When it comes to self-leadership it has been my experience that the most successful people hold themselves accountable.

They also find accountability partners that help them to stay the course. It doesn’t matter what the industry is or their specific profession. Aristotle said, “We are what we do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.”

The pursuit of personal improvement can be as addictive as some substances. It can cloud the vision of those on the path seeking personal growth, like the fog in a mountain valley. It is not so easy to consider it a balance between work and family life. It is more a balance of development between different personality traits, or as Ben Franklin called them “virtues”.

The individual that can maintain a steady pace and a balance between the different virtues is the one that over time has the greatest growth. In Ben Franklin‘s life, he picked 13 virtues and rotated them every week throughout the year. This model allowed him to spend four weeks a year on each “virtue”. Over time, it became evident to him that success in each “virtue” multiplied across the others.

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