How to Keep Your Personal Power and Stay A Step Ahead of the Competition

You Can't Be A Victim and A Leader At The Same Time

Ask 100 people to define leadership and you'll get 100 different answers.  Some will share stories of famous athletes, others will cite the heroics of a war hero and still others will talk about a mentor who helped them through a rough time.  My definition is simple...you're a leader when, regardless of your title, you choose a leadership mindset over victimhood.

Defining victimhood is no easier.  While it is true that bad people sometimes do bad things to others, we allow ourselves to fall into the victim role far too easily.  My definition of a victim is based on Urban Meyer's book, "Above The Line".  In this excellent book, he decries Blame, Complain, Defend (BCD) behaviors as the mindset of a victim.

When you use the definitions above, its easy to believe the statement, "You can't be a victim and a leader at the same time."  Choosing a leadership mindset over a victim mindset is simple...but not easy.  The real work is in maintaining an awareness of your mindset.

Blame behavior is a self-defense mechanism.  However, by blaming external situations or people, we believe that "things" can control us and we begin to give away our power.  This is the biggest danger.

When we blame, we have less control over ourselves 

and lose our ability to lead

We can avoid the loss of personal power by avoiding the BCD behaviors and instead, focus on the antidotes:

• Choose ownership over blame
• Seek solutions instead of complaining
• Be open to feedback, not defensive

Improvement starts when you're mindful of falling into BCD behavior and make the choice to go down a different path.

Looking for motivation?  Read Tim Ferriss' 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment

3 Things You Can Do To Have Your Best Week Ever

We all know someone who bounds into the office Monday morning with a look of determination on their face and clear sense of purpose.  How is it that some show up with their focus and mojo already locked in while the rest of us are wandering aimlessly, praying to find a full pot of coffee in the break room?  We're just starting the week and we feel we're already falling behind.

Plenty of research has proven the benefits of goal setting and few argue with the results gained by setting a goal and then working toward it.  While we take this for granted, it seems that few of us have identified the power in connecting our long term goals with our short term habits.

Your daily habits are the real engine of productivity and the following 3 things will help you harness the power of your long term goals to create your best week ever.

1. Clarify and review your long term goals
If you have not done this lately, I strongly suggest that you stop reading this and download then devour Brian Tracy's "14-step Goal Setting Guide"  Only after you are clear on your long term goals can you create truly meaningful daily habits for success.

2. Create a list of daily habits that support your goals
Once you're clear on your goals, the daily habits to support those goals are pretty easy to create.  Keep asking yourself, "What is the 1 thing I can do [today / this week] to move me toward my goal?"  As you answer this question, your daily habits come to life and you're ready for step 3.

3. Design Your Perfect Week
With your list of daily habits in hand, carve out a solid chunk of time to design your perfect week. I like an hour on Sunday night and know others who prefer Friday afternoon. While I schedule using my Outlook calendar, I know others who use paper and pencil and are masters of this process.  Don't get hung up on the format.  Instead, spend your energy creating blocks of time where you set up the right environment to work on your daily habits.  Treat this time like an important meeting and defend it.  Calendar the habits that have the highest payoff above other tasks and activities.


If you are clear on your long term goals, create habits that will get you there then defend the time to execute, you will be on your way to your best week ever.

I would love to hear how you design your perfect week.  Share your feedback below.