“Lions care nothing for the opinions of sheep.”
The Lion is the leader of the pack, the decision maker, the boss, the innovator, the outlier, the determined hard-worker, the ambitious one, the hungry one, the successful one, the impactful one, and the relentless one.
The Lion Amongst Sheep is the leader who lives by his own rules—the innovator that follows his own path.
The Lion enjoys many freedoms and luxuries that the sheep do not. But the life of The Lion is anything but easy. Because as a leader, he must make sacrifices like time, comfort, hedonistic habits, money, and short-term pleasures in order to create a long-term gain.
The life of the Lion is painful. But the pain he endures is worth it for the freedom he gets to enjoy of being able to live by his own rules and make an impact on the rest of humanity.
Are you either born a lion or born a sheep? No. The Lion is a role you can choose to play by deciding you would rather live your own life than follow the rules that others created before you.
The Lion’s path is the life-track you choose when you decide that you are going to put in all of the effort, time, dedication, man-hours, and work necessary to make your mark on this world and earn the freedom you deserve.
The Lion’s path will never show up at your door. You have to step into The Lion’s path through taking the right actions.
There are plenty of ways to earn the independence, freedom, wealth, success, influence, and impact that leaders enjoy. The following are 4 of them—4 Ways To Become The Lion Amongst The Sheep:
#1: Unplug From Television And Social Media
If you would like to elevate yourself from a life of taking orders and living by the rules of others, then habits like watching television and mindlessly browsing through social media are your worst enemy.
Because not only do television and social media waste valuable time that you should be devoting to your chosen craft, they also indoctrinate you to think more like other people and less like yourself.
How many times in your life have you watched a television show that really inspired you, motivated you, changed your life for the better, or added some kind of important value to your life or your success? I’m guessing your answer is very, very rarely.
Because almost all television is designed as pure entertainment.
It’s important to watch the news to keep up with what’s going on in the world. But even watching the news everyday won’t help your life very much. Because almost everything on the news is negative, sad, horrible, or depressing content designed to shock you into coming back over and over.
And then there’s social media.
Earlier this week, I read an article about how Travis Kalanick, one of the founders of Uber, first connected with Uber’s first hire ever Ryan Graves through a post that he made on Twitter—a connection that eventually made both of them billionaires.
The point of that story is you should absolutely be on social media because there are a wealth of very valuable opportunities to be found online. But with that being said, social media is probably the biggest time-waster of our era.
Yes it’s possible to make a connection on Twitter—like Travis Kalanick and Ryan Graves did—that later on transforms into a company that’s worth billions of dollars. But the grand majority of us, unfortunately, don’t use social media that way.
Most of us use Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube to keep up with what’s going on in the lives of others in our social network. And when you spend hours and hours each day keeping up with what your peers are thinking, it’s really easy to forget how to think for yourself.
To be a leader, you have to think for yourself.
That’s why Unplugging From Television And Social Media is the fast-track to Becoming The Lion Amongst The Sheep.
#2: Think For Yourself
So not that you’ve unplugged yourself from those mind-numbing habits of watching T.V. and browsing through social media timelines, it’s time to invest in habits that help you disregard the opinions of the crowd and Think For Yourself.
To truly become an independent thinker, you’ve got to unplug from the habits of the majority like watching television, browsing through social media too much, drinking, smoking, and partying. And reconnect with habits like reading, meditation, and pushing your body to the limits via exercise.
I encourage you to read for at least 30 minutes every day. It doesn’t matter what you decide to read each day—as long as that decision is your choice.
It’s is one of the most valuable habits you could ever choose for yourself. Because reading improves your memory; boosts your writing and speaking abilities; improves your focus; keeps you well-informed and educated; helps your independent thinking ability; and generally makes you more likely to succeed at life.
Reading makes you more likely to succeed because it boosts your ability to Think For Yourself. It gives you the mental strength needed to leave the sheep behind to step into the path of The Lion.
#3: Make Your Decisions Based On YOUR Goals. Not The Goals Of Others
What do you want from life? Is it happiness, success, money, popularity, greatness, love, great relationships, purpose, or contribution? What are your goals in life?
Now step back for a second and reflect. Are these actually your goals or the goals that others have pressured you into accepting?
We share an earth with seven billion different voices, opinions, beliefs, ideas, dreams, wants, desires, and ambitions. That’s seven billion people that can influence you to choose the direction they want for your life instead of your own.
To be a Lion, you can’t allow yourself to make decisions based on the goals of others. You have to Make Your Decisions Based On Your Goals.
If you haven’t done so already, write down a list of all the things, places, people, goals, and desires you truly want to experience in life. Write down your list. Then think about it and visualize receiving those desires everyday.
To be a Lion, you must live a life of your own design. And the first step to accomplishing that is goal-setting. So set your goals.
#4: Forget About The Money, Power, and Fame. Make Helping People Your #1 Goal
One thing I’ve noticed about the Lions of the world—like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Will Smith, Eric Thomas, and President Barack Obama—is that their main Purpose for what they do is always adding value to the lives of others in one way or another.
All of them are rich, powerful, and famous. But those wealth, status, and fame are never their main objectives. Their primary goal is always to add more value, joy, love, happiness, development, success, or greatness to the lives of the people they interact with.
Unlike the sheep, helping people is The Lion’s main mission in life.
To step into the Lion’s path, you have to prioritize making other lives better in some way over all of your other success-goals.
When you make this crucial jump from working to help yourself to working to help humanity, you’ll not only get the wealth, the fame, and the power, but you’ll also transform into The Lion who follows his own path, makes his own decisions, lives by his own rules.
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