“The lion is king because of one simple word; Attitude!” – Myles Munroe

When you see yourself as a leader, you become a leader. This statement may sound overly simplified but as any true leader has discovered, there is a great deal of growth and development before one may see themselves as a true leader! As leadership is birthed, developed and exercised, the growing leader will experience the confidence of a lion to lead others with strength and humility.

Leadership is Crucial

“Everything rises and falls on leadership.” – John C. Maxwell

It is crucial for true leaders to rise up and lead. The saying is true that all it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing. When true leaders influence the world, it becomes a better place. This idea is better understood by discovering the nature of a true leader.

True Leadership

A true leader has discovered their reason for existing on this planet. Innate influence causes a person to lead others when they discover their purpose. This births the leadership attitude which causes others to follow their lead!

“Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less!” – John C. Maxwell

Purpose and Leadership

“What changes a follower into a leader is a change in attitude.” – Myles Munroe

Nothing changes a person’s attitude more than finding their true purpose.

A person who discovers their purpose becomes a contagious leader. Purpose becomes the driving force, leading to greater inspiration for leadership. Inspiration is the most pure form of influence found in a leader’s repertoire for leading others!

“Leadership is the capacity to influence others through inspiration, generated by a passion, motivated by a vision, birthed from a conviction, produced by a purpose.” – Myles Munroe

The following steps are derived from Myles Munroe’s definition of leadership.

To increase your leadership you must turn Myles Munroe’s definition upside-down:

1. Discover your purpose

Your purpose is your reason for being on the planet. It is your assigned destiny! We all posses talents, desires, personalities, etc. that cause us to excel in a particular field or endeavor. This is a signpost to our purpose. We are all born to fill a profound purpose!

2. Grow your conviction

Believing in your purpose is essential for following a path to your destiny. Each human has an obligation to humanity to add value to this planet before they die. We all have brilliance stored within waiting to be discovered. Conviction needs to fulfill purpose!

3. Receive your vision

Our life’s vision is a picture of how this world will be a better place because we have impacted it during and after our lifetime. Dreams and desires lead to a sense of our purpose in pictures. As we see our unique purpose it can become a lived out reality!

4. Passion is produced

A life vision infuses us with a passion to energize our efforts and enthuse others to follow our goals.  Passion is revealed in a life that has discovered something to die for. A significant cause, related to potential breeds passion within us and those we lead!

5. Inspire others

When people view living passion their desire to live for more is awakened. This causes followers to move towards the one with an intense passion. When individuals experience your commitment they galvanize as teams under the life vision you live and express.

6. Influence others

Influence speaks to the core desires of humanity.  Significance, truth and acceptance are three core desires of humanity. When a person finds their purpose, others are attracted to the energy lived in a dream. Without influence, a leader must resort to manipulation.

Press into Purpose

Leadership is increased as we discover and press into our purpose for living. A business leader discovers their “gift” and learns to serve it to the world through the platform of a business (or group of businesses). A ministry leader discovers their “gift” and learns to serve it to the world through the platform of a ministry (or group of ministries). Politicians, educators, etc. are similar.

What is your greatest gift?

Your gift may not have fully emerged but you will have desires in a general direction. As we refine our desires and gifts to sharpen our focus upon our true purpose, we discover a clearer picture of our leadership purpose in life.

Your leadership is a key to your prominence on this planet!

Every person has a key to influencing the world. I believe the old saying is true, “Everyone has 5 minutes of fame!” Some have lifetime influence as they discover their purpose and serve it!

Purpose Activity

List 3 of your favorite things to do. Design a business or ministry plan around one of these. As you embrace the planning stages for this new venture you will begin to tap into your purpose.

By designing a number of ventures you will breathe life into your purpose. Find the venture that promises the highest return of significance (in your perception). This is a part of your purpose. Actively pursue this venture and you will begin to really lead!

