In a previous post entitled “Have you been exercising initiative lately?” I wrote about how it was crucial to develop your ability to take initiative in order to develop your leadership abilities. The Air Force Academy admissions department is looking for those who are consistently working to improve their leadership abilities.
Notice that I have the words “consistently working to improve” italicized and in bold face type above. In other words, it’s not enough to work on improving your leadership abilities once in a while. You must work to consistently improve your leadership skills on a weekly basis.
But here’s a couple of questions that I would like for you to think about:
- How do you know if you are improving your leadership abilities to your maximum potential?
- How do you know if you are consistenly working on exercising your initiative?
I’m sure that at first glance, these may appear to be very simple questions, and you may be tempted to either answer them quickly or just gloss over them altogether. Resist that temptation.
If you reflect upon these questions and find yourself feeling uncomfortable, that’s expected. You should have to seriously question your own beliefs and dig into your own memory banks.
If you don’t experience the slightest bit of discomfort, then you probably aren’t getting the maximum benefit from this exercise. You wouldn’t go to the gym and not expect to feel a little bit of discomfort, would you? No, if you are still reading this entry, you want to develop your full potential. Go back and give these questions another try.
Whether you’ve quickly come up with an answer or have struggled to discover one, you may still be feeling a bit uncertain.
If that’s the case, Congratulations! Because you can’t come up with and put into action new and better solutions without a bit of uncertainty about the way that you are currently doing things.
Right now, though, it’s time to do a brief checkup on what you’ve done so far in the area of initiative.
So print out this blog entry, and fill in on the lines below 5 acts of initiative you’ve taken within the past year.
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If you can list out 5 acts of initiative that you have taken within the past year, that’s great! Hang on to this list, because as you’ll find out in future blog posts, you’re going to need it!
If not, no worries, because in the next blog post, you’re going to brainstorm and figure out new actions that you can take to fix this deficiency!
Now seize the day, have fun, and make a difference!
To Your Success,
Elizabeth