When I think of people I admire and look upon as a leader it’s not because they promise me any guarantees of success but rather they stand for a unified mission that in its uptake offers a chance to stand for something more than we currently are committing to.

And not through brain washing, bribes or threats but by connecting to our personal values and our basic instincts, the same values and instincts that taken to extremes we are willing to sacrifice everything for.

Leadership is finding a way to understand those qualities in a person and to be willing to invest the time to find how to stir those emotions in a way that allows us not only break through limitations that we thought impossible before meeting them, but also to understand that fundamentally we really did it ourselves.

In my mind a leader is a catalyst for change.

I heard it said that whenever there is three people there is always a leader, and not always the person who thinks they are. It’s the one who shows up and takes control when the often self-appointed leader is ducking for cover.

However I think it only really takes one to be a leader. We have a choice to be leaders in our own right as soon as we take ownership of who we are and the situations we are face with.

We become leaders when we except responsibility for what happens to us. Not blame but responsibility in taking a stand to handle it and not become victims of our circumstances.

And this is no easy feat. Difficult problems or hard choices often do not offer us a clear choice. Often after years of deliberation there is often no clear answer towards a definitive right or wrong decision.

In an age of overwhelming information and facts it seems impossible to find a consensus on anything. But despite this dilemma of what to do and the uncertainty, we are offered one absolute. We are offered an opportunity to choose who we want to be through these decisions.

We cannot guarantee that we have made the right choice, but depending on the choice we make it will be based on either our fears or desires. We can choose in those decisions what we stand for. Within these hard choices lies the possibility for each of us to demonstrate leadership.

Often we are unable to change the facts, but we can take charge of how we allow ourselves to interpret, respond and act in sight of those facts. We have the power to take charge of our thinking.

Regardless of our outlook on life, whether it’s through a positive or negative filter we still can stand in the possibility that there is always a way. Not because this is a fact, but because we understand that by doing so we change our intention and therefore the options that become available to us.

It’s not about positive thinking or unrealistic expectations but rather understanding how we work from an evolutionary perspective and how we have evolved to survive and using that technology to our advantage.

If Neuroscience has shown us that imagination is just another way to enhance the brains GPS system, (known as the posterior parietal cortex) then surely it is our responsibility to do that in some form.

To dream. Not to fantasise, but to have faith.

Whether we believe the glass to be half full or half empty is perhaps not as important as realising that whichever perspective we come from, the fact is that there is a glass that has potential for more in it. A possibility that we can be more. In fact 50 percent more in this case.

Just that action alone will begin to change our intentions and what presents itself as an opportunity.

This works on the same principal as the “Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon” or “frequency illusion” when a concept or thing you just found out about, suddenly seems to crop up everywhere. This is caused by two psychological processes.

The first one is selective attention which happens when you come across a new word, thing, or idea; after that, you unconsciously keep an eye out for it, and as a result find it surprisingly often.

The second process, confirmation bias, which reassures us that each sighting is further proof of our impression that the thing has gained overnight omnipresence.

Harvards Srini Pillay MD, explains that when we can see no hope, the thing to do is not look at external stimuli, but instead connect with intention.

It has been shown that if we connect with intention when we are lost we will more accurately remember previous actions and their consequences and when we do, that it is much more powerful than simply connecting with what’s happening on the outside.

Imagination is not just ‘the fodder for fools’ he tells us, it actually feeds the GPS system in the brain and when it does it also activates the action centres of the brain to allow us to be presented with better options known as Pre-empted perception.

It doesn’t mean plastering our face with a smile either. In fact it means the opposite. Positive thinking can often be detrimental when its principles for change are misunderstood.

Leadership is being able to accept that we do not feel good at times. Its a willingness to look at what is the root cause of our distress and how we can take responsibility for ourselves.

As leaders in our own life it is up to us to decide what we want to believe in and make a stand. If we are not willing to stand for what we believe, but choose simply to be reactive to our environment, someone will appoint themselves leaders of ‘our brains same technology’ even if you don’t. We will inadvertently be allowing ourselves to be guided by the wishes of others instead.

We are often told that people are born Leaders. Even if this was a fact, which it’s not, its ambiguity allows for the possibility that if we were born, we are therefore leaders.

Whether you decide to believe that or not is also your choice.