Don’t limit yourself in what you go after. You need to ask yourself what you truly want. Focus your thinking, visualize what your goal is, apply emotion, and create the end results. Your journey is playing out as your life story, even as you are reading these words. You have the power to define your destiny, and to realize the hopes and dreams that lay hidden in your mind. These are the changes you will bring into the world, and now is the time to uncover them. The closer you are to fully imagining your objective achieved, the nearer you are to its realization.

For example, imagine yourself in a situation that is meaningful for you. You might see yourself completing a goal for a non-profit initiative you are working on. If you picture yourself in that situation, over and over, your mind and environment will find a way to make it happen for you. You, and your surroundings will align into congruency, in order for it to occur. Start by placing the special moment of achievement in your mind’s eye, and you will begin to take the necessary steps for it to happen. You will work towards your achievement, and then the goal you seek will become reality.

One of my favorite leadership mindsets is forward thinking, and an orientation to outcomes. You would not generally consider setting out on a road without a destination, and you certainly would not do it time and time again. Similarly you can’t stumble through life hoping to get somewhere. Where are you headed? Beginning with the end in mind can be a launching point for pathways to successful leadership.

Practicing and orienting towards an outcome means to create end results, final outcomes and desired consequences as a result of sustained action that follows a vision. This is transforming a dream into reality. When you begin with a highly specific outcome, you are less likely to veer off course, because you are working towards a precise objective.

Mastery of essential skills for leadership means that we remain committed, centered and focused in the midst of ongoing distraction. When you repeatedly think about, visualize, feel and anticipate an outcome, it is much more likely to occur because you are sending yourself and others powerful messages of expectation.

You will become what you expect of yourself. This is great for kids, and for the workplace, and a much more fun and interesting way of going about things, in a state of positive expectancy. Forward thinking at its’ best.

People almost always feel a genuine sense of satisfaction and pleasure as they develop self awareness, sometimes in a profoundly transformational way. It is a gratifying process to facilitate and makes subsequent learning seem directional and straightforward. There is also what may be defined as a happy, stable security that comes from self awareness, because old uncertainties fall away, and less confusion arises when one is faced with difficult situations. This means your responses reflect more fundamental truths for you, so you are less doubtful about decisions, and feel as though you are on course, and with purpose. Although self awareness provides stability and centeredness, it also provides an underlying enthusiasm for life; because life has purpose and meaning, which is a truly more joyful way to live.

If you watch your thinking more closely, you can be more authentically you. You can navigate the complexity of life with enthusiasm and freedom.

Albert Einstein captured the essence of his views on personal identity in the following example of finding oneself through a connectedness with everything else:

Our task must be to free ourselves from [this] prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.

For some people writing down their thoughts is the strongest mechanism by which they can convey their deepest thinking, and it often succeeds in transforming thoughts into expression. This is just one example of how to live more fully, more awakened and with awareness as a fundamental imperative. Find ways to discover your essence. It is with awareness that your approach will be at its truest.

On fortunate occasions throughout your life you may have been asked by a teacher, an employer, or an advisor what you really want. Each situation may be an astoundingly clear memory because of the thoughts and emotions the questions provoked. As a result of each discussion, you may have changed your course of action in creative and positive ways that altered the entire direction of your life. You may have had a close relationship with a science teacher that stimulated your curiosity and you subsequently decided on a profession in the sciences. Or perhaps your neighbor had a bad experience with a profession that you have become completely biased against. Such experiences can profoundly influence your life, both positively and negatively. 

Wherever possible align who you are, with what you do. Work on what you believe in.  People find themselves out of alignment because who they are conflicts with what they do; it does not match up. For example if you value green practices but work for a business that contributes negatively to the environment, you may find yourself out of alignment. Don’t align yourself with something that is not essentially you.  Discover what you are passionate about and care about, to add greater meaning to your life.

By discovering your passion you can experience a higher potential. The promise of self-discovery is that in finding yourself, you will have your own anchor, a personal foundation, a guiding compass to carry you forward. It provides the basis for a solid roadmap to get you where you want to go, as opposed to a haphazard path that is much less direct. It yields the security and confidence that you feel when you are on the right road, and keeps you going in the right direction toward making an impact.

Have you noticed that people are searching for something more? Surveys and research tells us that people want to have meaning and make a difference in the lives. Fortunately, there a multitude of people, probes, tools, and analyses are available to aid you in the process.  Thought provoking dialogue, well placed questions, and robust assessments and appraisals can shortcut what can be, and often is a difficult and unresolved lifelong undertaking for many.

Here are some questions that can guide you into deeper self awareness: What motivates you? What is important to you? What do you think about most? How do you respond to issues? What do you fundamentally need or want? How can you serve? Who are you? Why are you here?

