Leadership is about providing direction to other people. But what about you? Who provides you with direction?

Before looking outside of yourself to find direction, why not look inward? Don’t expect someone else to provide the direction in your life. Instead, be a leader and provide direction for yourself. In other words, lead yourself.

To lead yourself, first consider what a leader does for his team. To provide direction, a leader creates a vision for his team to strive for. A leader also defines core values for his team to live by and then he lives by those values to provide an example for his team to follow. A leader also sets goals for his team to achieve and then he tracks progress on those goals so he will know how his team is progressing.

What does this mean for you? It means you can lead yourself by creating a vision for your life, by defining your core values, by setting goals for yourself, and by tracking your progress towards your goals. Leading yourself also means taking care of your finances, taking care of your health, and committing to continuous learning.

Creating a Vision

Let’s look first at visions. A vision is a picture of what you want to achieve.

For example, my vision is to be a healthy and active person that owns his own business and who is paid to conduct seminars, workshops and to give keynote speeches. In other words, my vision is to be a paid professional speaker and to be a person who takes care of his health.

What about you? What do you want to achieve with your life? What is your vision for your life?

Take the time to decide what you want to do with your life and then create a vision statement that captures what you want to achieve. Write this vision statement down and read it on a regular basis to keep your vision top of mind.

Core Values

Next, let’s look at core values. What should you value? What principles will you uphold and live by?

The Toastmasters International core values are integrity, respect, service, and excellence. I believe in these values and I think they are a good starting point for defining my own core values.

What about you? What are your core values?

Take the time to identify what your core values are. The values that you will live by and would never compromise for any reason. Once you have identified your core values, write them down. Commit to never compromising your core values. Be an example for others to follow.

Personal Success Plan

Now we will look at goals.

In Toastmasters we have club success plans. A club success plan defines the goals a Toastmasters club wants to achieve. It also defines the strategies the club will use to achieve those goals.

Embrace the idea of a success plan and create a success plan for yourself. A personal success plan.

In your success plan define the goals you want to achieve. These can be health goals, financial goals, career goals, and any other goals you want to achieve. In addition to including your goals, your success plan should define the strategies you will follow to achieve those goals. Your success plan should also define your vision for your life and your core values.

For example, in my personal success plan I have the goal to reduce my body weight to 200 lb. I also created a strategy to achieve this goal. My strategy is to follow the keto diet, to go for a walk every day, and to record my weight every day so I can see the progress I am making towards my goal. This means I have both a goal and a strategy for achieving that goal.

Make your success plan a living document. Refer to it regularly and update it as your goals and strategies change.

As you work towards your goals you will learn which goals are achievable and which goals are no longer feasible. Over time you will also identify new goals you want to achieve. Actively add, update, and remove goals to/from your success plan as your goals and needs change. When you add a new goal to your success plan, create the strategy you will follow to achieve that goal, and then follow that strategy. When you update a goal, also update the strategy you will use to achieve that goal, then start using the updated strategy.

Follow the strategies you define in your success plan as you work to achieve your goals. When a strategy works, great! Keep using it. When a strategy does not work go back to your success plan and change your strategy. Then use your new strategy so that you are always actively working towards your goal.

Remember to regularly review your success plan to keep your vision, values, and goals in mind.

Track Your Progress

Now that you have a success plan, you should track your progress on your goals. I have learned that if you want to control something, you should track it. If you know where you are, you can plan for where you want to go. This means that if you keep track of your progress, you will know how much you have done, and you will know what remains to be completed.

So how do you track your goals? That all depends on the goal. For example, suppose you have a goal to become a more confident speaker. Make it a trackable goal by changing it to be a goal to do 10 speeches. This is a goal you can track by tracking how many speeches you have done and you will always know how many speeches you have left to do to complete your goal. The more speeches you do, the more confidence you will have when doing speeches.

As you actively make progress on your goals and you can see your progress, you will be more motivated because you will have a record of what you have already accomplished and the amount of work remaining to complete your goal will be decreasing.

Take Control of Your Money

In addition to your goals, you can take control of your finances by tracking your finances. First, create a budget that outlines how much money you expect to spend in various categories. Now you have a goal to keep your spending within your budget.

Next, keep track of your what you spend so you will know how close you are to reaching your budget. This allows you to carefully choose when to make a purchase and when not to make a purchase because you will know if that purchase is within your budget or if it exceeds your budget.

What happens if you don’t have a budget and you don’t track your spending? You may end up spending beyond your means and end up in a precarious situation where you don’t have enough money to pay your bills. No one wants to be in this scenario, so I strongly encourage you to control your finances by tracking your spending and using a budget to control how much you spend.

Take Control of Your Health

In addition to your controlling your finances, you can also take control of your health. This means eating well, being active, and getting a good night’s sleep.

If you don’t take care of your health, you may end up feeling tired or sick. Not taking care of yourself can even lead to serious health conditions.

When you are tired or sick it is much harder to be motivated to work on your goals. When you are well rested and in good health you have more energy and it is easier to motivate yourself to work on your goals.

You can use tracking to control your health. For example, you can track your body weight. When you track your weight, you will know when your weight increases. You can then create and follow a strategy to reduce your weight. If you don’t track your weight you won’t be able to control it because you won’t know when you need to lose weight.

Continuous Learning

In addition to your finances and your health, self leadership also involves continuous learning. This means actively doing things to exercise your mind and learn new skills.

If you don’t actively exercise your mind and learn new skills, you may fall behind in your job. New tasks at work that require skills and knowledge you don’t possess will be out of your grasp and you may even risk losing your job if your skills aren’t up to the task.

If you do actively exercise your mind and develop new skills, you will become a more versatile person. You may be able to take on new and more challenging tasks at work that increase your value as an employee. You will also have an improved resume because your set of skills will increase over time.

So how do you learn continuously? You can read books. You can search the internet to find articles to read to expand your knowledge. You can take online training courses. You could attend seminars and conferences. You could take college and university classes.

Another way to learn is to practice your skills outside of work. You could take on a personal project that requires you to learn a new skill.

For example, I am a computer programmer and I work on desktop software. To challenge myself and learn new skills I could take on a personal project where I develop a web application. This will teach me a new type of programming project and it will increase my skill set as a programmer.

Another way to learn is by volunteering to take on a job for a community organization. For example, in Toastmasters there are leadership roles for a Toastmasters club, like club president, secretary, and treasurer. If you volunteer for one of these roles you will learn new skills as you serve in that role.

Commit to continuous learning. You will exercise your mind and you will learn new skills. This will make you a more versatile person and it will make you more effective both at work and in life.

Conclusion

If you want to be effective in life, don’t expect others to provide the direction for your life. Instead, take charge of your life and lead yourself.

Define a vision for your life and then work towards making that vision a reality. Define your core values and live by those values. Create a personal success plan with goals and strategies to achieve those goals, then follow your strategies to achieve those goals.

Make your success plan a living document, actively updating your goals and strategies as you move through life. Regularly review your success plan to keep your vision, core values, and goals top of mind. Always track your progress on your goals so you will know what you have already achieved and what you have left to do to complete your goals.

Commit to being healthy and track your health. Commit to using a budget and track your spending so that you can control your finances. Commit to continuous learning so that you will be a more versatile person and so that you will be more effective at work and in life.

Become an effective leader by leading yourself.