I believe that we all have a purpose for being here. There is a reason why you are here in this universe and that there is a specific role for you to fulfil. Even though this is a belief, I do think that anyone who is in touch with their spirit (or soul or other self) will know that there is a part of you that long for more than just the day to day physical needs of life. We all long for more and this longing, in a sense is fulfilled by your purpose. Your purpose in life is not a pre-assigned role, but rather a decision that you make as a result of introspection. There is no black board in the sky on which your purpose is written. There is however feelings and experiences that you long to experience while you are here and your purpose is what will cause you to experience, feel and be that which you long for on the deepest level of being a human “being.”

The original Latin meaning of the word purpose is derived from the word intention; meaning that your purpose is there by (your) design and is something that you intend either consciously or unconsciously. When you intend for something to happen you are the one that makes it happen; it is not something or someone outside of yourself. Most people spent all their lives waiting for “a sign” as to what their purpose is. They spend all their lives trying to find their purpose instead of just deciding and using the power of intent to make things happen. Nelson Mandela as a young man saw things he did not like and he decided that his purpose in life will be to rid the world of racial inequalities. This became the very reason for him living and even though his purpose lead him on a very rocky road, his purpose did not change. All this was born in a truly committed decision. His committed decision lead to a definiteness of purpose; something that did not change, despite all the odds being against him. He found a purpose that was much bigger than himself that gave him leverage to achieve the impossible.

With a strong sense of purpose you can achieve virtually anything. Purpose is what gives you the reasons for doing something. In life there is a big difference between what you can do and what you actually do and the results usually comes down to your motivation. Motivation is nothing but having a strong sense of purpose; a sense of knowing why you do what you do. When people don’t know why they are doing something they will rarely do it full-out and they will rarely stick with it long term. Purpose is the engine of human motivation. Purpose give you the reasons why and in with strong enough reasons “why to” you will find the “how to’s” – reasons come first and the answers come second as a result of the why.

Purpose therefore gives you power. It gives you the power to persist and take action until you succeed. When you say that someone did something “on purpose” you are actually saying that he was responsible for doing it and that it is because of him that it happened. When you use your mind, your body and your emotions you have the ability to bring into being virtually anything on purpose. By intending for it to happen you can make it real. With a strong purpose you are able to tap into the unlimited resources that are within you; resources that become available because you feel compelled to make it happen. When it is a must you will find within yourself the resources to make it happen. When what you want is merely a wish, it is only a “should” that might only come together when it is convenient. Musts happen regardless of your circumstances or situation for it is your very purpose. It is your reason for being. Nelson Mandela was able to change the way a whole nation thought and he even broke down barriers all over the world from the confines of a prison cell. With a strong enough purpose nothing can hold you back.

Discovering and living your purpose is all there really is for you to do in this life. It is like the axis of the wheel of your life and it holds everything in your life together. Your purpose gives meaning to everything you do and provides you with an inexhaustible well of resources to truly achieve whatever you set out to achieve or accomplish. The ironic thing however is that when you are on purpose all the “things and stuff” do not matter for the feeding of your purpose is what you truly long for and it needs no external satisfaction other than the experience.

Great minds have a purpose and it is usually a purpose that goes beyond themselves; beyond what they will “get”. With their purpose they serve humanity. You can only find that much drive to serve and uplift yourself, but when you turn your attention to a cause much bigger than yourself you can find a purpose that has immense power to propel you to do virtually anything; even that which most people think of as impossible. The human spirit is truly one of love as we will do more for others than we will ever do for ourselves. When you find something that you can serve that goes beyond your personal gains you will discover that life’s greatest joys is in giving; in giving the gift the you are.

This is just one theory out of many on how life on Earth started. This is the theory that I believe in. Some people think it funny and quite illogical of a theory. For others, like myself, it is the most logical answer to a question that will never be answered. People tend to jump to conclusions quickly and just shrug other beliefs off. Mind you, it is hard to always take other things seriously when one doesn’t believe in them, but hopefully those that read this article might have a better understanding of why people believe in this theory about creation.

