Who’s in charge of your life? Be careful—it’s a trick question, because someone is always in charge. When you don’t take the reins, the CEO position at “I Am, Inc.” doesn’t go vacant; others fill it: the day’s urgent tasks, other people’s opinions, your phone’s algorithm, or the morning gossip. Every life has a leader. Who really leads our lives?
Self-leadership means putting an end to the world’s most common paradox: almost all of us manage something—a team, a business, a household—with the utmost professionalism, but we manage ourselves with none at all. We demand clear plans, results, and accountability in what we manage, while We spend our lives reacting in the only thing that truly belongs to us.
This paradox of governance connects us to the story “The Wise King” by Gibran Khalil Gibran (The Madman, 1918). In the story, a sovereign faces the difficult decision of how to govern his realm after his entire people went mad from drinking from a contaminated well. To maintain order and keep things on track, the king consciously decides to take control of the situation by drinking from the same well. Like this ruler, leadership is not a matter of simple willpower, but of structure, clear rules, and conscious decisions in the face of external pressure.
Want to know if someone is truly in charge of their own life? Listen to what they say. The person who is a victim of their circumstances says “it just happened to me,” “we should,” or “someday.” The true legal representative of “I Am, Inc.” uses a single phrase that changes everything: “I decide.”.
With PAS: Purpose, Action, and Meaning,
Julio Cesar Tamayo Betancur
What about you—have you held that position yet? The July 31 Sign up for our free course “Start Your Life’s Business”: Seven modules to help you take charge of your own life through structure and conscious decisions. There are only a few days left—reserve your spot.
