Most leadership resources focus on helping you lead others, which is good and right to grow and develop. But what about leading yourself?
Self-leadership is the ability to take responsibility for your life, make wise decisions, and set goals and priorities.
It involves self-awareness, discipline, and a willingness to learn and grow. In this blog, we'll discuss some practical steps you can take to lead yourself well.
TL;DR
Growing in self-leadership includes self-awareness, goal-setting, discipline, a growth mindset, and prioritizing physical and mental health to effectively lead oneself toward fruitful ministry and personal growth.
1. Practice Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the foundation of self-leadership. It means understanding your strengths, weaknesses, values, and motivations. To lead yourself well, you must be honest about who you are and what you want.
One way to grow in self-awareness is to make time to reflect on your thoughts, feelings, and actions. This will help reveal what is driving and motivating you.
Additionally, seek feedback from others and be open to constructive criticism. Allowing others to have a voice in your life and leadership will help you have a clearer understanding of yourself.
Other ways to grow your self-awareness include journaling, meditation, and counseling.
Question: What is one step you can take to increase your self-awareness?
2. Set Clear Goals and Priorities
To lead yourself well, you need to have a direction you're heading toward. To help define this destination, set clear, achievable goals that align with your values and priorities.
Once your goals are set, break them down into smaller, actionable steps. This will help reduce overwhelm and help track your progress.
Setting clear goals and priorities will also help you develop boundaries and better inform what you say "yes" and "no" to.
Question: What are your top 3 goals you want to accomplish in the next 12 months?
3. Develop Self-Discipline
Self-discipline controls your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. It helps you develop habits that support your goals, such as waking up early, exercising regularly, and managing your time wisely.
Developing self-discipline can be hard because oftentimes you lack the very strength that you want to develop. However, one step you can take is inviting others into the process. This provides accountability that will help strengthen self-discipline.
Question: Who can you ask to keep you accountable for growing your self-discipline?
4. Cultivate a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset believes you can learn and grow through effort and practice. It's a mindset that looks at what's possible and how you can set goals to achieve it.
This mindset is essential because it enables you to embrace challenges, welcome new ideas, learn from past failures, and persist when facing obstacles.
With a growth mindset, you seek opportunities for learning and growth, such as reading books, taking courses, or seeking mentorship.
Question: Where is your life are you missing a growth mindset?
5. Prioritize Physical and Mental Health
You must take care of your physical and mental health to lead yourself well. This includes getting enough sleep, eating a healthy diet, and regular exercise. In the busyness of ministry, physical and mental health often take a backseat to a full calendar.
However, this is a keystone habit that will help the rest of your habits and goals succeed and it should be prioritized.
Prioritizing your physical and mental health also helps in managing stress and increasing productivity across multiple spheres of your life.
Question: What is one thing you can do this week to invest in your physical and mental health?
Further Resources
Looking for more resources to help you grow your leadership and ministry? Dive deeper into transformative leadership resources by exploring the Healthy Church Hub now!