First, why do people even worry about how we were created? The answer is as unclear as it is varied. Curiosity is probably the best reason. Curiosity is the reason why many things in the past get studied and debated. Curiosity and hunger for information to be exact. To some, having beliefs about the world are very important. They take comfort in feeling secure in believing in answers to certain questions. There is nothing wrong with that, of course. It’s nice to have hopes and a kind of mental comfort in believing in certain things and finding answers to age old questions.

What does the Spark of Life theory mean exactly? Let’s take a deeper look at it. It is the belief that life was created by a single spark of energy. It does not necessarily provide a reason or purpose for the spark, but merely just states that there was one. The importance is not in why but rather just the fact that it happened.

Some people consider it a pessimistic view on life. Many of these are religious members who find it counterproductive to their creationistic theories. Creationism generally suggests that there was a reason to why life was created, while the Spark of Life theory leaves such a question and answer untouched. Many, like myself, don’t believe there is a reason to why the spark occurred and therefore, to put it bluntly, there is no reason to life or why humans exist. Therefore, the only reason to exist is just to exist.

This doesn’t mean that life is without purpose. It just means that life is a kind of accident and there was no purpose behind its creation. But purpose doesn’t need to have original identity to exist. In other words, just because a purpose isn’t inherently within something doesn’t mean a purpose can’t be given to it. Even if humankind, or all life for that matter, was created by accident, people and animals still can find a reason to live. We make our own this way and don’t have to worry about fulfilling the obligations and rules of higher beings or following a fate for our creation.

Many times it is labeled illogical. It is said to be this because some people can’t understand how something can come from nothing. It defies the very laws of physics in truth, or at least the laws that we can comprehend and understand. There still is much to science that seems to defy everything we already know. It is ironic though that such a theory can be called illogical when many of the accusers suggest in return that the existence of a higher being as the creator is the reason for life. Why is this ironic? What makes the idea that a powerful, omnipotent being has existed since the dawn of time and will continue to exist until its end a more reasonable belief than the idea that life originated from nothing. Both are fine beliefs to have, but neither is more logical than the other in any way. There is no proof to currently make them logical, and all people can go on is their belief challenged against another.

The Spark of Life theory really isn’t “out there” if people would just give it a chance. This doesn’t mean they have to believe in it. Believing in something takes a deeper feeling. It’s not something one can truly just wake up and decide to do. But people assume that it’s a negative theory that doesn’t promote anything. They think that being assigned a purpose is the only way to get one. It has nothing to do with how we are created. People can find their own just by living. That is what believing in the Spark of Life means.

by Jake Rose

Jake Rose is an artist and an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers.

Heart – are you doing the thing you love to do? Are you living your dreams? If not, why not? What’s stopping you from achieving your dream? Is it a lack of courage? You got to work on your fears that may be holding you back. There is an inspiring Chinese saying: “I rather live one day as a tiger than 100 years as a sheep.”

Attitude – do you have a positive mental attitude? Your attitude will determine your altitude. Do you belong to the majority of negative people who complain and whine about life?

Purpose – do you have a great purpose, a dream that you want to achieve? Celine Dione sang a very popular song: The Power of The Dream. It is a very inspiring song and I highly recommend you go to your nearest music store to get her album.

People – are you mixing with the right people who will inspire and help you towards achieving your dreams. There is a popular saying: Birds of a feather flock together! Be careful who you mix with they will influence your thoughts and actions.

Yes! – how well do you communicate? Are you able to persuade people to do what you want them to do. Do you have the integrity that will attract people and win their trust?

HEALTHY is a great acronym too. Health is your greatest wealth? Are you taking good care of your health? Do you eat well, rest well and exercise well to stay healthy and fit?

Ethical – Are you doing the right things? To be healthy you must do the right things to ensure your body stay healthy and fit. Doing the right things will also ensure peace of mind which is an important factor for achieving good health.

Action – nothing happens without action. Have you put your thoughts into action. The greatest intention is of no value if it is not put into action.

