There’s no shortage of advice on leadership.

But almost all of it misses the heart of what it means to be a leader, or how to become one.

What is it to be a leader? What is it like internally? How does one become a leader?

More than circumstances, leadership comes from within. But what does that even mean?

The Need to Change Directions

Let’s say I eat like crap and feel terrible. I’m in the habit of using food to make myself feel better.

The trajectory I’m on is to keep feeling bad and putting on weight.

That’s my default future. It’s my habit. My system of my life is set up to create that.

That is the future that’s written in the present.

If I want to change it, I have to do something else. But where does that come from?

The New Direction

We all know that the difference between being in shape and out of shape is exercise.

Why then do some people do it, and some don’t?

Simply speaking, to some, exercise does not appear (at least on some level) to lead to the result they want. It doesn’t occur to them as the right way. It either appears futile, or too difficult, or unlikely to succeed.

A shift is needed. A sense of possibility.

And then, the right actions must be chosen and performed.

To create that shift, we need to have a vision of the future. We need to believe it to be possible. We need to connect with reality to make the right plan to get there. And we need to act.

None of these is effective without the others.

If I’m moving in a random fashion, I don’t go anywhere in particular.

If I don’t believe it’s possible, I don’t try.

If I know what to do and believe it’s possible, but sit on my hands, it doesn’t happen.

If I’m disconnected from reality, I’m navigating with the wrong map, and I won’t get where I intend.

But once you get those things, you become the embodiment of a new future in the present. Because you are acting in ways that bring that new future into being.

That can be thought of as “being on the path”.

If you’re on the path, the new future will happen. If you’re not, it won’t.

It is in that creation of that new future from the present that we are leaders. We internally hold a new future, and that new future comes to be externally through our actions.

Being a Leader

A leader is then the space where a different future, one that wouldn’t have happened without their intentional effort, becomes in the present.

To become a leader, you must create your vision, believe it to be possible, find the right path by connecting with reality, and then walk on that path through action.

It is, in a way, taking a stand against the present way things are going.

And of course, we all recognize in “taking a stand” the essence of leadership. A commitment to something that wouldn’t be that way without us.

A leader is the future existing now in the world, as a possibility not fully realized.