Early Riser

Before I had children, I used to be an early riser. Well, I shouldn’t say that. I still am an early riser, but rather than using that time to read the newspaper, go for a run or tackle a few ‘to do’ list tasks, I now spend that time fighting with my oldest to get up for school and with my youngest to actually get out of his pajamas, followed by the dreaded toothpaste battle and the race to make breakfast for two kids determined to just eat lollipops.

I miss the ‘free time’ I used to have when I got up, all by  myself, at 5:30 a.m. I got so much accomplished, whether it was work or exercise.

Peter Shankman of HARO had a post recently on the importance of rising early - he even provides some how to tips on how to get it done. As a lifelong early riser, and one who wishes she could even now wake up even earlier to read, tackle tasks, work out or just have some me time, it’s a great post.

If you’ve ever said “I just don’t have the time for that”, waking up early will rid you of that excuse. Heck, you  may even become more successful - or more fit.

Leadership

I’ve been thinking of reading Seth Godin’s latest book, Tribes. In it, he addresses the concept of leadership. His blog has an excerpt from the book, which alone has prompted me to put it on my “rent from the library” list of books to read next. Here’s the excerpt:

Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead.

The scarcity makes leadership valuable. If everyone tries to lead all the time, not much happens. It’s discomfort that creates the leverage that makes leadership worthwhile.

In other words, if everyone could do it, they would, and it wouldn’t be worth much.

I’ve always pondered the concept of what makes a successful leader. Granted, one of my MBA courses discussed this in great detail, putting forth a list of characteristics like a boilerplate of personality traits we had to possess to be successful. However, I have always disagreed with this standard list. After all, when you think of all the leaders, good leaders, that you have come across, they are all different, aren’t they?

Food for thought. I’ll pick up this book with my next library stash.