Building and strengthening your character cannot be done at home by yourself, it cannot be done in a classroom. You need to be out there experiencing the tough times in leadership. Only then will you know exactly where you want to be. Only then will your desire burn to work on getting where you want to be.

How far do you want to climb the leadership ladder? How many people do you want to help climb the leadership ladder? The reason I ask those questions is, because I want you to realise that to do both, you will need to make some sacrifices.

1. Making Sacrifices

You will need to make sacrifices if you want to get to where you want to be. You will also need to make some sacrifices in order for you to help others get to where they want to be. So, how much are you willing to sacrifice?

When deciding on what you are willing to sacrifice, you need to know exactly where you want to get to. That all starts by looking within yourself. You want to be moving forward, not backward. So, you must sacrifice what is required to move forward.

If you don’t, then there will be someone else who is willing to make those sacrifices, and they will get ahead of you. If you lose the appetite for personal growth, then you will be bypassed, and left behind. When you are finished with making your sacrifices, then you can no longer climb the leadership ladder.

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When we move forward, it does not happen by accident, or just naturally happen. It happens because we are deliberately taking the right actions, and making the right sacrifices to move forward. If you want to gain something, then you must give up something.

If you want to get a promotion or a better job, then you will have to sacrifice your time to learn about the new role. Or, you will have to sacrifice time to earn a qualification.

When you have finished sacrificing your time learning about the new job, and then interviewing for the job, you now have to make more sacrifices to stay in the job. The skills you used to get the job will not be the same skills required to do the job.

So, you will have to sacrifice more of your time to learn on the job, and to learn off the job. Then, if you want to climb the leadership ladder even further, you will have to make the same sacrifices with your time again. All these sacrifices are required if you want to get to where you want to be.

2. Leadership Skills

If you want to become a leader and fill a leadership position, then you will need to learn leadership skills. So, to learn those skills you will need to sacrifice your time to do that.

In most leadership positions in any industry, it is required that you have a degree. If you do not have that degree, then the same sacrifice will need to be made.

When you are looking within yourself, and deciding on your sacrifices, remember that to make the right decisions you need to have discipline.

You need to have a desire, and a vision for a brighter future. Making a sacrifice is giving something up that is valuable to you today, so you can strive towards your vision, and desire tomorrow.

You cannot hope for a brighter future. You must know where you want to go, and what your vision is. If you are “hopeful”, you can start to visualise what you want.

You will be able to imagine what it would be like if your vision was a reality. The more you imagine, and the more you visualise your future, your desire to make it real will grow.

3. Your Vision

As your desire continues to grow, the easier it will become to plan how to make your vision a reality. With desire you will want to work on your vision every day, and you won’t want to give up. When starting to develop your plan, ask yourself the following questions:

• Why have I imagined this vision, and future for myself?
• How will I get to where I want to be?
• When will I get to where I want to be?
• Who can I ask to help me get to where I want to be?

These principles you are learning are designed to help you in all aspects of your life, whether that be at work, or at home.

However, my purpose is to help you grow as a leader, and to help you develop your team into leaders. But, before you can help your team and others grow, you must first begin with yourself.

You need to grow yourself into a position where you are ready to develop others.

Focus on developing yourself into a more valuable leader and person. Hopefully, you now have a really good understanding of why you need to work on yourself every day. Hopefully, you have a good understanding of why you need to grow, and develop.

So, now it is up to you to ask yourself, “How do I work on myself every day to grow and develop into a highly effective leader?”

Discipline is the habit you need to develop, in order for you to work on yourself every day. Have the discipline to focus on becoming the best leader, and the most valuable person you can be.

If you study the most successful leaders and people in the world, you will find a common thread between them all. They are also the most valuable leaders and people in the world. When thinking of how you become more valuable, make a decision on what will make you more valuable first.

4. Working On Yourself

Then you can work on yourself, to become valuable in the area of your choice. As you improve in this area, people will start to value you for it.

It is not very difficult to decide what area you would like to become most valuable in, and how you work on yourself. The most difficult part of it is keeping the discipline to work on yourself every day. Most people struggle with keeping this discipline, because it takes a lot of self-motivation, and sacrifice.

It is one think knowing what to do, but it is another thing doing what it takes to make yourself more valuable in the area of your choice.

Now you have nearly finished this post and have read through my other posts, you have a lot more knowledge than you did before you started reading. But, you now need the discipline to apply what you have learned every day.

When thinking of sacrifices to make in order for you to get to where you want to be, they must be things that will get in the way. For me, it was wasting time doing nothing, watching TV. It was hanging with friends who weren’t doing anything.

It was drinking alcohol and having a hangover the next day. It was playing golf, or going to the cinema. I gave up all of these things so I could focus, and have the discipline to get to where I wanted to be. You may have different sacrifices, but you must go through the same process.

To strive towards reaching your potential then you must go the extra mile. Don’t just do what is expected from your boss, or any other influences in your life. To grow and develop as a leader, and become more valuable, then you must be deliberate.

You must deliberately decide to grow and develop yourself in any way you can, and whenever you can. To achieve your dream, you must focus on yourself.

To help others achieve their dream, you must focus on them. Highly effective leaders are able to do both. Are you willing to work on yourself so you can do both?

Before you started reading through my site, had you read through any other leadership sites or books? Did you grow and develop yourself to become a better leader, and more valuable every day?

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If you cannot lead yourself, then you will never lead others. Leadership is not about you, but it starts with you.

How do you spend your time? Do you waste it or invest it? You spend a lot of time at work, and the work you do there is important. However, the work you do when you’re not at work is even more important.

If you invest your time in developing yourself, you will get ahead. If you don’t, then you will stay exactly where you are. Or, even worse, you will move backwards. What would you rather do?

The decision is yours. Make the decision based on what you are willing to sacrifice. Then make the decision of when you are going to TAKE ACTION and make those SACRIFICES.

Are you willing to put other people’s wants and needs before your own?

I welcome hearing how this post has influenced the way you think, the way you lead, or the results you have achieved because of what you’ve learned in it. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below.

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All the best,

Tom (Lead, Grow, Influence)