Achieve Self-Mastery in Leadership

As a leader, you are required to show up or others. Perhaps you are leading a team of people, but perhaps you are walking the talk for your community and embodying certain principles that you are here to share. However, self-mastery means that as a leader, first and foremost, you need to show up for yourself, the good, the bad, the pretty, the ugly on your wonderful days and on your horrible days. Showing up for yourself and doing your inner work. And self mastery means, how I would define it, It’s your it’s always cultivating the ability to stay centered in your inner space, in your confidence, in your vision, no matter what is going on on the outset. So it’s almost like you are on a boat and you are sailing through a storm. There are huge waves coming at you and the boat is rocking from side to side. Can you keep an even keel throughout all that? Do you have that core, that center? Can you master your responses? For example, when someone triggers you, a team member or a client, or just someone in your community, they say something that really pushes your buttons. What do you do? Do you immediately react and explode and see things that you will regret, or are you able to breathe, connect with yourself, process your emotions in a conscious way. And then from the place of that consciousness respond, it doesn’t mean that you need to take all offenses and allow other people in, or just throw things at you, but it means that you are always intentional and conscious in your responses. And another example could be, if something doesn’t go your way, let’s say your launch is not bringing profit as you have expected. Do you now hide away from the world and decide that you’re a failure and never ever launch anything again, close down your business, crawl into your bed and cry? Or do you take a moment? Maybe you will go and cry in your bed if you need that. Share with friends, talk to your mentor, but then connect back with your vision and choose to do it again. Or take your learnings. And instead of deciding to let your ego run with you and say, yes, you are a failure, instead of reframing that. And instead of saying, “I am a failure” and really buying into that inner conversation, being like, “Okay, this launch was not my best one. I have learned this and this and this. I choose to see myself as work in progress. I choose to respect myself and celebrate the fact that I’ve tried, that I’ve given it my best. And next time I’m going to do this and this and this and this differently. You know, it’s always being in that conversation with yourself, always coming back to the question, “who do I choose to be?” And having mastery over the ins and outs of your inner world, and that includes being always in a dialogue with your emotional body, not suppressing your emotions, but processing them in a safe way that does not overwhelm you. Taking in your emotions as information, but not necessarily needing to act on each and every emotion. It’s being in a dialogue with your physical body, having great self care, not working yourself into the ground, but also not allowing your body to just, you know, take you or on a spin of cravings and things like that. But having this respectful kind relationship, it’s also mastery and a dialogue with your mental body. How do you treat your mind? And finally, your spiritual body taking care of yourself, of your highest self, feeding and growing and being always in that relationship with your essence, that allows you through self to come to the forefront. So to sum it up, self-mastery is your ability to build a good relationship, a conscious relationship with all of your bodies: emotional, physical, mental, spiritual. It’s your relationship with yourself and your ability to handle yourself and handle your responses in a way that serves your vision instead of serving your reactions, that change the moment

On the one hand side consistency and on the inside adaptability. So with consistency, what I mean here is when you’re learning to master yourself, it’s like learning any new skill. Like you would be learning a language either was consistent input of your energy and commitment of time. So this means consistently showing up and practicing different tools, just trying it. And here, the adaptability comes in, you got to stay flexible and open. See, I think it’s pointless to create a routine and force yourself to stick to it, even when it has already outlived itself. So being flexible means keeping an open mind to new ideas, new solutions and new practices. So I would describe it as you have your core baseline daily practice, something that works for you, something that allows you to build your relationship with yourself, and always being on the lookout. “Is this working for me? Do I need to change it up?” And knowing that you are not bound to a routine that this routine needs to serve you, it’s not that you are serving the routine. It’s actually a very dynamic process. And again, it’s all about staying attuned to yourself. How well can you hear yourself? How close are you to yourself? That is [the] a development of self-mastery.

We are often faced with resistance via self doubt, and self mastery allows us to stay connected with the vision connect with the deeper. Why– “why am I actually doing this?” In what ways will this new habit serve my life? And self-mastery simply means working with resistances and limitations as they arise without necessarily needing to trace each and every resistance and to follow it. So self-mastery is also discernment. This is such a beautiful word because discernment is your ability to know yourself so well. And to hear your inner guidance so clearly, that you can discern between a limitation that is coming to block you and take you away from your vision, versus being able to see when something does not really serve you and you need to course correct. So it’s always practised that there’s the same. It is built, and self-mastery allows you to grow that inner muscle of self-trust and discernment, such that in the process of having [the] habit of building or developing your business, you can always see, “Is this still serving me or do I need to change?”