Love – it is the most powerful force on earth. It is the law of attraction because when you are a loving and caring person you will attract good people into your life. The universal forces will come and help you achieve your dreams too!

Think – as a man thinketh so is he! You are what you think. Be careful of the thoughts that are running through your mind, are they negative or positive? With positive thoughts will come positive results and with negative thoughts will come negative results!

Happiness – everyone wants to be happy. Do you know what are the things that will make you happy? Do you know what are the things that will make people happy? We are all basically the same!

YOU – Yes Opportunities Unlimited. You can achieve whatever you want in life if you truly believe in it and have the burning desire to achieve it. Napoleon Hill popular quotation: “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve!” It all depends on you!

WEALTHY is a great acronym for Wisdom, Enterprising, Alliances, Leverage, Teamwork, Holistic and Yardstick. Do you have the wisdom to do the right things? Are you enterprising enough to think out of the box and take calculated risk? Do you know how to win co-operation through strategic alliances? Are you leveraging your time and effort? Do you have a strong team? Is your approach holistic? Are you living a balanced and successful lifestyle? What is your yardstick for success?

There are no secrets to success. You can be happy, healthy and wealthy if you mix with the right people and read the right books!

by Bruce Seah

Bruce Seah is a marketing consultant, Infopreneur and Author. Bruce’s loves to identify major trends and profit from them. To get your free ebook on How To Be Happy, Healthy and Wealthy, go to: http://SimplyLearnAndEarn.com

These events are quite expected when we undergo spiritual development. When we get frustrated or tried to question our present situation, it is a good indicator that we are looking through the surface of things and want to have a journey down to the deepest core of ourselves. We need this journey to find strength and hidden characteristics that we can use with our battles in life.

Spiritual development is often described to have several phases which can be compared to the phases that a caterpillar undergoes before it has turned into a butterfly. The final end stage is the maturation of the spirit which is ready to face the world with its beauty and radiance.

Before this stage is achieved, the individual is expected to be filled with pride, selfishness and egoism. Anti-social behavior and apathy are expected for people in this stage. This anti-social behavior may have sprung from negative past experiences in one’s childhood years causing a person to distrust or having misconception about the world. After feeling empty for such negative behavior, the individual would start questioning about his present behavior and may seek religion for solace. Religion would then provide him/her truths to guide him with the next stages of his journey.

There will be lots of remorse and self-hate but when an individual conquers all these, he begins to stop asking questions about other hidden truths and is satisfied with not knowing. This is a kind of newly acquired boldness, an inner strength an individual has not experienced before.

These phases of spiritual development do not actually run in a straight continuum and some may jump from one phase to the next before reaching the last stage after long years of struggling. This realization is so helpful among all people in different walks of life. Questions concerning one’s career, family life and personhood are sometimes answered when one fervently holds on until the last stage is achieved.

Along the journey, one may feel uninspired. This is normal but you need to ask for other people’s help to keep you going. Advices and inspiring words are good to remind you of your mission to journey towards the core of yourself and face life’s battles.

by Eva Gregory

Some people grow old without even knowing themselves or understand their reason for living. You don’t want this to happen, do you? To understand more on spirituality and spiritual development, read more articles at Spiritual Development.

The feeling of low self-esteem or any lack of confidence is usually attributed to an event in a persons life that had a lasting effect. This same feeling could also leave us with a sense of being worthless when it leads us to a lack of purpose in all parts of our lives. The same can be also said when we find the confidence that creates the opposite effect.

In the same way that self-confidence builds character and purpose, a lack of it drains your desire to achieve anything worthwhile and it is so easy to let go of any dreams and aspirations you may have for yourself. We must first understand that any situation that we find ourselves in, good or bad, has been brought about by circumstances that we had full control of.

While it may seem harsh to think that we had any control over turbulent times in our past, the simple truth is we all have a choice in how we lead our lives and the ability in how we control it. If we are suffering from any lack of confidence or motivation in our lives, now is the time to rectify the situation before we fall even deeper into a position of less strength.

