Self-leadership: Getting Started

A form of self-leadership is not knowing all the answers but taking a step forward anyway.

Sometimes the best way to get things done is to simply begin them, even with incomplete information or only parts of a plan. This takes courage, especially for people with perfectionist tendencies. People who want to develop self-leadership abilities are, by definition, interested in growing. Growth requires change, and change requires a first step.

Perfection is not the goal; growth and meaningful, impactful work to affect positive change is. This doesn’t mean we have permission to break everything to build something new. A balance needs to be struck: things need to add value, but they don’t need to be perfect to achieve the goal.

Plans and structure do matter. However, too much time looking at a problem to come up with a plan can result in paralysis. No forward progress is being made, nothing is changed—which means there is no growth and no impact.

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