How To Stop Over-Committing

Time is so valuable. Once we spend our time, it’s something we can never get back.

And yet so many of us are careless with how we spend our time. We’re treating time like it’s penny candy at Halloween.

We don’t keep track of it and we over-commit ourselves to activities that drain our energy.

Why do we do this? What can we do to stop over-committing.

Our commitment locks us in

Image via Michael Coghlan

With the new year getting into full swing, I believe it’s the perfect time to talk about our propensity to over-commit ourselves to causes.

If we want this year to be our best year ever, we’ve got to consider our time valuable and begin taking back our time.

Why We Over-Commit

There are many valid reasons why we over-commit. All of them good reasons and yet all of them hinder our path to success.

4 Simple Ways To Grow Your Influence As A Leader

The most powerful leaders have an advantage over other leaders. These leaders know influence is power. And they know how to grow their influence.

The tactics these powerful leaders use aren’t very difficult to master. In fact, the steps to grow your influence are very simple.

Simple ways to become influential

Image by Sean MacEntee

I think anyone who’s been leading for any time has heard the classic John Maxwell quote:

Leadership is influence

Maxwell broke down leadership and put it into the simplest terms possible.

So why do so many leaders eschew the principle that leadership is influence? Rather, there’s many leaders who go for the leadership is power viewpoint. These leaders try to lead with an iron fist.

Leading this way often backfires and you see these power-hungry leaders quickly fade away.

Here’s How You Gain Respect

“You ain’t going to get my respect until you respect me.”

We can't demand respect

Image by Gigi Ibrahim

You couldn’t count the number of times I’ve heard those words uttered. As a youth leader, the recent generations of students have become centered around the idea of respect.

If you watch them closely, you can see how badly they want respect. Every action they take is centered around gaining respect.

From the clothes they wear to the friends they have to the hobbies they participate in, everything is focused on respect.

Yet they rarely know how to gain respect. The first line of this post is an example of how many young people view respect. It’s the me first and then you attitude.

And it’s completely wrong.

The Wrong Way To Gain Respect

There’s a mindset that you only reciprocate respect after it’s been given to you. People have to show you respect and then you return respect.

What’s Your Battle Cry?

Throughout history, the battle cry has been used to rally troops to come together and defeat a great enemy. The same goes for battle cries in cinema and modern story telling.

The leader pulls it together, gives out a shout, and him and his team give the opposing forces a run for their money.

Have an organizational battle cry

Image by Andrew Gould

The battle cry has been a powerful force. We’ve seen it time and again as armies and organizations have used the battle cry to bring their teams together.

The French used the battle cry “Pour le Roi et Pour la France” (“For the King and France”)

The United States Marines rally behind the battle cry of Oorah!

The Crusaders used the battle cry of Deus Vult.

8 Leadership Lessons And Quotes From Taken 3

A Reel Leadership Article

Taken 3 continues the story of Bryan Mills, a man with a specific set of skills that make him a nightmare for the bad guys. And for men, especially, his story is one that resonates.

What man doesn’t want to protect his family? What man doesn’t want to see justice extracted from evildoers? What man doesn’t want to be the hero?

This is why the Taken movies have resonated with me and many others. They hit on a theme that is central to men. The desire to protect.

leadership lessons from Taken 3

When Taken 3 was announced, I was stoked. The previous entries in the Taken series provided great entertainment and had me sympathizing with what Mills had to do.

Knowing part 3 was coming out was icing on the cake.

As usual, I try to look for the leadership lessons contained in current pop-culture movies. While there were leadership lessons in Taken 3, I had a much harder time picking them out.