When we begin to understand that any change can be made in a single moment and when it is a positive one, then it is all too apparent how self-confidence builds character and purpose. Having a purpose is something that each and every one of us should strive for and without it, we meander through life with a sense of no direction.

Within all of us is a deep burning desire to achieve something that we have a passion for, whether it be an interest and hobby or a vocation to change the world somehow. Whatever it may be, I am sure there is something that makes you feel good. There could have been a time when you were excited about a project and you decided to listen to someone who only wanted to steal your dream. This is one of the reasons why we give up on our dreams, our self-confidence has been eroded.

We have to be strong enough to know what we want and unless it is from a reliable source which offers valuable criticism, then we should stay on focus with our attention. Whenever a person wants to give us any advice and a few pointers along the way, it is usually mixed in with an healthy dose of encouragement. This is the stuff that builds character and with a strong willed desire and a purpose in mind, our self-confidence will begin to rise.

Each moment on your journey, you are presented with an opportunity to react differently when yet another someone or something in your life rubs you the wrong way, or you may find yourself wanting to walk away from a circumstance, but are not sure if that is the right thing to do. However, you may find yourself stuck in a rut that seems impossible from which to extricate yourself. You may even make the same choices over and over again because you do not know how to choose otherwise.

Rather than moving you forward, your present path may take you in a seemingly never-ending circle where your actions and choices lead you, not only, nowhere, but to where you’ve been before. It is during these repetitious moments that awareness becomes the first step to change.

Awareness is the moment when you are able to recognize what you are doing at the deepest level. You observe yourself, noticing your actions, reactions and choices in real time. Awareness is the first step to change because you can not make a change unless you are aware of what needs to be changed.

You can then understand why you are doing what you are doing. Afterward, it becomes difficult not to change because you are no longer in a fog about what you are doing. You will, also, realize that as much as you are the root source behind the causes for your behaviors, you are also the originator for any changes that you need to make.

There is infinite freedom in your awareness. Rather than thinking that you are stuck in a repetitive cycle with no escape, you will begin to see how you play a role in creating your life. Whether you are aware of them or not, your behaviors and choices are yours to make. Your past and present no longer have to dictate your future when you choose to be aware in real time. You are then free to move beyond your old limits, make new choices, and take new actions. With awareness, you take a new path that moves you forward while paving the way for new experiences and new ways of being. It is through awareness that you can continue to consciously evolve.

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, Life Coach, Hypnotherapist, Author, “101 Great Ways To Improve Your Life.” Dr. Dorothy has the unique gift of connecting people with a broad range of profound principles that resonate in the deepest part of their being. She brings awareness to concepts not typically obvious to one’s daily thoughts and feelings. http://www.drdorothy.net

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Each of us find ourselves in situations where we wish we had handled it differently, done it better, or said it more respectfully.

When you find yourself in these situations, you must learn to take from them the wisdom and knowledge that will help you to move on to the next level in your life in a positive manner.

The lessons that you get from such situations allow you to grow in various aspects of your being, particularly, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.

The main thing to remember is when you find yourself in situations that you want to change, do over, or do better; you must learn to live life without regret. When you regret what happens in your life, you diminish the person that you are.

My friend, Tracy Leland Jones, helped me to realize this important life lesson. He was killed in June 2006. However, two months before his death, he told me that his life was good and he didn’t regret a thing.

I am glad that I had a chance to have that conversation with him. As I grieve his loss, his words comfort me in knowing that he enjoyed the life that he lived (i.e. entrepreneurship, engagement to the love of his life, fatherhood to his daughter that was the pride of his life, and career success as an actor and comedian). In addition, his words have inspired me to learn to live my life without regrets.

Yet, how can that be done? As I pondered that question, I realized that I am not the only one who must learn to live life without regret. Nor am I the only one who wants concrete strategies to ensure that I live my life without regret.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, regret is “to be very sorry for”. Since, in my life, I have been very “sorry for” things that I have done or things that have happened to me, only to later appreciate those things that I regretted because they helped to make me who I am, I pondered how we could stay on the right track towards living life without regret.

