Are Those You Follow Exemplars? Being Aware Of This Can Improve Your Leadership

I was recently going through some content that I tend to enjoy and find interesting.

It has to do with a certain type of mindset that, at least in theory, should allow you to approach the world with more ease and less stress.

I would imagine that people who teach and live in this mindset should also be experiencing the types of ease that they teach about.

However, when I recently saw the face of the main individual who is most well known for teaching on this mindset, I saw something completely different.

A younger guy, but he appeared much older than his age.

Instead of a fresh look in their eyes, I saw they were sunken and erratic.

Instead of ease and calm, I saw stress and overwhelm.

At a time when they should be at their height of health, they looked sickly and frail.

This also isn’t who I saw years ago when they were first becoming known for their work.

Before the business successes, they looked completely different.

Fresh, ready to take on the world, and excited!

What happened between then and now?

What changed in their life that led to such a drastic change and downturn?

I don’t know, but their “mindset” didn’t seem to be doing anything for them.

As Leaders, these are things we need to be wary of.

What are the results of things?

Do the people teaching them get those results in the long term?

Are the people we look at Exemplars, do we truly want what they have?

Through my life, I tend to find that, often, the answer is no.

There are people that are famous for ideas, famous for their popularity, and famous for what they do…

Yet they have awful lives.

When you look into their eyes, and deeper into the realities of their lives, you see only terrible things.

They may have “success”, but it means nothing in the face of all the pain they feel, all the overwhelm that consumes them, all the hopelessness that they drown in.

If they are not truly an Exemplar, we should be wary of how far we follow them.

When we aren’t, we are likely to fall into the same pits that they find themselves.

However, when we pay attention to the fruit of their labors and the other aspects of their lives (especially those outside what they are known for), we can gain a clearer picture.

Don’t follow something or someone just because others say it is good – unfortunately few people look below the surface to find the reality of things.

Be willing to look under that surface, and you’ll begin to see who truly is and isn’t an Exemplar.