Lead Yourself Today

By John E. Markley

LEADERSHIP IS ALL ABOUT YOU

When you make a conscious decision to Lead Yourself Today, the people around you will make a conscious decision to follow you.

When you make a conscious decision to inspire and motivate yourself, then the people around you will make a conscious decision to be inspired by you.

Lead Yourself Today was written especially for you, to read and transform your leadership faith daily. You are the only one living your life and know the desire and faith that is inside of you to achieve something great in your and other peoples lives beginning today.

Your faith has brought you forward to this point, to discover your greatest leadership vision. Reading and unlocking the keys that transform you into a Leader of Significance will keep you inspired to maintain your vision and enthusiasm for yourself and the people around you.

Your leadership faith and vision remain the highest expression of personal achievement. Your leadership presence acts as a spark and momentum for you and the people around you to achieve great things.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490821542

John E. Markley

John E. Markley is recognized for his work in program and leadership development. He has developed curricula, written books and materials, and provided training programs for local, county, state, and federal government employees and leaders. He has developed training programs, written curricula, and provided training programs for private-sector employees and leaders. He developed a pilot-training program for the US Department of Labor: OSHA Consultation Program, in conjunction with the Small Business Development Centers and the university system. He was appointed by the US Department of Justice National Institute of Corrections Academy Division to serve a four-year term as a Northeast Regional Field Coordinator. In this capacity, he developed curriculum, served as alumnus to assist in training newly appointed field coordinators, and provided training programs to employees and leaders on a national level. He has worked as an adjunct university professor, teaching criminal justice theory and practice.

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Copyright © 2014 John E. Markley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-2153-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2152-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2154-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014900366

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/21/2014

Contents

Introduction

Global Leadership Conquest

Leadership Leap of Faith

American Traditional Leadership

What Great Leaders Have in Common with You

Global Leaders

Arrange Your Leadership Thoughts Daily

Axiom of Leadership Faith

Daily Collaboration Builds Healthy Relationships

Today Is for Being Grateful

Today Is for Giving to Others

Today Is Leading to Change

Yesterday’s Experience Charts Today’s Leadership Journey

Discover Leadership by Listening Today

Renew Yourself Today by Learning

Your Enthusiasm Motivates Others

Build Value in People Today

Achieve Value in Yourself Today

The Leader You See Today

Conclusion

Sources

Your Discovery

About the Author

For my wife, Victoria L. Markley and my son

Logan Markley. You are my inspiration.

Acknowledgments

I wish to give special thanks of gratitude to Audri and Jim Lanford for allowing me to use some of their inspirational quotes in this book. They inspire me every day to achieve my goals in life.

If you subscribe to their website, they will e-mail you an inspirational quote each day. They will also email you a brief article that highlights what a famous person has achieved on that day. In addition, their website features an article, website, or blog that provides great information about a specific topic.

To be a Leader of Significance, you must constantly inspire yourself so you can maintain a level of enthusiasm to inspire and motivate the people around you. A great way to achieve this goal is to subscribe to receive a quote from Audri and Jim Lanford.

(mailto:[e-mail]).

I am very grateful for WestBow Press. Thank you for assisting me in publishing Lead Yourself Today. I want to personally thank all of the staff at WestBow Press. I was so inspired while writing Lead Yourself Today that I am writing other books in this series. Thank you for reading and supporting my work.

Special thanks to Melody Gedeon and Brittany Shumate for reading and editing my material.

When you see your guardian angel standing before you, as he gently lays his hands on you, and before he speaks, he smiles at you and says: not yet, God has a purpose for you. Believe it, internalize it, and fulfill it because with him you cannot fail.

John E. Markley

Many American Traditional Leaders have inspired me to follow my goals and achieve success in life. They have carved benchmarks with their ideas and created a roadmap of success for others to follow. You may also follow the road that they have paved for you. When you live what you believe in, special things will happen for you and the people around you.

Leaders are always enthusiastic about sharing their visions. When they face problems, they don’t get hung up. They look all around for solutions. They look for creative ideas that allow a new leader to emerge. It is not a problem at all; it is an opportunity to multiply their leadership influence.

Never underestimate a leader’s influence from one inspiring word.

