I read a terrific quote, which I can only remember well enough to paraphrase here and I have forgotten the author to boot: “Successful people have the ability to continually make themselves do what they do not want to do.”
Or, to paraphrase the paraphrase, they have the ability to manage themselves.
How are you doing in the management of yourself?
Richard Bolles, in his book The Three Boxes of Life, lists 47 skills of the person who is excellent at self-management. The list will cause both motivation and depression. I am listing them for you here in the hopes of giving you motivation. If the result is depression I am sorry and ask you to see skills 16, 29, and 31.
There might be some help to score yourself on a 1 to 5 scale on each of these and consider where some intentional work might be needed in some area of self-management.
- Ability to choose, or make a decision
- Alertness
- Assertiveness
- Astuteness
- Attention to details, awareness, thoroughness, conscientiousness
- Authenticity
- Calmness
- Candidness
- Commitment to grow
- Concentration
- Cooperation
- Courage, risk-taking, adventuresomeness
- Curiosity
- Diplomacy
- Easy-goingness
- Emotaional stability
- Empathy
- Enthusiasm
- Expressiveness
- Firmness
- Flexibility
- Generosity
- Good judgment
- High energy level, dynamicness
- Honesty, integrity
- Initiative, drive
- Loyalty
- Open-mindedness
- Optimism
- Orderliness
- Patience, persistence
- Performing well under stress
- Playfulness
- Poise, self-condidence
- Politeness
- Punctualness
- Reliability, dependability
- Resourcefulness
- Self-control
- Self-respect
- Sense of humor
- Sincerity
- Spontaneity
- Tactfulness
- Tidiness
- Tolerance
- Versatility
Less depressing than I anticipated, but definitely many areas for improvement. Thanks for the thought provoker!