Mental mastery #4 – The leader vs. the victim
 
You can be a victim, or you can be a leader. You can’t be both. Again, just a reminder: Victims are the ones who live their lives complaining, being angry, giving away their power, and being reactive. They’re not thinking about where they should be at the end of the month, the year, or their lifetime. They’re the ones who say, “I’m not great at work because I had a difficult background,” or “I don’t have money because there’s not a lot of money in the world,” or “I don’t have a great love life because there are no decent men left.” They give away their power or blame external circumstances for everything. If you see yourself in this, you’re not alone. I swear this mentality seems to have been branded into everyone at birth, and we spend a lifetime unconsciously being victims until we realize it isn’t a good thing.
 
Leaders own their power. If something isn’t working in their outer world, they don’t give away their power, blame everyone else, and make excuses. Instead, they ask themselves, what is it about me, my way of thinking, my way of living right now, and my daily behavior that’s creating this situation? Leaders recognize this as their absolute personal responsibility. You can always tell a leader by his or her ability to say, “I’m creating this situation in my life, all the misery, the difficulty, but I choose to take responsibility for it.”
 
One of the things not to get caught up in is titles. You can lead without a title, but the problem is that society seems to have drilled into us that you have to be a prime minister, a CEO, a billionaire, a president to be a leader. Know that this isn’t true. We live in a different world, with the democratization of leadership, and it doesn’t matter where you live or what you do or what your past has been; you now have an opportunity to show leadership in your life, your work, your thinking, and your impact on the world.
 
You, whether you’re a janitor, a taxi driver, a business owner, a handyperson, you do have a choice. Either you can be a victim, or you can be a leader. What you don’t get to do is be both.
 
Not sure where you fall? Take a minute and ask yourself, where are you currently playing the victim in your life, and where are you being a leader? Once you figure out these areas, decide right away what steps you can take to assume bigger responsibility for your life.

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