Personal initiative is the result of mental sharpness

All your commitments demand personal initiative. By committing you will pledge to take action to do something. 

Some of these activities you engage in are pleasant, but some aren't. That is what accomplishing something is all about, it comes down to taking action regardless of the fun and pleasure factor.

By definition, a commitment means the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause or activity. The key is dedication and engagement. While some commitments may also bring along fun and kindness, others may trigger your stress, burnout or mental health issues.

When it costs your inner peace, it is too expensive.

Most dedications require a tremendous amount of work. Sometimes hard work demands personal sacrifice.

To do something impeccably you often need to give up something in return. For example, to complete the task by the promised deadline, you may need to give up meeting with a friend or watching your favorite TV program. Every so often such choices may be unfair, for example, demand giving up time with your family or loved ones.

Such decisions may lead to giving up some intrapersonal qualities that we value. However, when you sacrifice your inner peace or calmness you become stressed and may even burn out.

Here arises the other way, a proactive way that allows you to keep calm no matter what.

While giving up external aspects represent the choice you need to make, giving up inner peace originates from a lack of intrapersonal education. 
 

How to safeguard inner peace in every situation?

When you don't know how to keep a calm mind, you face pressure.

Without being aware of how to keep inner peace while you focus on getting things done bears a heavy burden. You become nervous or anxious. However, such inner reactivity isn't the problem of others.

It is your personal lack of intrapersonal skills that removes your inner peace.

Please allow it to sink in.

Your lack of inner skills and self-leadership represent here the challenges you face.

Individual intrapersonal skills bring benefit to your work results

Losing your inner peace because of your inner reactivity is too expensive. 

This problem isn't someone else's to solve, it is something that every single person, including you, has to learn to solve successfully themselves.

Clarifying this for everyone in your team is the prerequisite to thriving. Solving this is a must if you want to seize the personal initiative, enjoy a joyful life and thrive at work. It is a must when you desire that others around you do the same.

Many develop professional skills, too few develop intrapersonal skills. This needs to change. Why?

Good intrapersonal skills support interpersonal skills and professionalism. Without a stable foundation, your business keeps shaking.

Intrapersonal leadership builds a sustainable path to leading others and managing different processes.

The benefit of such a path is, it allows you and your team to with any kind of external pressures and competition, even when the ride becomes rough.

Every entrepreneur, team leader and employee needs skills to get things completed successfully, without paying the price of inner peace. 

Lack of inner calmness kills creativity and innovation

When people experience a constant train of thought or the rollercoaster of emotions, they lack the ability to become still within themselves. The moment you go along with subconscious inner turmoil, you give up the ability to listen to your intuition and be creative.

Back to basics: what is initiative?

In this blog context, initiative meaning can be seen as your personal power to act or take charge of any opportunity before others do, especially those outside of your team/business. On my own initiative meaning your individual intrapersonal ability to assess situations and initiate new and forward leading solutions independently.

It is time to re-learning innovation

All entrepreneurs, businesses and even most workplaces want to identify and succeed with innovation. But how can there be innovation when people feel unwell and experience inner turmoil?

You can access creativity and intuition by soothing your mind. Not by thinking about innovation.

In fact, there is no creative thinking. None.

There is creativity and there is thinking. You choose one or the other. Overthinking restricts your access to creativity. It keeps your mind engaged with the old solutions. Thinking allows at best to recombine the known old solutions but prevents access to new insights and creativity that are the foundations of innovation.

The e-training 'Getting Things Done' reveals you the secrets. Tune in, and train your mind to become more creative.
 

Life and work are about choices

We all have one life. Life-Work integration is the key here. 

Integrating your life and your work always comes down to constant aware decisions. How to make such decisions is what we reveal in most of our intrapersonal skills blog posts.

We all know the value of a clear 'Yes' as a commitment. However, avoiding deciding something represents also a decision. A vague decision. Saying 'No' is additionally a decision. A clear one. 

Aware 'Yes' or 'No' are the decisions you need to make. Those decide how well you manage your activities in time. Avoiding or postponing making any decision equals a lack of commitment and initiative.

You need to choose your commitments wisely! 

It's OK to say 'No'! It is OK to say 'Yes'.

It isn't OK to reply 'Yes' and then fail to act. Why?

This way you'll cheat yourself and others. Even if there is a seemingly low external effect, there is always an internal cost – you will sooner or later lose your mental wellbeing and inner peace by escaping your commitments.

Your own inner reactivity is what brings along your stress. More than that, it can lead to burnout or more severe mental health issues. So, take a moment to test your stress level and to try how this investment in your mental sharpness can improve you.

Conclusion

Any commitment from your side means you choose the quality of being dedicated to supporting a cause or activity. Commit wholly if you comprehend the cause. It is OK to ask questions before accepting any commitment.

Enquire what you need. Ask what you like to know and then make a decision and then stick to it. Your life, your choice. 

When you work with others, it is critical to remember, your individual choices become part of much larger choices.

When everyone takes personal initiative and commits, teamwork becomes easy. Seize the day. Decide. And if you can't, take time to learn intrapersonal skills that allow this.
 

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This blog post is by Kaur Lass