Leadership to Freedom

We are where we are because of who we are. If we want to be somewhere else, we have to become someone else.

What I mean by that is, the information we have now has led us to who we are and what we have done. If we want to improve our lives, we need to start with getting better information.

I’ve found that many people try to convince us to ‘just be ourselves’ and not worry about what others think. This is good advice if you are happy being mediocre (average, like everyone else) and it is good advice if all you want to do is feel better about your current situation and stay in it. It is not good for those who want to be successful or want to improve their lot in life. That type of thinking is the easy way out. It’s how I’ve lived most of my life.

I would ask you a question; why settle for good if great is available?

I like what Einstein said, “You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.” If where we are in life is a problem, then we can’t rely on the thinking that brought us to where we are to get us somewhere else.

Two years ago I was given an opportunity to start getting better information into my life, and luckily I said yes. At the time, I wasn’t saying yes to better information, but to a chance to get started in a business idea that could be very profitable if I was willing to do the work.

The company I got involved with had a training system that did more than teach you how to build a business, but went in to many other areas as well. It started teaching me how to talk to people, how to lead them, how to have confidence, how to have a great attitude. It taught principles in managing your finances, it taught how to grow better relationships; both with friends and spouses.

These CDs and books taught the importance of leadership. I learned that we are all called upon to lead at some point (in fact many points) in our lives, and it’s just a question of whether or not we’ll be ready. If everything rises and falls on leadership, as John Maxwell puts it, then it just makes sense to improve our leadership abilities. Our relationships, our families, and our jobs or businesses depend on it.

Last November, with the creation of the LIFE business, all the non-business oriented information was transferred to a personal development / leadership training program; which I have been listening to and applying to my life on a daily basis. The information is put together by the top leadership gurus in the world, Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady, with the help of other big leaders that they are personally mentoring. Chris and Orrin are best-selling authors on leadership and personal development. You can say they have the ‘fruit on the tree’. I want to share what it this material has done for me, but first it might help to understand where I was.

I had a shy, phlegmatic, personality. Although this helped me keep friends due to not wanting to cause conflict, it certainly didn’t help me make friends. I was not happy, and you couldn’t get me excited about anything. That is not to say was unhappy, I just couldn’t get myself out of neutral. I was very proud of the fact that you couldn’t get me mad (at least it was very rare), and it made me think that this made me a happy person. I had no confidence in myself, and unless you were a close friend, you can forget starting a conversation with you, let alone having a good one.

I knew what I knew about what I knew and I thought I knew it all. As it turns out, although I knew a lot about what I knew, there was so much more that I knew nothing about at all, and I just didn’t know there was actually something to know!

Then came LIFE, with its LIFE and LLR (Launching a Leadership Revolution) materials.

In this system I’ve listened to a pack of CDs on public speaking and I can give presentations comfortably now, where I used talk in that mumbling monotone voice that put people to sleep; that is if I could bring myself to talk at all. I read books like ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ and ‘How to Have Confidence & Power in Dealing with People.’ From these, along with a bunch of audio CDs on the subjects, I can now go up to a stranger and start a conversation; and not just to say hi, but develop it into a meaningful conversation.

I’ve learned a lot about relationships from books like ‘The Five Love Languages’. I may still be single at the moment (hey, I only recently developed the courage to actually talk to people!) but now I’ll be ready, and I won’t have to worry about falling into the 50% category of people who get divorced!

I’ve listened to CDs and read books that helped me develop a good attitude, like ‘Attitude is Everything’ and ‘Resolved’. Where once I was dull to be around and always replied with ‘ok’ or ‘not bad’ when asked how I was doing, I can now truthfully say ‘Awesome!’ or ‘Fantastic!’ (I say truthfully because I learned that in the beginning you had to say it regardless of how you were feeling before you can start to actually feel it.) I didn’t mind faking it at the start because I also learned that when you say this to other people it makes them feel better too, and helps attract others to you.

What really ties all this together though, is the LLR suite of materials. The LIFE stuff is great to get better in your own life, but the LLR series is about leading others. It teaches you the principles of success, and teaches you how to help others succeed, which in turn can help you succeed. If you want to rise up the corporate ranks, or just help other people with the information contained in the LIFE suite of materials, this series will do wonders.

I’ve learned how to resolve conflicts instead of letting them fester. I’ve learned how to better communicate with others beyond the public speaking type stage. I’ve learned about economics and freedom, where before I had opinions; I now have facts (and were my opinions ever wrong!). I’ve learned about managing my finances through a finances pack of CDs which also used to have an incredible book called ‘The Richest Man in Babylon.’ (Has now been replaced with a better one called Financial Fitness)

I’ve learned about the power of the subconscious mind, and how when we have something repeated to us over and over again, we get brainwashed. This is why advertisers play the same commercials on TV all the time, sometimes more than once during the same commercial break! We are being brainwashed everyday of our lives whether we like it or not. What I love about the LIFE system, is that you can intentionally brainwash yourself with good and useful information by choosing what you want to put in your mind, instead of letting others do all the choosing for you.

What are you programming yourself with?