The first understanding…
Leadership begins on the inside.
Without the inner work, leadership, creating what you want, and building and expanding your work, is inevitably self-limiting and more exhausting than it needs to be.
To create sustainable, aligned work in the world you need to seek to understand yourself on every level.
This is the path to sovereignty.
I don’t mean you have to be fully formed and enlightened to be a Sovereign Leader, but you need to understand that the more self-awareness, the more healing, the more connection to your inner world, and the more shifts into higher levels of consciousness you achieve, the more sovereign you become, the greater your ability to lead and the more energy you will have.
Doing the inner work and amplifying your self-awareness increases your conscious decision-making capacity and your ability to generate the results you want. It allows you to break through limits in the outer world and manage yourself effectively with grace and power no matter what the circumstances.
The second understanding is…
Come to terms with your desires.
Desire is not a dirty word, something to be shunned, or squashed into submission, or made “nice” by word substitution.
Desire is good. Wanting is okay. More than okay.
What if desire, wanting and longing were your soul’s way of communicating with you…that pull, that desire you feel for more, that wanting, that longing…that knowing “I am more than this”…what if these were communications made with love to call you out and into the world.
What if they were messages asking you to become who you truly are, and step into your unique genius.
This would mean your wants, desires, and your longings have real value and need to be listened to, identified, honed and understood, because if you just leave them, thinking that somehow it is wrong to pursue them, you just might be setting aside one of the things you most need to become a sovereign being and a Sovereign Leader…
The third understanding is…
Without courageous self-care sustainability is hard.
This one is easier to understand, because self-care has become a “thing,” but I add the word courageous here, because self-care operates on a number of levels…and I want to step a little bit away from the “pampering” model.
Pampering is a valuable part of self-care, we all deserve that, but there is a level of self-care that goes deeper and that fuels deeper needs.
This involves self-care on an energetic, mental, physical, emotional and spiritual level.
It involves making the courageous decisions to prioritize exceptional care of yourself so you can maintain your energy and your clarity as a leader.
Courageous self-care can include difficult, but necessary conversations, participating in programs or 1-1 mentorships to elevate your consciousness, learning something new, protecting your precious energy, healing what needs to be healed, prioritizing your health, connecting to your sovereign soul, bringing into your life things that make you feel connected to yourself, or doing the work necessary to have an environment that supports you…
This is not just pampering, but essential self-care to enable you to be in the world as a leader.
The fourth understanding is related.
Make the shift to wholeness as a success strategy.
When you are whole; physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically and spiritually aligned and you then operate from this state using realization strategies to create what you want in the world, everything is easier, everything becomes more fluid and you gain energy.
Instead of being scattered and shining a diffuse light into the world, your message becomes more laser focused and more easily identifiable by those that need to hear it. This is an essential part of leadership
The fifth understanding…
Satisfaction needs to take a leading role as a metric for success.
In a world where we can easily be plagued by perfectionism and by the desire to please others before ourselves, what kind of metric do we need to measure our successes big and small.
You can obviously look at how much money you earn, how many people connect to you, the applause at the end of a speech, the number of likes on a post, how many zeros you have after a certain figure in your bank account…but without satisfaction all of these feel somewhat hollow and this does not serve you or your leadership aspirations.
Analyzing where you felt deep satisfaction is as important as analyzing the results you achieve.
A Sovereign Leader is most effective when understanding that satisfaction, alongside other metrics, as a vital measure of success.
The sixth understanding…
Begin the process of stepping into the center of your work.
Sovereign Leadership requires you to step into the center of your life and work.
To step off the sidelines.
If you have been thinking of your work and leadership as purely linear – one thing after another – this can hold you back.
Instead make the shift into seeing yourself in the center of your work radiating your energy, your words, your presence and your “doing” of the work outward in every direction. There are times when you will be laser focused on something ahead of you or perhaps to the side, but don’t let this throw you out from the center of yourself, or of your work. Imagine you are on the stage of a fabulous concert “in the round.” You are concentrating on performing, you know why you are there, you know what you want to achieve, you may even be projecting mostly into the high-value-ticket sales section, but all around you everyone can see and feel your presence radiate out from the stage.
In other words, start to see your work as far more than a series of forward steps, but as having an influence that radiates out like the ripples on a pond
The seventh understanding…
Admit to yourself that you have something of value to share and give yourself permission to share it.
To be a sovereign leader you need to own your brilliance and recognize the value you have to offer the world.
You need to learn how to really know, sense, feel, and understand that you and your work have significant value, and that your presence on this planet is important.
You are a unique and precious being just for being you and your work is an extension of that.
You need to relinquish any excuse that it is prideful to live, love and lead from your genius, your magnificence or your desire to do your greatest work, and allow yourself to play a full concerto into the world.
The eighth understanding…
Invisibility will not serve you.
I know you know this.
The thing is, everyone harps on about how you have to be visible. Let’s just stop there for a moment.
Yes, you need to be “visible” but essentially what this means is you need to be more present, more findable, easier to access for those that need your talents and gifts.
A sovereign leader chooses how they want to be in the world.
They choose how they want to be seen and heard.
So, it is in choosing aligned ways to be seen that will have the most power.
There are no have-tos.
But you also recognize that remaining invisible is also not an option. Shutting yourself away in an office is not an option. Creating genuine connection to others is not an option.
Working on presence, sovereignty, grounding and wellbeing will stop you showing up as a lukewarm version of yourself.
To do this make conscious choices about how, where and in what manner you are visible.
The ninth understanding…
Sovereign Leaders think and act with three things in mind at all times…
They consider themselves, other people, and the world in all decisions.
A Sovereign Leader is a gracious sovereign, self- aware and in touch with their own genius.
They lead in a way that honors themselves, honors and elevates others, and has a positive impact on the world around them.
All in service of their ultimate goals.
The tenth understanding…
Sovereign Leaders dare to hope.
The spirit of Sovereign Leadership is the spirit of hope.
Your feeling of hope…that is real…and it can be a driving force in your life and in this world.
It opens the ways to new levels of possibility and to the creation of what you desire.
It is fuel for seeing beyond what is right in front of you, and reaching beyond the horizon. It adds strength and power to everything you do.
Click this link and drop me a note to explore how we can work together.
https://philipparowlands.com/connect-with-philippa/
Love Philippa
