Are You Your Own Leader?

When you look at your life, what determines your values, actions, thoughts, and more? Do you rely on others to tell you how you should think and feel? In the age of social media, it can be hard to be your own independent person. 

 

A great way to assess your own leadership in your life is to look at your relationships.

 

Family

 

One of the first relationships to look at is the one that you have with your family. As we grow up, we often start out believing what our parents believe. They tell us what to do, and for a certain number of years, we have to do it. It is only when we move out or start becoming independent that we begin to think for ourselves. 

 

At this point, you are becoming your own leader. Your parents might really like or believe one thing, and you like or believe differently. That is okay. You are choosing for yourself what you want to like or believe. It can be hard for parents and other family members to adjust to you having leadership over yourself. 

 

Your family has to grow just as you have and when they don’t, it can either cause rifts between you and them, or it can cause you to revert and step away from being your own leader. 

 

Your Relationship With Your Partner

 

Another relationship that you need to look at is the one you have with your partner. While it is important for you guys to have things in common, it is also important that you are not relying on them to tell you what to think or feel. 

 

Your partner shouldn’t be telling you where you are allowed to go, who you are allowed to see, and what you are allowed to wear. When this happens, you are not independent over yourself. It is good to check in with your partner and make sure that you guys are on the same page, but you are your own person even when you are in a relationship. Your whole person doesn’t need to change based upon who you are in a relationship with. 

 

Friendships

 

A large group of relationships that you need to access is those that you have with your friends. People very often peer pressure each other. It can be easy to fall into a trap of embarrassment and shame that causes you to do something that you wouldn’t normally do. 

 

If your friends do not accept you for who you are and are constantly trying to change you by dictating how you should think or feel, they are probably not the friends for you. Ideally, your friends will respect who you are as a person and will not attempt to change you. 

 

Just because they do something, doesn’t mean that you should do it. You are your own person and you are allowed to make your own decisions, even if they don’t go with what your friends are doing. 

 

You Are The Master Of Your Own Life

 

It can be very easy to fall into the habit of never standing up for yourself or always doing what is common or popular. Sometimes it is hard to go against the crowd or stop what you have already started doing. 

 

The biggest indicator that you are your own leader is that you do exactly what you want. Your life is your own and your choices were made by you. You are the master of your life and you don’t require the relationships that you hold with others around you to determine anything for you. 

 

Being your own leader can be scary and hard, but ultimately it will help you to feel at ease in your skin and have fewer regrets in life.