Introduction

Leadership is all about you. When you make a conscious decision to Lead Yourself Today, people around you make conscious decisions to follow you.

When you make a conscious decision to inspire and motivate yourself, then the people around you will make a conscious decision to be inspired by you. Leadership is all about you. Reading Lead Yourself Today is about completing your leadership vision today.

If you did not accidentally stumble upon this book—and you are here to gain insight about you—you are already a leader. If you are reading this book to inspire and develop the leaders around you to become great leaders, you are already a Leader of Significance.

Lead Yourself Today is written especially for you because this book is about creating your legacy. Successful leaders maintain momentum forward each day to reach their goals.

I was not inspired to write this book to discuss my accomplishments in life. I was inspired to write this book to inspire you to accomplish great things for yourself as a result of believing in yourself as a leader.

A Leader of Significance is a leader of influence who multiplies his or her leadership vision by focusing on effectively leading others while duplicating people into talented leaders.

A Leader of Significance makes effective use of his or her influence to develop other people around them. When you assist people to reach their goals in life, their success excels your leadership influence with forward momentum to reach your own goals in life. Leadership is about maintaining your faith to lead the people who believe in you.

If there is not a leadership position available where you currently are, accelerate your leadership status by doing more for the people where you are.

Your ability to focus with a clear vision of faith in your capability as a leader allows people to believe in your vision.

Your leadership vision is a non-stop invitation to always be better at what you do today by what you were able to learn yesterday.

When you make a conscious decision to Lead Yourself Today, the people around you will make conscious decisions to follow you. When you make a conscious decision to inspire and motivate yourself, the people around you make conscious decisions to be inspired by you.

If you are reading this book and want to see an increase in your knowledge, then you are already motivated. Being motivated will allow you to explore and multiply your resources, moving yourself forward into the next endeavor you desire to accomplish.

Leaders don’t force people to follow; they invite them on a journey.

—Charles S. Lauer

You become a creative visionary leader by Leading Yourself Today. To become a Leader of Significance you must freely give your time and resources to develop the people around you into leaders.

Be inspired to see and act upon your vision to motivate yourself on your journey. Your enthusiasm will ignite their inspiration so people can believe and act on their visions.

Believe in your personal faith, and discover that this leadership book is all about you. Embrace the idea that as a leader, your reflection is the mirror that others see to establish your vision. All visionary leaders begin their journeys with ideas and visions of success.

Your opportunity as a leader becomes a shared reality when you are able to inspire others to believe in you

Before people can see and believe in your dream and vision, they must see and believe in you. Leadership is not magic; it is you believing in your ability to succeed under extreme odds. Leadership inspires the people around you to believe in their own abilities for achieving success through hope, belief, and imagination.

Belief and faith in yourself provides the personal en-couragement that is necessary for people to maintain confidence in you.

A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees further than others see, and who sees before others see.

—Leroy Eimes

Leading Yourself Today is based on your personal faith.

The thoughts and words I have written in this book are for people who freely give to others: people who place the utmost importance on maintaining personal relationships. This belief is expressed by loving God, significant others, daughters, sons, fathers, mothers, relatives, friends, people, pets, and themselves.

Long-term success is built on credibility and on establishing enduring loving relationships with people based on mutually earned trust. Cut all ties with dishonest, negative, or lazy people, and associate with people who share your values. You become who you associate with.

—Dave Kekich

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.

—Bernard M. Baruch

Global Leadership Conquest

Never underestimate the gift of one positive word to inspire one positive action.

When you lead, you must lead as if everyone you meet has a general need, and you are there to provide it for them. You must use every ounce of your leadership ability to motivate people to be enthusiastic about what you are doing so they will be willing to do it for you.

Your leadership faith will generate such an intense desire to fulfill your vision that others will make it their own. You must be the voice that calls them out to achieve their success through your enthusiasm.

Your self-confidence will fuel their self-esteem. The influence generated from you will emphasize your desire to serve people and provide strength and confidence in them. Your vitality and enthusiasm will charge their emotions to stimulate their desires to complete whatever challenges you present. Your smile and pleasing personality will stir the magnetism that will attract the people who share the desire to complete your vision.

Each person you attract must know that you fully believe that he or she is the most important person on your team. Your belief in his