Have you ever had a big idea and become frustrated that it didn’t move quick enough? Or wanted to make a difference in a huge way only to feel discouraged when you didn’t reach enough people? Are you simply struggling to find your purpose at all?
If you want to have a deep and wide reach as a leader, there are three steps you can take to get there.
Embrace consistency like a leader
One fundamental thing that connects leaders is that rarely make an impact the first time they step up to the plate. It’s one base hit at a time.
In baseball, you don’t see a lot of home runs. And in life, you don’t change the world with the first swing. You make an impact one connection at a time, one person at a time.
Just like most of the movement in that sport is base by base, most of the movement in life is incremental. It’s when you get off the sidelines and stop admiring the problem that you begin to make a difference. Insert yourself into the process and start making those human connections one at a time.
Find your sense of purpose
I call finding your purpose your “why” or your True North.
Why do you do what you do? What makes you get out of every morning?
As we get older, our purpose gets buried because it’s hard, and life gets in the way. We get too caught up in the “what” and “how” of what we’re doing instead of the WHY.
When it comes to finding your purpose, Forbes puts it this way:
People with a sense of purpose are driven, focused, committed, and lit up from the inside – unable to be deterred or distracted from what they believe is the reason they’re on this planet at this time. This sense of meaning and purpose gives them inexhaustible drive and offers guideposts to follow along the path. It informs them of what they wish to attend to in life, and what they need to walk away from because it doesn’t support their higher purpose.
Not clear on your True North? I use this visualization and reflection exercise with Navy Seals, FBI, corporate leaders on Wall Street, and leaders like you to find their purpose.
Fall in love with the process
Once you embrace consistency and find your purpose, there’s only one thing left to do to make a big impact: fall in love with the process. You know the saying, Nothing worth having comes easy.
Are you willing to work for it?
And it’s that affinity for the grind, that love of the hustle, that will get you across the finish line. And then at some point, like my mentor Bo Eason says, you look around and realize you’re surrounded by people you respect.
Want to learn more about what it takes to leave tracks in this life? Here’s the one thing you need to be a better leader.