The greatest power we have as humans is the power of choice.
Ponder that thought.
We are powerful beings, yet the greatest power is our power to choose. The power of conscious choice. In each moment, in each situation, you have the ability to choose.
Many of us don’t choose, instead we react to whatever comes into our minds. Whether that be as a response to an event, a memory, an interaction with another person or something else. Such reactions are usually spontaneous and are triggered by a memory along with its attendant stored emotion.
It is these stored emotions that drive us, falsely, to believe that we have no choice. We believe – more often than not – that we are our emotions.
This is the power of the human mind at work.
Many of us also believe that we ARE our beliefs and that if our beliefs are challenged and found to be wanting, then we, as a person, will be diminished in some way.
All of this stems from ideas of what we believe ourselves to be which, in many of us, is linked to our self-image. Our self-image is exactly that, an image we have about ourselves. But if we are aware of this, then we really do have the power to choose rather than to simply react.
I’ve written before that self awareness is one of the most important traits of leadership, particularly the Quantum Leader.
Self awareness is the ability to be aware of one’s inner life – one’s emotions, thoughts, behaviours, values, preferences, goals, strengths, challenges, attitudes, mindsets, and so on – and how these elements impact our behaviour and choices across different contexts.
If you’re highly self-aware, you can objectively evaluate yourself, manage your emotions, align your behaviour with your values, and understand correctly how others perceive you. This requires us to elevate our thinking beyond that which we know. It requires us to think above the crowd.
It requires us to become observers of our own life, in order to be able to learn who we are.
If we recognise that in each and every moment we have the power to choose how we respond, it is then that we have an opportunity to fully embrace what BEING a leader means.
It was Viktor Frankl in his book Man’s Search for Meaning who introduced many to the following powerful idea.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
No matter what situation, challenge, opportunity or failure you are faced with, ask yourself:
What do I choose at this moment? How do I choose to respond at this moment? How do I choose to show up at this moment? How do I choose to BE at this moment?
Frankl again:
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
Change is A choice… Life IS choice….
It is a series of choices, each and every one culminating in where you are today. Good, bad or indifferent your life is a reflection of your choices and you have the power to choose from this point onwards how you want to live your life, how you want to BE a leader.
Let’s make this tangible for a moment.
One of my mentors long ago introduced me to the concept that choice falls into three categories.
- Choices that empower us.
- Choices that imprison us.
- Choices that are neutral.
Choices that empower us are the choices that bring out the best in ourselves and other people. They develop our skills, abilities and potential. These are things like:
- A choice to learn a new skill that helps us perform better
- A choice to switch off the television and read more books
- A choice to start focusing on our health and wellbeing
- A choice to be more patient with our children, our spouse, colleagues, friends
- A choice to take that growth opportunity
Obviously the best thing we can do is to make as many of these choices as possible.
Choices that imprison us are the choices that chain us to mediocrity and frustration. These are often choices born out of our past programming and unconscious conditioning and include choices made out of fear, insecurity, doubt, frustration and poor self esteem. These are choices like:
- I can’t take on that position, I don’t have enough experience
- I’m too old to start a new career
- I don’t have the energy to start exercising
- I’m terrible at speaking. I don’t want to have that responsibility
- I can’t manage a project, I’ve always been bad at organisation, it’s just who I am
Neutral choices are choices that don’t affect us positively or negatively. They don’t violate any laws or harm us or other people. These are the choices that we should not invest a lot of time in making. Sometimes, people spend too much time making these choices. Again, because of fear, insecurity, self doubt, poor self esteem, or even perfectionism and being over analytical. These are things like:
- What should I have for lunch today?
- What should I wear?
- What book should I read?
- Where should I go on holiday?
Often we spend too much of our energy on neutral choices and imprison ourselves with choices based on our past programming.
If our greatest power is the power of choice, we must endeavour to focus our energy on choices that empower us.
That’s what a leader does. Leaders empower themselves and others to make quality choices that take them towards their vision.
So in each and every moment, you have the power to choose to BE a leader, and this does not depend on rank and title.
In each and every moment, you have the power to choose to BE a leader and this does not depend on rank and title.
Letters on a certificate, a title on an office wall, or a position on an organisational chart does not and should not dictate how you choose to represent yourself in each moment.
Whether you are the new graduate or the CEO you have the power to choose to BE a leader.
Quantum Leadership calls us to BE the change the world needs, to lead people to a higher ground of thinking and emotional management.
This is a choice. Not a rank.