[fullwidth backgroundcolor=”” backgroundimage=”” backgroundrepeat=”no-repeat” backgroundposition=”left top” backgroundattachment=”scroll” video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” bordersize=”0px” bordercolor=”” borderstyle=”” paddingtop=”20px” paddingbottom=”20px” paddingleft=”0px” paddingright=”0px” menu_anchor=”” equal_height_columns=”no” hundred_percent=”no” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]

Leadership and Personal Development:

Why Every Business Leader & Entrepreneur Needs It…Continually!

[/fusion_text][one_sixth last=”no” spacing=”yes” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” class=”” id=””][/one_sixth][two_third last=”no” spacing=”yes” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” class=”” id=””][imageframe lightbox=”no” style_type=”none” bordercolor=”” bordersize=”0px” borderradius=”0″ stylecolor=”” align=”none” link=”” linktarget=”_self” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””] [/imageframe][/two_third][one_sixth last=”yes” spacing=”yes” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” class=”” id=””][/one_sixth][one_sixth last=”no” spacing=”yes” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” class=”” id=””][/one_sixth][two_third last=”no” spacing=”yes” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]I have watched Ben and Julian build Body Local since they launched it six years ago at Reflections Yoga Studio (now Reflections Center for Conscious Living & Yoga). At that time, I was renting a therapy room at Reflections and would see Ben and Julian almost every day with a slew of young interns chipping away at creating what has blossomed into a thriving organization whose mission is to help fitness & wellness professionals build thriving practices.

Body Local made this leap because of its co-founder’s leadership skills and a “get it done” attitude. In my opinion, the # 1 success principle for a continually thriving and growing business is, without question, one’s ability to lead and one’s commitment to ongoing personal development.

Without these two qualities, it is impossible to prosper because:

Your mindset, developed through ongoing personal development, is the single most fundamental tool for you to successfully maintain an outlook of positivity and possibility when all odds seem to be against you;

People and especially leaders need other strong, flexible, adept and creative leaders to assist them in excelling and surpassing themselves;

No matter how brilliant your content development expert or online marketing programmer is, your company or business simply cannot sustain ongoing success without the proper mental leveraging mechanisms, clarity of mind and continual energy required to maintain or grow your practice.

Leadership, today, means to delve head and heart first into your own unique brilliance. It requires you to be the best that you can be and to develop your personal gifts at every stage of the game. It also means that you surround yourself with your “tribe” and that your number one priority becomes contribution. It’s a win-win game for everyone.

Below are three essential skills to your Leadership & Personal Development toolbox:

Tool #1: Taking 100% Responsibility
Taking 100% responsibility for your life creates the clearing for actively creating the life that you’ve imagined. In other words, deciding to take full control of yourself and of your actions gives you real power to create. When you fail to do so, you are, by default, handing the reigns of your life to sources over which you have little if any control. It’s true that you may not always have 100% control of the circumstances in life but you have no power unless you take 100% responsibility for your experience of life.

Quality leadership training gives you the tools to begin gently dissecting how you have or have not been taking responsibility for your life and business. As you learn to develop this tool, not only does the quality of your life change, but everything around you begins to reflect this new version of yourself. Suddenly, you attract more ideal clients, make more money effortlessly and your level of confidence reaches new heights.

Tool #2: Work ONLY from your strengths
Focus on what you have, not on what you don’t have. Ask yourself, how are you wired to take action as a leader? Do you lead from the front, middle or from the back of the room?

A common example of someone focusing on what he/she doesn’t have is if you are someone who is constantly looking to gain one more certification or letter after your name. Even though you will seek to continually develop your skills, there is some danger in continuously looking to acquire more knowledge and never capitalizing on what you already know and have. The greatest leaders focus on their natural abilities first and gradually build upon them.

Focusing on your strengths and on what is available to you right now will allow you to be proactive and not waste time, which is your most important asset.

In Personal Development & Leadership training, you will learn to strategically develop your strengths while increasing your daily hours (because you’ll develop laser sharp focusing techniques) and create more free time to actually take some time off and thoroughly enjoy the labor of your fruits. Imagine that!

Tool #3: Understand that true Leadership & Personal Development is a Philosophy
Leadership is an attitude. It’s a state of mind. Every great leader knows that personal development is a continual practice to overcoming life’s challenges. It’s not a one-week course. It’s a life long practice towards developing mastery and acquiring excellence.

Most “great” businesses have a can-do attitude and a no hassle policy. For example, see Virgin Airlines, Evex lugguage, Four Seasons Hotel, Nordstrom and Amari Resorts. Your business will only be as extraordinary and everlasting as you and your vision are and the main ingredient in your successful practice, especially at the beginning, is YOU.

For example, everyone understands that to be a proficient Personal Trainer, you not only have to look the part, but you must be proficient in demonstrating that you actually can do the exercises with precision and perfection. There are tens thousands of personal trainers in the United States, but there are only a few Master Trainers who consistently enhance their skills and intelligently grow their teams. And so it is for exceptional Leadership & Personal Development Training.

In developing your philosophy of possibility around leadership, you will learn to integrate new wisdom and expand your vision of what’s possible for you. You will get to examine your beliefs and determine whether these have been propelling you forward or holding you back. You will learn creative thinking skills to keep you moving forward in a fun and intuitive manner. In short, you get to develop the best version of you.

Focusing on quality, a heart-centered approach, a commitment to making your environment a better place, touching people profoundly by modeling “the change you wish to see in the world” is what will garner you a rich and fulfilling career and life. Anything else is just short-changing yourself.

If you are serious about your long-term and successful career, Leadership and Personal Development is not an option. It’s the glue that makes everything else stick together.

What matters most is to keep showing up and do work that really matters. You have to believe in yourself and be passionate about whatever it is that you do. It has to be greater than you and serve as many people as possible who will benefit from your work. If this is your relationship to your career and mission, than you understand that your overall focus is so much bigger than yourself.

And that my friends, is a business worth living 😉

This article was originally published on Body Local.[/fusion_text][/two_third][one_sixth last=”yes” spacing=”yes” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” class=”” id=””][/one_sixth][/fullwidth]