THE ART OF DIRECTING YOUR OWN LIFE
"Our mother gave birth to us once, but we have to give birth every day" Mario Vargas Llosa
The most important education we receive in self-education, the one we give ourselves. Lifelong learning is a necessity today, and not only in the professional field. The growing complexity demands not only good professionals but also people who have the ability to solve problems for themselves, who know how to think, who make quality decisions. The education we need is a global education, which addresses the maximum number of aspects that make up the complex personal reality. Each person is a complex ecosystem, a world with many aspects interacting at the same time: their psychology, their emotions, their health, their unconscious… People are also in systems or contexts that influence them and that condition their behavior, such as society or family. Thus,We can affirm that today the cultivation of managerial skills is of vital importance.
The administration of our resources is always done according to more or less conscious criteria. We always answer the question "What is it worth my time and money?" with our actions. We should spend time thinking about the purposes for which we administer. In fact, the administration of resources is only a means that serves a purpose that each must determine. The administration must be done according to its own objectives. If we are not aware of what we want, our priorities, motivations, etc. It can easily happen that we manage our money and resources based on other people's priorities.
The ability to know how to guide one's life, to improve and enrich it, we will call " PERSONAL LEADERSHIP ". Without it, all our movements have no definite direction: what would happen to a car that moves without knowing where it is going? We must direct our life if we do not want others to direct it for us.
Leadership is doing the right things. Management is doing things right.
Exercising personal leadership is the key to our freedom. With leadership we make decisions for ourselves. Increasing the decision-making capacity of each person increases their personal power. A person is freer the more important decisions he makes. Accounting is a tool for managing our money, but what makes that management meaningful is leadership.
Exercising personal leadership helps us not to get carried away by the pressures of advertising, society, our impulses… Learning to direct our life is a process that never ends. Personal leadership is a role that we all develop in one way or another. It includes, for example:
- Know what we want. What do I really want for myself? is the key question. It is convenient to clarify the essence of what we want: we may want a car, a flat, etc. but knowing what function it will perform in our lives, the use that we will make of it, the needs it covers and its characteristics Clarify what motivates us, our expectations, our intentions. Our wishes can be confusing, contradictory, ambiguous, or implicit (unconscious). Our intentions mark the path that we will follow, they are like directions that we follow and to which we must dedicate time and energy. The directions we take in our life can change over time. We should recognize the needs for change in time and clarify why we do what we do.Why do we do one thing and not another? Establishing a why helps us to give a MEANING to our actions. More than reflecting on the meaning of life, we must give meaning to life ourselves.The key to driving is not to deviate from your path. Learning to exercise the will to follow a certain direction and motivating ourselves to follow it is as important as choosing it. Once we know what we want, we must choose an order of priorities. First things must come first, if we know what is essential we will know what is superfluous. "The superfluous must not override the essential," Goethe said. General objectives must be accompanied by more specific objectives. If we want to be healthy, our goals should be to exercise every day and eat healthy.If we do nothing for what we want, it is actually not that important to us. Establish methods to get to what we want (a "how") and a strategy (how and when we have to apply the methods). Determine the methods. criteria on which we base our actions. There is always a philosophy behind every action, the same philosophy that is repeated through many actions leads us to a vital philosophy or ethics. The question is whether we have consciously chosen it or not. Philosophy leads us to personal values, to value some principles more than others. "A leader is a philosopher in action," says Antonio Medrano. Be aware of socially accepted models and their possible influence on ourselves and on others. At the same time,we can choose the reference models that will help us go in the direction we have chosen. The life of Gandhi, Einstein, Mother Teresa of Calcutta or well-known people can inspire and guide us. Knowing how to distinguish means from ends. The tools we use to live better do not have to use us. We buy the car to save time, but we do not count all the time we have to spend working to buy and maintain it. Great things are usually achieved with small means but used in a systematic and constant way. Ask ourselves questions, reflect. "Questions are the seed of knowledge" (Francis Bacon). Reflection allows us to learn from mistakes and form our own opinions.The alternative is to let the media or influential people think for us, knowing how to measure the forces and discover the possibilities and limits of each thing, situation or person (including ourselves). To do this, it is necessary to learn to see reality. Sometimes we confuse our wishes with reality, we allow ourselves to be carried away by illusions, fantasies or self-deception. We can deceive ourselves in many ways, such as believing that we can spend more than we have. Having self-control mechanisms. Feedback is always necessary to see if we are heading in the right direction. Someone once said that "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." Freedom requires that we be vigilant, the key to driving is not straying from the road.Know how to measure the forces and discover the possibilities and limits of each thing, situation or person (including ourselves). To do this, you need to learn to see reality. Sometimes we confuse our wishes with reality, we allow ourselves to be carried away by illusions, fantasies or self-deception. We can deceive ourselves in many ways, such as believing that we can spend more than we have. Having self-control mechanisms. Feedback is always necessary to see if we are heading in the right direction. Someone once said that "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." Freedom requires that we be vigilant, the key to driving is not straying from the road.Know how to measure the forces and discover the possibilities and limits of each thing, situation or person (including ourselves). To do this, it is necessary to learn to see reality. Sometimes we confuse our wishes with reality, we allow ourselves to be carried away by illusions, fantasies or self-deception. We can deceive ourselves in many ways, such as believing that we can spend more than we have. Having self-control mechanisms. Feedback is always necessary to see if we are heading in the right direction. Someone once said that "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." Freedom requires that we be vigilant, the key to driving is not straying from the road.Sometimes we confuse our wishes with reality, we allow ourselves to be carried away by illusions, fantasies or self-deception. We can deceive ourselves in many ways, such as believing that we can spend more than we have. Having self-control mechanisms. Feedback is always necessary to see if we are heading in the right direction. Someone once said that "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." Freedom requires that we be vigilant, the key to driving is not straying from the road.Sometimes we confuse our wishes with reality, we allow ourselves to be carried away by illusions, fantasies or self-deception. We can deceive ourselves in many ways, such as believing that we can spend more than we have. Having self-control mechanisms. Feedback is always necessary to see if we are heading in the right direction. Someone once said that "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." Freedom requires that we be vigilant, the key to driving is not straying from the road.Someone once said that "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." Freedom requires that we be vigilant, the key to driving is not straying from the road.Someone once said that "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." Freedom requires that we be vigilant, the key to driving is not straying from the road.
"There is no favorable wind for he who does not know which port he is going to" Shopenhauer
IN ORDER NOT TO BE SLAVES TO EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL FACTORS, IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT EACH ONE BUILD HIS VITAL PROJECT. THE MOST IMPORTANT EDUCATION IS EDUCATION FOR LIFE, AND IT STARTS WITH A REWARDING LIFE PROJECT, A STIMULATING CHALLENGE TO WHICH OUR OBJECTIVES AND OUR ACTIONS ARE ORIENTED.
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