The golden thread of a no-regrets life; a highly meaningful life is self-leadership. Self-leadership allows you to do all those things you know in your heart you should do but never feel like doing. Without self-leadership, you will not set clear goals for your life, manage your time effectively, treat people with love, persist through tough times, handle loneliness, care for your soul or think biblical thoughts.
Self-leadership requires getting tough with yourself. You don't wait for others to lead you. You lead yourself. You get strict with yourself. By being strict with yourself, you will begin to live life more intentionally, on your terms, upon the precepts of scripture rather than simply reacting to life the way a leaf floating in a stream drifts according to the flow of the current on a particular day.
You may not have thought about this but the tougher you are on yourself, the easier life will be on you. In the words of the writer of Hebrews: "At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God." (Heb 12:11, Message)
When you consistently make disciplined choices with your life that you know are the right ones (rather than the easy ones), you take back control of your life from the enemy. Lost ground is reclaimed.
People who live life with a passion do not spend their time doing what is most convenient and comfortable. They have the courage to listen to their hearts and be led by the Spirit of God and do the wise thing. They live their lives looking for those breath-taking moments where God comes through. This is what makes their lives great rather than just good.
The nineteenth-century English writer Henry Huxley noted: "Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the things you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not." And Aristotle made this point of wisdom in yet another way: "Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men become builders, for instance, by building, and harp players, by playing the harp. In the some way, by doing just acts we come to be just; by doing brave acts we come to be brave."
The apostle Paul wrote in inerrant inspired scripture: "I die everyday" (1 Cor 15:31). That's is ultimate self-leadership. You die daily, intentionally to your comfort and convenience; to your whims and fancies; to what is easy and nice but unwise and then in the process you become Christ-like. You look back and you find yourself living that life of no regrets!
