Expose your flaws without a filter

Take a moment to look at yourself.  

It may be difficult.

Taking on challenges you volunteer for is what operating on a higher level is all about, not being passive, on the defense, waiting for the next unwanted problem

 Looking around at what everyone else needs to be doing, or could do better, is easy.  It makes you feel better for a short time.  It makes yo feel better about all the issues you are ignoring in your life.

Take a look at yourself from another view point.  Take your emotions out of the equation and see your life where it is now.  Treat your emotions like a disease.

Do you see anything wrong?

If you don't, look deeper. 

You may have heard the term blind spot referred to areas of your life you do not see but hinder your performance, well being, and mental focus.  

We can easily see other's flaws, but it is difficult to see our own.

Not long ago, I fell into a leadership position.  I walked into the role unsure how to be an influential leader.  

I read everything I could on how to be a leader in a workplace.  It was a different world than special ops training, or so I thought.

I invested countless hours into improving myself.  Of course this all made me more confident, but it made me realize leadership is the same in a variety of situations.  I felt like I was brushing up skill I'd already learned in the military.

One problem I overlooked was the type of people I was leading.  They were not the same as the community I had left years before.  I left a community of over achievers.  I left a community of people wanting to be the best at everything.

Once I found myself immersed in the normal population, I found myself putting everyone else under the microscope. 

I saw the countless flaws everyone else had.  I saw the people who were too fat, out of shape, or never tried to better themselves at anything.  I had all the answers for them, and I was dying to tell them.  I found myself thinking about their flaws all the time, and it began to frustrate me.

I spent massive amounts of time thinking about everyone else, running through my head how they could be so much better.

I could have been putting all that time and energy into myself, becoming a better more effective leader by focusing on myself.

It is extremely easy to find flaws in someone, just like it's easier for everyone else to judge the person who stepped into the the leadership role.   The more you put yourself out there and expose who you are, the more haters you will have.

Why are there so many haters?

It's easy to be a hater.  Kicking back and not doing anything meaningful, staying comfortable, makes it easy to hide in the shadows and find flaws on other people.

 To move ahead in life, you must honestly evaluate where you currently are.  This means being proactive and actively finding your flaws.   Look at the past and present, to figure out where you want to go.

Try to detach from the emotions of the past and look at what you've done wrong.   Look at yourself for what you are.  Be ruthless and honest. 

Which mistakes held you back?  

Which mistakes are you still paying for?

Which habits are currently holding you back?  Are you killing your success by refusing to look at what's holding you back?

Who is currently holding you back?  Do you need to reevaluate who your spending time with?

This is harder than it sounds.  It won't be easy, but it's necessary to progress forward in your life.

Many times in our life, the discomfort of pain causes us to take action in order to make a change in our lives.  Many times it's not a tragedy or horrific event propelling us to change.  Often  it's a low dull pain over time, which becomes too much, that causes us to change.

Don't wait until you hit rock bottom to make a change.  

Go on the offense with your life instead of waiting until you have no choice to change.

What is causing pain in your life right now?  Take some time to really think of anything bringing a dull discomfort currently.  It may be subtle, but there may be several flaws holding you back.

Only you can expose the flaws holding yourself back.  Only you know what pain it's causing.

You are your biggest enemy.

You are the one holding yourself back the most.

The good news is, only you can change what is currently holding you back, but you can't do this trying to change everyone else around you.

When you make the effort to focus on how you can improve your current situation, you become a better leader.  Even your haters can be influence by you actively seeking out and correcting your blind spots.

Spend some time to look at yourself from another perspective.  During the day, every choice you make is based on past experiences.   This is usually good, but to find out where you currently stand, you must try to remove them.  Try to remove the emotions attached to past mistakes, and look at your life as a stranger would.  When you look at the past without the attachment of emotions or desires, you can see where you currently stand in your career and personal life.

Once you find out where you currently stand, it's important to own where you currently are.  You are responsible for where you currently are.  It is no one else's fault but your own, not other people.  This is the hard part, but it's the key to improving your current life.  This will open your mind to more possibilities in your life.  Instead of getting defensive about past mistakes and failures.  Use these as examples of how to find new challenges to conquer.

In order to get where you want to be, take an honest look at your past and current situations.  Judge them honestly to progress forward in the future.