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Inspirational Leaders Keep An Upbeat Attitude

Guest post by: Michael Hume

Article Overview: Many people - including lots of my clients - aspire to be inspirational leaders. Inspirational leaders start as inspirational people, and people who easily inspire others are those who have that infectious, almost-automatic positive outlook on life....

Inspirational Leaders Keep An Upbeat Attitude

It's Hard To Stay Positive, But The Best Leaders Find A Way How's your Monday going? Mine is going about the way they often do for many people... too much to do, too little time, more bad news than good, lots of "have-to" things on my list and not enough "want-to" stuff.

Sound familiar?

On days like this, I'm reminded of one of my favorite old movies, "Billy Budd." Billy was a merchant sailor, and he was known for having a constant and infectious positive attitude. One representative scene: when the sailors are gathered around on deck, eating their disgusting daily gruel and complaining about it, one sailor asks Billy what he thinks of the food. Surely, they must've thought, this is one thing even Billy Budd can't praise! "Well, it's hot, and there's plenty of it," he says. Then, after a thoughtful moment, he concludes "I guess I like everything about it except the flavor."

Many people - including lots of my clients - aspire to be inspirational leaders. Inspirational leaders start as inspirational people, and people who easily inspire others are those who have that infectious, almost-automatic positive outlook on life.

How about you? Do you find yourself joining in with the complainers around you every day? Do you tend to see all the things that can go wrong with a given situation; does your default "prediction" about things in your life sound gloomy?

It's easy to see the negative in things, especially these days, when times are tough and likely to get worse. People who go about with negativity on their lips would usually, if challenged, present themselves as "realists" and chastise the cock-eyed optimist as a person who "doesn't get how things really work." Leaders do have to be realistic, and people do recognize false optimism when it's blown up their, uh, noses. But the truly inspirational leaders don't accept negative realism as the whole story. They know that, no matter how bad things are, they will get better... hard work does pay off... and worry about the negative does not bring about positive change.

I've said many times that there are two types of people out there: the Entrepreneur, who is generally positive and inspirational to others, and the Victim, who won't be positive no matter how well things go. All of us have both characters striving within us, but it's been my experience that your "default setting" is typically one or the other. And Entrepreneurs tend to see the glass as half-full, and approach life looking for things to appreciate, while Victims are glass-half-empty folks who are more likely to find things to criticize.

Don't be a Victim. You can change your mindset, and in so doing, you can change your life. And if you want to do great things - run a business, make great investments, inspire other people - you have to do whatever it takes to develop a positive mindset.

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Article Tags: entrepreneurship, health wealth and happiness, inspirational leadership, personal responsibility



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