If you want to be successful at anything in life then this is a must read! It is absolutely imperative that you learn how to lead yourself first before you can successfully lead anyone else. In fact, learning to lead yourself first can actually increase your ability to lead others simultaneously. How? Because learning to lead yourself first strengthens your character, and strong character is the secret ingredient to being able to influence others in a positive way. The plain and simple fact is: We all are leaders to some degree or another. Until you can fully understand that, your true potential will remain stillborn. One dynamic of personal leadership you absolutely must understand is the concept of “Willingness”. Napoleon Hill, author of Think & Grow Rich said “Desire is the starting point of all achievement” and if there's one thing I've learned in my time on this earth as a student, coach and consultant it's this:

You can't do anything if unless you WANT to do it!

At first glance that statement may not seem very profound, but that's exactly the point. We tend to take the fundamentals of life and dismiss them or perceive them as being insignificant when in fact disregarding the fundamentals is the reason why we spend so much time struggling with life.

What the above sentence is saying is that before you can achieve anything you must consult your willingness to do so. This rule applies to unleashing your leadership potential, losing weight, breaking a bad habit, finding your soul mate, starting your own business, or advancing to a higher position on your job.

Nothing in life is achieved without first having the desire to do so. Now here's the catch, you probably aren't aware of how strong (or weak) your willingness actually is. Unfortunately, until you are aware of that you may find yourself struggling with the simplest of things. So the million-dollar question is:

How can you tell how strong your willingness is?

Here are a few signs to look for the next time you find yourself struggling to achieve any personal or professional goal:

1. Are you procrastinating a lot?

2. Are you spending more time making excuses for why you "can't" instead of coming up with creative solutions for how you "can"?

3. Do you feel alive with passion when working on your goal, or do you feel numb, un-interested, empty, or just plain dead inside?

4. Do you have stamina that keeps you enthused and working long hours without stopping, or do you burn out after a short amount of time?

If you have negative answers for any of the above questions, it's quite likely that you're suffering from a "weak willingness". Remember, one of the critical keys to effective personal leadership is the ability to take decisive action. However, the required fuel for action is a strong willingness.

If you actually took the time to ask yourself the four questions above (and I highly recommend you do) to measure the strength of your willingness, you may have discovered some things about yourself that are a bit disturbing. Don't let this discourage you though. Strange as it may sound this discovery is the pathway to your success. The first step to all change is Awareness. Think about it, how can you fix a problem you don't even know you have? So again, if you learned some things about yourself that are a bit unnerving, count that discovery as a blessing – because it is! Here are some simple (yet powerful) questions to ask yourself to get to the root of your willingness and strengthen it:

Is this goal really MY goal?

Often times we become conditioned to the wants and desires of other people, particularly people who are close to us such as family and friends. If you are trying to achieve something merely to gain the approval of someone else, this can wreak serious havoc on your willingness. Make sure your goal is something YOU want! This causes you to stop fighting with yourself and sends your willingness meter through the roof!

Am I acting on this goal from a position of choice or obligation?

This question ties into the first one as it addresses the issue of acting from your own independent will, or the influences of some external source. Of course there are times when acting to achieve something for a cause greater than yourself is both necessary and highly beneficial. In most cases however, you only do this when you are in a position of leading others. For the purpose of leading yourself you want to always make sure you're acting from a position of choice. Choice implies freedom and when you feel that you are free and the choices you're making are your own, your willingness becomes stronger and you're more likely to be persistent and see your plans through to the end!

What am I secretly running from?

This question is probably the most important of all because it deals with an emotion that human beings know all too well and is the number one killer of all success – FEAR! The frustrating thing about fear is that it can be so insidious that you rarely are even aware that you have it, or the paralyzing effect it can have on your ability to effectively lead yourself and others. The thing to remember about achieving any goal is that a goal is rarely all roses.

It's very likely that once the goal is achieved you'll get some things you don't want as well as the things you do want. For example if your goal is to find a loving romantic partner but you find that you have a weak willingness to achieve that goal, you could subconsciously be running from the cons of being in a relationship with someone such as the commitment, the loss of the freedom to date other people, the potential fights and arguments, the possibility of getting hurt, or the loss of that person. If you want to start your own business and you find your willingness is weak to achieve that goal, you could subconsciously be running from the loss of a steady paycheck, the responsibility of having to create your own income stream, having to manage your own employees and a ton of other administrative tasks that you currently don't have.

The secret to conquering your fears is to face them, but you can't face them if you aren't aware of them. Again, all change begins with awareness. When asking yourself this critical question of "What am I secretly running from?", it's important to be brutally honest with yourself. No one else has to know what your secret fears are, but if you don't know what they are, they will continue to haunt you and sabotage your efforts to develop your inner leader. Write your fears down and look at them objectively. Ask yourself "Will it really be the end of the world if these things happen?, "Are there things I can do to minimize or eliminate these possible situations?" Just the simple act of asking yourself these questions will cause your mind to come up with creative solutions to help you resolve your fears and move through them with ease. Then your willingness will skyrocket and anything you want in life will be yours!

With that said, I invite you to visit www.professad.com for a free download of "Leadership Secrets Revealed". A powerful recording that will cause you to experience some incredible shifts in your understanding of what leadership is, what it looks like, what constitutes effective leadership and how you can begin to perceive yourself as a leader regardless of your background or current position in life. This recording will cause you to look at yourself in a way that you probably never have before. Until next time, take care of yourself.

Professa D

Author's Bio: 

Born and raised in Saint Louis Missouri, Darren “Professa D” Douglas is a self-published author, coach, consultant and motivational speaker specializing in “personal leadership” skills. As a child he was home-schooled by his parents and he recounts this as being one of the most significant developmental periods of his life.

Throughout his youth he exhibited a great degree of intelligence, talent, charisma and charm that made him a natural at captivating audiences. He possessed a deep passion for music and by the time he was twelve years old he was writing and performing his own hip-hop songs at local talent shows around St. Louis. His songs quickly became known for containing deep inspirational messages and it was at this time that he began using the alias “Professa”. At age thirteen, he wrote a hip-hop song to help his younger brother learn his multiplication facts and it proved to be very effective.

Shortly after graduating high school and investing two years as a student in the field of Computer Networking Technology, Professa D decided his success was in entrepreneurship. Over the years his ventures included an independent record label and a education company in which he produced music-based learning materials for young children.

Despite his many achievements however, Professa D secretly battled with depression, low self-esteem and many other personal demons. He has witnessed first-hand the devastating effects that not knowing how to lead oneself can have on a person's life, and through the course of healing his own personal struggles he learned vitally important cognitive and emotional practices that can enable a person to take charge of their life and effectively “lead themselves” out of trying times and difficult situations. It was also during this difficult time in his life that he connected with his calling to be a teacher and he says that from the very moment he realized this everything changed.

As a result of his willingness to overcome his personal struggles he has become a passionate advocate of personal and spiritual development and has begun his journey as a motivational speaker and author, sharing his story of triumph with others and for the past five years, Professa D has traveled to various cities across the country speaking to different organizations about the importance of personal leadership skills, and helping people from all walks of life with their personal and spiritual growth.

His new book “The Sleeping Giant – 5 Simple Steps To Awaken The Leader In You” (available at www.professad.com) is a powerful and comprehensive reference guide that serves to help “the common person” discover and awaken their inner leader. “My mission is to awaken people to the power that lies within them that they may not realize they have” he says. “The secret to changing the world is changing what you see in the mirror, when you've done that, you've done your part”.