disappointed. 

Grand Visions, Big Ideas, and Powerful Transforming Purposes (PTP’s) take patience, perseverance and grit. And they take time. They don’t happen overnight.

If you’re measuring your PTP outcomes yearly you’re going to have good years and bad. Every entrepreneur and leader know this. 

A lack of patience, perseverance and grit will leave you feeling poorly. Not a good move. 

So, your feedback loops should be as short and quick as possible. There’s a lot of research on Feedback Loops that I’ve addressed in other blogs. 

Suffice to say that if you measure moment to moment, you have a must greater opportunity to find great and good feeling moments. Yes, there will be not so good moments, but those will quickly be canceled out by the good ones that follow.

If you want to know more, you must notice more.

This brings us to our next Axiom for the Leader Master-Mind:

The Leader is always and only grateful for what he has, for he realizes that life is a blessing and a gift;

and gratitude is a powerful attractive and creative energy force.

The fact is that you’re successful the minute that you’re grateful. Not to mention you’re much more resourceful and fulfilled allowing you to create more to be grateful for.

So, play for the long game; and measure for the short.

Be grateful for the small things and you’ll be given the greater things—in time.

Be faithful over a little, and you’ll be given a lot.

Outgrow your current position and you’ll burst forth into greater and greater horizons.

This is true Leadership.

This is a fulfilling Life.

Be a Leader, Live Your Purpose; and Take Your Power Back!

James