These are questions that may help you discover purpose. Personally defining your hopes, desires, and needs, as well as strengths and values in your life will all help to delineate who you really are, in part so your contributions will be more significant. Many adults continually say in frustration they are still not sure how they fit into the world. Developing awareness is a critical undertaking to provide direction that some would never otherwise embark upon, because they are not sure how. Have someone steer you through a self discovery process by posing a stimulating breakthrough dialogue.

Don’t take the easy route. Ask important questions that give your life meaning. When critical questions are framed appropriately, you will gain positive and enlightening understanding that adds significantly to life’s best and most memorable experiences. Why do you do what you do? What drives you? How can you make a difference? What positive change can you influence? Answer these questions for yourself now, and often, to find your place and stay on track. You can easily move through life without ever asking these basic questions of yourself. Ask the questions, take an assessment, work with a coach, read a great book, and find greater meaning. You’ll find yourself and make a difference with your life.

The opportunity to think in a private and isolated spaces often better reveals ourselves, in contrast to hectic and overcrowded places in our daily lives.  Today’s society, though powerful with its abundance of technology and information, is also often overwhelming and over stimulating. By losing ourselves in faraway places, on a peak or near a stream, with everything else switched off, we may have the opportunity to better find ourselves. 

Your isolated space can be the Great Wall of China, under a tree or next to a stream. A hike in the woods can also give you the time and inspiration to gain new insights into yourself. Within nature you might be more likely to think clearly, sift through issues, plan for the future and generally get your thoughts in order. Most people find that being away from all-encompassing circumstances refreshes their thinking with a broader perspective. The setting often also serves to discipline the mind for better focus with distractions cleared. Take time for yourself to think and experience, minutes and moments that define and refresh.

Several years ago, I found myself standing on a towering peak along the Great Wall of China, and as I looked into a vast infinite expanse, I felt a wonderful personal connection with my surroundings. It was as though I could see the entire earth in an endless panorama, and I understood why climbers summit mountains for a sense of wholeness.

Profound moments in nature, in conversation, in even everyday work or physical activity can move you into a burst of awareness, where, with an unexpected jolt or awakening, the world seems clearer and more connected for you. You move a step closer to yourself.

I experienced a strong insight while standing on a jagged edge of the earth, and felt a sense of renewed oneness with the world.  In that moment I resolved to elevate, and not diminish with my thoughts and actions. I decided to support, sustain and uphold as a way of living and being, so that my overall impact was one of greater contribution and enrichment.

My internal guidance system, providing fundamental day to day direction was strengthened by my experience, creating a profound memory that also beckoned action. It was an insight that contributed to my personal growth, had meaning and provided anchor and security. My brain probably rewired itself as a result of the experience, and I can easily recall the vista as a visual in my mind’s eye. I remember what my thoughts and emotions were, the gentle breeze on my skin, and the angle of the sun overhead. I recall my thoughts and senses as having been optimally attentive, just as they were when I sat under a baobab tree in West Africa with a student years before. Great moments, memorable thoughts.

          No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. We must learn to see the world anew.

              – Albert Einstein

The best brain  may be a flex brain. Work by Daniel Siegel at the University of California shows strong evidence that development of awareness results in a cultivation of well-being, and leads to improved brain function. It also helps the brain achieve flexibility.   

Your brain has a wonderful pliability and changeability, and strong experiences can rewire your brains’ neural circuits and structure, and create lasting impact. These impacts or impressions are accessible to you in the future, and allow you to more efficiently pursue your goals or face new situations.   

In Changing Minds, Howard Gardner notes there is a process to changing your mind and the minds of others. We can be powerfully influenced by factors such as ideas, content, formats and even tipping points, when a readiness exists.   Openness and readiness are significant criteria to achieving comprehension.

If you delve more deeply into the concept of self-awareness, you will recognize that like most endeavors, awareness is a process of understanding. The more you examine, the greater the learning, and the more capable you are of managing your responses from a fundamental centeredness. This takes you into the realm of choice, and with a solid grounding of awareness, choices become easier, clearer, and even obvious. Awareness and knowing oneself is never an overnight phenomenon, and like other essential skills it requires practice and openness.

Take time to learn about yourself, and your unique you; your strengths and weaknesses, values and goals, concerns, and desires in life, and you are on your way to stronger insights about what truly has meaning for you. Self-awareness will guide you to toward a purpose, and often requires quiet contemplation and inquiry, apart from steady stimulation and input that can be overpowering. In today’s world so many ideas and opportunities tug for your attention, and you can be easily pulled into a multitude of directions.

Brain research has shown that individuals with poor self-awareness, as measured on behavioral scales, show attention lapses, absentmindedness, poorer memory and higher anxiety than those who have strong self-awareness. Increased self-awareness appears to strengthen the frontal lobes of the brain, which are the more advanced, reasoning part of your brain. This is the all-important area that helps you solve problems, make decisions and supports higher thinking.

