Many historians consider Napoleon Bonaparte to be the greatest military leader who ever lived. Napoleon’s courage was legendary, but it was not vain or impetuous. He didn’t just “luck into” or “stumble upon” greatness, he planned for it.  Let me explain.

Napoleon was famous for his meticulous attention to detail; for taking pains to study and thoroughly understand every military situation he ever faced. He led the French army in hundreds of minor and major engagements and lost only three, the last one being the Battle of Waterloo.

He carefully considered and followed through to its natural conclusion every setback or possibility of defeat he might encounter and then he prepared against it. To be caught unprepared for unexpected setbacks is a mark of weak leadership.  It is not the setback itself that illustrates your weakness to others, but your unpreparedness, or inability to deal with it that does.  Confidence comes from the constructive use of pessimism, thinking about what could go wrong long before it does, and developing a plan of action “just in case.”

The more you know about what you face, the greater your courage and confidence. The more time you take to think through a situation, the more capable you will be of dealing with it when it arises. Napoleon planned for every contingency.

The only real measure of business leadership is results. This requires the ability to act boldly with no guarantees of success. The greatest obstacle to overcome is fear of the unknown.

Most people allow their fears to sit around in their minds, fester, and grow mold.  Failure to deal with these fears in a constructive way causes the creation of the fear itself.

Developing a plan of action, however, whether it’s for a confrontation, or your life in general, will increase your confidence and make you feel better about whatever subject you’re dealing with.  I’ve found that the best antidote to fear is preparedness.

Continue learning and growing – no matter what your field or endeavor, there is always more you could know. The more you know, the more confidence you will have.  The more confidence you have, the better you feel.  The better you feel, the more successful you will be, and the greater you will become.

Spend as much time in the planning process as you need to feel good about the upcoming situation. The more prepared you are, the more confidence you will have.  Personal strategic planning is a great tool to use for your life in general, and project planning can be applied to many subjects, business and personal.  In my experience, there is nothing better than a good plan.

Until next time,
Live Joyfully!

Posted under Education, Leadership, Motivation, Success

We sit around and talk and laugh about it a lot, but it’s one of the greatest obstacles to our careers, and in our lives – indecisiveness.  And ladies, you have to admit it, we are worse than men.  (Of course, there are always exceptions.)

Have you ever noticed that successful people don’t seem to have much trouble making decisions?  And we say, “well, of course not, they’re successful – it’s easy to make decisions when you’re already a success.”  Truthfully, it’s easy to make decisions anyway, and doing so will make you successful. 

Why do we (especially women) have such a hard time with this?  I was recently discussing this topic with some of my gal pals and we decided that it goes back to what we observed our mothers doing when we were young.  Our mothers didn’t make many decisions - especially financial decisions.  Even if our mothers worked, big-ticket items were always controlled by “Dad.”  In our household, my mother would sit and worry over the details of the purchase, while my father made it quite simple – we would buy the cheapest thing available!  (Quality sometimes won out, but not often.)

The other issue is that we’ve all been impulsive at some point and had it “back-fire” on us.  Buyer’s remorse is never a good feeling.  We don’t want to experience it any more often than necessary and we’d like to be able to blame someone else when we do face it again.  I can remember accusing Consumer Reports of poor research a couple of times!

If you’ve ever had a life-transforming experience, then you know that every positive change in your life begins with a clear, explicit decision that you are going to either do something or stop doing something. Significant change starts when you decide to either get in or get out, whether it’s life, work, or a relationship, it all starts with the decision, and ends with action.

Your assignment for today is to start making decisions quickly, and feel good about them.  Start small and work your way up to more important things.  I’ve witnessed women having trouble deciding whether or not to buy a pack of gum at the grocery, and then have trouble deciding which flavor!  But them all!  Or decide to stick to your budget and buy none.  Just make a decision and act on it.  By practicing on the smaller efforts, you’ll be prepared and rehearsed for more important conclusions.

Until next time,

Live Joyfully!

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Posted under Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Success, Weight Loss