Looking back on my last conversation with Tracy, I realized that he had left me with a blueprint for how to live my life without regret.

Based upon the life that I observed that Tracy lived and the insight that he shared with me, below you will find a set of strategies that I have created to assist us with the journey of living life without regret:

1. Apologize, mean it and move on;
2. Appreciate who you’ve become through your trials and tribulations;
3. As you know better, do better;
4. Be honest with yourself;
5. Be someone others can count on;
6. Dare to dream and experience your dreams;
7. Eliminate fear from your life;
8. Laugh more than you cry and compliment more than you complain;
9. Treat others the way you want to be treated; and
10. Walk by faith.

I know that you can think of some really terrible things that happened in your life – things that if you could go back and change them – you would. Trust me, I can name a few in my life, too!

Yet, to regret what happened to you means that you are stuck in a holding pattern where you can’t break free to relish in the blessings you have been provided by the very things you regret.

The 10 strategies presented in this article will get you going in the right direction to live your life without regret.

I will use these strategies to live my life without regret – as Tracy did. I ask that you join me in doing the same.

Cassandra “D.I.V.A. of Dialog” Lee has a mission for educating and empowering audiences toward personal growth and career success. As a self-development expert, professional speaker, corporate trainer, author, and life coach, she uses “Divine Inspiration Vocally Applied” to provide strategies and solutions for helping her audiences via her live seminars, workshops, keynote speeches, training sessions, and one-on-one coaching sessions. To receive personal empowerment tidbits FREE each month, sign-up for her newsletter, Dialog Digest at http://www.divaofdialog.com/newsletter.aspx.

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Each of us has a secret. And most of the time, our secrets are kept because we believe (often erroneously) that it will cause us humiliation or pain if it is revealed. So secrets are sometimes associated with negative and hurtful experiences. But there are also good secrets in the world — empowering secrets that can lead us to wealth, happiness and prosperity, if we only dare to take them seriously, and our willing to try a new way of looking at the world.

“The Secret” is a book that has sold millions of copies around the world since it was published in 2006. The book is actually a printed version of the earlier-released movie also entitled “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. The subject of both the book and the movie is an obscure but millennia-old philosophy known as the law of attraction.

The law of attraction states that individuals have the capacity to attract success, wealth, health and relationships according to their beliefs and the use of visualization techniques. Further, it teaches us that abundance (not lack) is the natural state of our world–whether we realize it or not.

The law of attraction is believed to be the secret for total success and for creating our lives by design. This law also teaches us to believe that we can establish our own money mindset, and challenge the limiting beliefs most of us have about money. Confronting some of these myths about wealth can lead us to greater success and even create millionaires. Reading “The Secret” causes many people to realize the importance of believing in their own capacity for success, and their own responsibility in creating their life.

Like “the Secret” movie, the book transports a very unique message — one that many people are unaware of as this philosophy receives so little attention in the main stream media. The book says that their is something powerful within each of us that can empower us to be better people, and live more productive, satisfying lives.

But ‘The Secret’ is not just about being successful in term of monetary gain; it also teaches readers to overcome their weaknesses and bridge their differences with others, promoting greater harmony, cooperation and mutual responsibility. It really makes us realize and appreciate life’s worth and teaches an unashamedly positive view of life.

Although success cannot just be measured in terms of money, there is no denying that the accumulation of wealth is important to each of us for security, personal growth, self-esteem and personal enjoyment. It is part of the rich tapestry of life. But real wealth (as described in ‘The Secret’) is about more than just money. It is about living a wealthy, prosperous life and enjoying the abundance of love, prosperity and resources available to us — and doing so with a grateful mind.

In fact, gratitude is a subject much discussed in ‘The Secret.’ The law of attraction is all about getting into alignment with what you want, and ‘The Secret’ explains that feeling and expressing gratitude for the wealth and abundance we ALREADY have is the surest way to attract more of these things into our lives.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Mercer