Where Does Leadership Begin?

For most of my life I have been a leader.  I’ve led student organizations, teams, classrooms, buildings and people in private industry, but it wasn’t until later in life that I really considered where leadership begins.  Most of us think we become a leader as soon as we are in charge of a group of people but it starts much earlier than that and we don’t even know it is happening.  As soon as we are able to start making the most basic decisions in our lives we are starting our journey in leadership.  We don’t realize that we are collecting valuable information on making good and bad decisions and collecting a database of what works and what doesn’t.  We are also very aware of the people around us who are trying to lead us down the appropriate path in life and those that aren’t.  The data we collect is very simple and can be categorized into a chart as simple as what we like and don’t like. 

It wasn’t until I was in my mid 40’s that I realized I had failed to take charge as my own leader.  I had been leading others for over 20 years at that point, but had neglected to lead myself.  I started to reflect on how I got to a point in my life where I was struggling with my physical and mental health weighing in at over 600 pounds uncomfortable in my own skin and ashamed of myself.  I took an honest inventory of how I was leading others and had to consider the difficult reality that by putting them first I really wasn’t giving them my best. I was neglecting myself to the point that I wasn’t able to function at a level the deserved from their leader.  We are all born to lead in some capacity. There are people that may not like to do it, others may not realize they are doing it, and some people just need to have their eyes opened up to the potential they have to change their lives and the lives of those around them.