Tag: personal growth

The Complexities of Purposeful Self-Leadership (Purposeful Leadership – Part 5)

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn energy, engagement., EQ, happiness, Leadership, Life, Love, Personal Excellence, purpose, purposeful leadership, PurposefulnessLeave a comment
The image depicts the complexities encountered when attempting to enact purposeful self-leadership
Illuminating Purpose Amidst Complexity

In the last post, we explored how to develop purposeful self-leadership by articulating a purpose statement and taking small, meaningful steps to live in alignment with it. While this process is deeply enriching, it is not without its challenges. In this post, we explore the complexities of attempting to enact purposeful self-leadership in our lives (De Silva, 2024).

Understanding the Notion of Self-Leadership

The idea of self-leadership is inspiring. It suggests that we can take charge of our lives, lead ourselves with clarity and conviction, and live in alignment with our purpose. However, understanding this notion deeply can be complex. Many mix purpose with goals when in fact it is not. A goal becomes more meaningful when it is based on a purpose. It requires us to accept responsibility for our thoughts, emotions, and actions—something that can feel both empowering and intimidating. The concept may seem abstract or idealistic, especially when life feels uncertain or overwhelming.

Continue reading “The Complexities of Purposeful Self-Leadership (Purposeful Leadership – Part 5)” →

Developing Purposeful Self-Leadership (Purposeful Leadership – Part 4)

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn belief, Ecology, energy, Environment, EQ, family, happiness, Health Care, hope, Leadership, Life, Personal Excellence, purposeful leadership, Purposefulness, Spiritual, Struggles, success, ValuesLeave a comment

We explored the notion of Purposeful Self-leadership in the last post, part 3 of this series titled ‘Start with the Self’. Today we explore how to develop Purposeful Self-Leadership and in the next post, we can explore the complexities of such an aspiration. In the first two articles of this series, we explored the two key concepts of purposeful leadership: purposefulness and leadership, and the three branches of purposeful leadership: self, people, and organisations.

Developing Purposeful Self-Leadership starts with articulating a purpose statement depicting our sense of purpose at the current stage of life. The first version of the purpose statement is only a glimpse of our purpose as finding purpose is a lifelong journey. However, having a sense of purpose begins the quest and gives us the drive and desire to be purposeful. Being purposeful improves our clarity about our life purposes and helps us fine-tune our purpose statement, leading to us being more purposeful. This cyclical process not only improves our sense of purpose and purposefulness but also attracts abundance to succeed in vocations aligned with our life purpose, gives us happiness and peace of mind (De Silva, 2024).

Continue reading “Developing Purposeful Self-Leadership (Purposeful Leadership – Part 4)” →

Start with the Self (Purposeful Leadership – Part 3)

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn belief, Compassion, energy, happiness, hope, Leadership, Life, Love, Personal Excellence, purpose, purposeful leadership, Purposefulness, Relationships, Spiritual, Values1 Comment

Purposeful leadership starts with the purposefulness of the individual holding the leadership role. How can a purposeless individual help people and organisations to be purposeful? I am not claiming that all leaders are purposeful self-leaders. Many are not, and as a result, the people and businesses are not purposeful. In this article, we explore the notion of purposeful self-leadership. Given the need to keep these articles short, we will explore how to develop purposeful self-leadership and the complexities of such an aspiration in subsequent articles. In the first two articles of this series, we explored the two keywords of the concept of purposeful leadership: purposefulness and leadership and the three branches of purposeful leadership: self, people and organisations.

A useful question to ask at the outset is what is purposefulness and how do we know we are purposeful?

Continue reading “Start with the Self (Purposeful Leadership – Part 3)” →

The teacher will arrive when the student is ready

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Conference learnings, Health Care, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Relationships1 Comment

The month of April 2013 epitomized the caption! Yes there were many including myself who were ready for the teacher. It was a great month of personal growth.

The month started with 60 souls from various organizations and walks of life taking part in the Mastery of Self playshop that was conducted in Sri Lanka. This was the first 2 days and all of them left feeling more valuable than ever before, more empowered than ever before and more purposeful than ever before. They come back for the final 2 days on the 6 & 7 of May.

Then I travelled to Vietnam where I conduct the same session for another 60 souls from Fashion Garments a company of the Hirdramani Group in Sri Lanka. The impact created was the same and I go to Vietnam again to do the final 2 days of the training on the 11 & 12 of May 2013.

From Vietnam I travelled to Dubai to conduct a 2 day training on advanced negotiation skills and a 1 day training in work life balance. While the numbers were around 16 participants in each session, the impact created for them was tremendous.

After having helped unlock potential of so many souls in the first half of the month, the second half was about me going back to school. Yes I was a participant with 15 other senior executives from the health care industry who took part in a 2 week long intensive leadership development session for health care CEO’s held by the Samson Global Leadership Academy of the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

Continue reading “The teacher will arrive when the student is ready” →

Christmas is for giving, that’s why we should be forgiving

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Personal Excellence, Relationships, SpiritualLeave a comment

Image courtesy of lovingyourchild.com
Image courtesy of lovingyourchild.com

I had a packed 10 days of work in Dhaka and I was scheduled to take a flight back to Colombo on the 24th morning to be with my family for Christmas Eve onwards. I was looking at options to do confession before Christmas mass. I did not want to leave it to the 24th evening, as there was only a little window from my time of arrival, to get home in the traffic that is likely to be heavy given that large crowds will be on the roads doing their last-minute Christmas shopping.

As I was looking at the Christmas schedule issued at the beautiful church I pray at in Banani – Dhaka, I found that confession was scheduled for 10 am on the 24th. My flight was a t 12.45 and it could take up to 1 hour to get to the airport. It was a risky option to do confession at 10 am and try to get to the airport on time given the unpredictable traffic in Dhaka. I called Father Tom, the Parish priest who kindly agreed to come early to do my confession. It was a peaceful confession and I felt cleansed and peaceful as I walked out of the church.

Finally at the airport I was standing in the line to get my passport stamped at emigration. I had an urge to go to the washroom and I was the next person in line to go to the immigration officer. At that moment a gentleman, who was with his wife and little child asked me if they could go before me as they had just 45 minutes for their flight. Since I still had another 90 mts I agreed to let them go before me. As the family who went to the emigration officer was finishing, an official of the airport escorted 5 persons and went past the line to the emigration officer.

Continue reading “Christmas is for giving, that’s why we should be forgiving” →