Awareness strengthens us because it is like the patch of earth on which we stand, grounding us, so decisions are straightforward and actions flow, because we are solidly planted. For many people, religion solidifies, anchors, and holds us in place. With solid self insight, life is smoother, our perceptions are clearer and our purpose seems more authentic and natural. Self awareness is well worth pursuing.

You may be asking How do I achieve awareness, or elevate my self awareness for greater self assurance as I move forward? To achieve self awareness is to ask fundamental questions that allow insight and consciousness. It is finding a wakefulness that tunes into the heart of your inner being. Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden, encourages us to awaken:

The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred million to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face? We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.

With awareness you also have a positive expectancy that arises from strength of being. It is having a greater and more astute perception and a passion for living. Awareness involves taking the time and working through questions to better know yourself. It is discovering your purpose to serve as your guide, and it is becoming aligned with who you are. Awareness is developing an authenticity that reflects the essence of you.

Daniel Goleman, renowned for his groundbreaking research on emotional intelligence, and its application in the workplace, concluded that people with high self awareness understand their emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs and drives.  Additionally, people with strong self awareness are neither overly critical nor unrealistically hopeful, but are honest with themselves and others.

Goleman also indicated that those who are self aware know their values and goals, and know where they are headed and why. They can be recognized by their confidence, and have a firm grasp of their capabilities. They are also less likely to set themselves up to fail and they play to their strengths.

It may be helpful for you to think of an anchor, a foundation, a compass, or even an engine or light bulb as metaphors for awareness. An anchor holds a ship firmly in place, a foundation upholds, a compass provides guidance, while an engine powers and a bulb illuminates. Each, like self awareness, provides a base from which a form of support is generated. Achieving awareness provides you with a solid, supportive building block.

          The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

         -  Aristotle

Awareness is knowledge of your very essence and it is through self awareness that you create, define and express your thoughts.  Awareness forms a foundation for you, as you explore possibilities in your life.

Your awareness of self, and the things that surround you, determine all that you think about, believe in, and act on, and because of the perspective that it provides you with, your fundamental and basic sense of you as a person. Awareness is being conscious with certainty of what is important to you, and having a firm knowledge and understanding of who you are. 

Take a few deep breaths, simply breathe in and breathe out. Stop for a moment to collect and gather yourself as separate from the many moments and experiences of your day.  You have already moved a step closer to self awareness. Beginning is that simple.

Do you feel a little calmer, more centered and have a better sense of well being? Just breathe in and breathe out. Being aware, through creating a brief interlude of consciousness, or a pause to gather yourself, is a respite in what for many people has become highly active and extremely interactive lives. The know yourself component of self awareness is more readily available to you when take time to pause your thinking and become your authentic self. This is a very different you than the stretched and multidirectional person who may be continually pulled and overextended.

Self awareness is that all important step to defining your core purpose.

Leaders, whether you or others, permeate your personal and professional life, and as has been so frequently noted, leadership truly does belong to everyone. You are already a leader, but leadership is a continuum, where you develop new targets that will take you into new phases of your learning.

To grow is human and to seek development is our special differentiator. Positive leadership exemplifies humanity at its very best, with the enduring capabilities that make life a rich combination of change and discovery.

You have a potential that seeks expression, a set of inner possibilities ripe for realization, and a world of opportunity that beckons your participation. Now is the time to respond to the leadership challenge with breakthrough exploration and elevation, into the realm of a transformed future.

Today, in this particular snapshot of time, some evidence is brought forward that has only recently become available in the study of leadership; data to support concepts. This evidence might solidify some of what you have known all along, innately or instinctively, and naturally. Subsequently, you will also know that it is grounded in good science.

I could not have imagined that when I first studied molecular biology and behavioral psychology so many years ago, that today I would benefit from, and even work to share the science behind leadership, and the powerful field of potential. Even the neuroscience of leadership, a new discipline, is coming into view as data builds. Doesn’t it seem though, to be much more than this? Isn’t personal leadership a great adventure?

Let’s join together on a continued adventure into leadership, an exploration of the thoughts that guide your actions and why they matter. This is that which is personal, the ‘who you are’ of leadership. With a solid, sustainable and enduring personal approach in place, leadership outcomes for you also depend on planning and action, and the outlining of a strategy to carry you forward. This can serve as a lifelong roadmap for you.

All leadership also involves others, not much as followers, but as collaborators. The third major component of leadership is about people and relationships. This includes bringing out the best in yourself, and in others. Finally, as leadership by definition includes catalyzing change, think about the components of change, including the perspective of how to influence it.

The personal, planning, people and change categories of leadership are the same four categories that over a hundred of the major leadership models in the literature can be grouped into. Great areas to be thinking about for your personal leadership expedition. An incredible journey.