VENI VIDI VICI - I came I saw I won

By Design or Default

Not everything we do is by conscious design. In our personal lives, if we do not develop self-awareness and take responsibility for our choices, we empower others and circumstances to shape our lives by default. We reactively live the scripts handed to us by family, associates, others’ agendas, and the pressures of circumstances. These scripts come from people, not principles, and arise from our vulnerabilities and dependency on others for acceptance, love, and a sense of worth.

We must be proactive in creating our principles, or we will live lives crafted by others. We need a vision or destination and a compass (a set of principles or directions) to guide us. Effectiveness depends not just on effort but on whether the effort is in the right area.

Building Self-Awareness

Developing self-awareness often reveals ineffective scripts and deeply embedded habits that contradict our true values. By centering our lives on correct principles, we create a solid foundation for developing the four life-support factors.

Principles are unchanging truths. Principles are deep, fundamental truths woven into the fabric of life with consistency, beauty, and strength.

The Power of Principle-Centered Living

The wisdom and guidance of a principle-centered life come from accurate maps that show where we want to go and how to get there. The personal power from living by principles is that of a self-aware, knowledgeable, proactive individual, unrestricted by others’ attitudes and behaviors or by circumstances that limit others.

Tapping into Your Whole Brain

Self-awareness allows us to examine our thoughts. Understanding how to use your brain capacity increases your ability to achieve greatness. Each hemisphere of the brain—left and right—specializes in different functions, processes different kinds of information, and deals with different types of problems.

Left Brain: Logical, verbal, words, parts, specifics, analysis.
Right Brain: Intuitive, creative, pictures, wholes, relationships, synthesis.

Though people use both sides of the brain, one side tends to be dominant. The quality of our inventiveness in business and life is impacted by our ability to use our creative right brain. Expand your vision and visualize in rich detail. The left brain helps distill and clarify these ideas.

Cultivating Both Sides of the Brain

Spend time building your goals and principles, noting which areas require more right or left brain usage. Ensure you cultivate both sides of your brain.

The Power of Influence

What is one thing you could do regularly that would make a tremendous positive difference in your personal or professional life?

You are the creator. You are in charge. Convincing others means overcoming by argument, derived from the Latin word for "conquer." However, getting people to do what they truly want is an achievement. Your influence is determined by how abundantly you prioritize others’ interests.

Leading with Humility and Heart

If you want to be hugely successful, stay hugely humble. People often equate humility with weakness, but the more humble you are, the more personal power you possess. Great achievements often start with small, unseen accomplishments. Focus on the work itself, not just the outcome, to generate real respect—your own respect.

Trust and Character

Trust yourself to gain others' trust. Humility does not mean self-abasement or devaluing your worth. You can only be humble if you have enormous self-respect. Self-respect is where all other respect originates.

Leadership cannot be rehearsed; it must be genuine. People will sense the true you behind your words. The power of your influence lies in who you are, not just what you say or do. Embrace who you are becoming. Embrace the hurt; it deepens and enriches you.

Competence and Character

Competence counts, but character matters more. To lead effectively, people need to trust your competence and, even more, your character. Character is that precious gem that makes you invaluable to the world around you. It is judged by what you do when no one is watching.

You can lead only as far as you grow, and you will grow only as far as you let yourself. Character is formed through life's experiences, deeply etched onto your soul. It is what you offer to the world in its greatest form, far beyond words or actions.

Competence matters. Character matters more.