Leadership Over Followers

It was pretty much straight after Christmas last year in which I made a choice that I was no longer going to use my personal social media profiles just to post pictures of my life, and advertise them to the world. As wonderful as it is to capture certain memorable moments, and post them online for friends and family to see, in all honesty, it's not exactly an activity of huge benefit really. Photographs have always served as a perfect means of capturing a memory, or the perfect scenery, there's no disputing that, and posting them on social media should preserve those images online forever, unlike with physical photographs, which can easily be destroyed by fire. I've become more of a person who prefers to live in the moment, opting to relish in the preciousness of the experience at the time, rather than be sidetracked by fiddling around with a phone or camera trying to take a happy snap. Each to their own though. I will still continue to post personal photos from time to time, but the reason behind the decision I made to start using my personal social media profiles in a different manner was because I wanted to begin sharing more positivity, inspiration, and motivation. I was dedicating time to posting motivational content on my business website and social media pages, yet I was actually not sharing it directly with my own friends and family via my own personal profile. All the personal development content and education I have been investing my time in, along with all that I have personally experienced throughout the journey towards achieving my goal, I was leaving out the very people who I should have been prioritizing, and looking to positively influence and help educate.

Since that time, I have been sharing motivational short videos by well known and successful motivational influencers, whilst I have also been posting a daily quote to promote positivity, success, happiness, productivity, upliftment, and inspiration. I want to encourage my friends, family, and anyone really, to also have the courage and willpower to get off their backsides, take a leap of faith, and strive to achieve their goals and create the life they desire for themselves, as I am doing for myself. Has it been well received? No, not at all. I had a couple of people express their appreciation for sharing, I had a couple of likes here and there along the way, but overall, out of the 200+ friends I have on Facebook, there has been very little response or reaction. I've even had a couple of people criticize me for some of the quotes, believing that they were targeted at them, or someone they know dearly, when in reality, they were just generic quotes in warning people to steer clear of toxic, negative, and pessimistic people. As a result of this positive change I have made, no less than 10 people have since unfriended me. There could be a couple of reasons behind this. Firstly, many people don't want to see anything else on their Facebook feed other than photos, important news stories, and perhaps some juicy gossip. They want to see something they can talk about to others, and ultimately, attract attention and interest. Classic behavior of a negative minded and toxic person, who spends their life gossiping about others because they have nothing positive or interesting to say about their own life.

That leads to the second reason, being that people will always be more likely to respond and react to negativity, than they would positivity. The human brain has been wired to respond to any negativity, courtesy of our primitive ancestors, who lived in a completely different world to the one we live in today. There was a totally different exposure to the threat of basic survival needs back then, and one always had to be wary of anything that had the potential to place their life in danger, or had the potential to disrupt their food supply and shelter. It's not a lot different to how we think today, because we also are wary of anything that places our life in danger, or disrupts our way of life, but we are surrounded by a concrete jungle and technology nowadays, compared to roughing it outdoors back then. When it came to one's survival being threatened, the thought process came down to fight or flight. Was it a threat that they could potentially tackle head on and overcome, or was it better to flee to safety? It's survival instinct, and the reason why us humans react to negativity more than we do positivity, because negativity has the potential to impact or disrupt our survival. We've carried that mentality of identifying threats to our life and survival, to now identifying threats to the way we live, and potential impacts to our daily routine. We are a creature of habit, and we like to feel knowledgeable and in control. It's our comfort zone. When we could be potentially dragged out of that, we become fearful. But it's that response to negativity that I'm talking about, and how most people will only take genuine interest in something that has the potential to impact them, or something they can gossip about someone else. Sadly, positivity just doesn't appeal to most people, because they want something they can talk about, especially when they are void of any successes and accomplishments in their own life.

So should I be concerned about a few people unfriending me because I have chosen to post motivational quotes and short videos? Absolutely not. Whenever you decide to take the plunge in pursuing your goals, and looking to positively transform your life, you are going to receive a lot of opposition, that's just normal. Negative minded and toxic people will always question you, judge you, and criticize you, when you make the relevant decisions and actions to pursue your goals, because it's not normality to them or society. They simply believe that such success isn't actually achievable, nor possible, because they haven't experienced it for themselves, nor do they associate with anyone who has achieved such success either, therefore it's not realistic. As you begin to journey towards achieving your own goal, it's not uncommon to want to help others pursue their own life goal also. You begin engaging in self development content, and motivational material, to keep you inspired and driven, and that yearn to have others follow suit coaxes you into sharing this. What you quickly find is that not many people are on the same sort of journey, nor are they as passionate and motivated as yourself, as they are instead stuck living a life of wishing and hoping for positive change, rather than taking action. People just want their goals and wishes to magically appear before them, and are not interested in working hard, being patient, or committing themselves to the actions that lead to success. It's the reason that when you post positive content online, most people don't want a bar of it, because they know full well that achieving their goals means they need to apply energy, effort, commitment, and hard work, in order to reach them, and they don't want to be reminded of the need to do that. Here you are, all motivated, inspired, and being proactive, whilst they are sitting on their arse looking foolish from being inactive and lazy.

Why wouldn't anyone want to be motivated, inspired, and encouraged to live a life they desire? Why wouldn't anyone want a rest from all the negativity that surrounds them each day, and instead be filled with positivity and upliftment? I can only put it down to four things; they are fearful of the journey that leads to their goals, they don't believe they have the required skills and knowledge to tackle that journey, they couldn't be bothered pursuing their own goals, or they are influenced by society to the point they don't believe it's possible to achieve their goals or success. It's with these four things that people don't want to have others trying to motivate and encourage them. It begs the next question, why even bother then posting motivational content, and attempt to inspire and encourage others? One word; leadership. As a leader, you make decisions and implement actions that you believe is in the best interest of helping, growing, and developing others, even if many oppose and criticize you for it. You need to role model behaviors and lead by example. Just because most people choose to be negative minded doesn't mean we should give up in trying to help, encourage, inspire, uplift, and motivate people. You want to inspire that positive change with people, and to do so, you have to promote that positive change, and be that positive change. There are so many people in the world who are living their life void of happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment, and success. They don't desire such a life, but they are perhaps one of these people who are fearful of trying to go after their goals, or they doubt their abilities, or they are lazy, or they are influenced by society. These people are also searching for a solution, which we know only comes about from them taking action, but if we are continually dedicated to helping encourage, motivate, uplift, and inspire others, even just from simple acts as posting motivational quotes and content, we may just become the reason they get off their butt and get to work on changing their life. Our happiness, our attitude, our behaviors, and our success, can easily become contagious, but only if we continue to promote it.

We want to be a leader, and inspire others to enhance their life. Some of the most important qualities of being a leader include being a visionary, being open minded, being assertive, being happy, being empathetic, being grateful, being influential, and of course, being inspiring. Let's not be distracted or dismayed by the number of followers we have though, because it's not about the number of followers we have, it's about the number of lives we can potentially influence and change. Sure, we want as many people to see our content as possible so we can change more and more lives, as that is exposure after all, but if we continually concern ourselves over the number of followers we have on social media, we take our attention away from the very purpose of what we are trying to achieve in the first place. Those who genuinely want to change their life for the better, and perhaps need that inspiration, encouragement, and motivation, to remain focused on achieving their goal, they will follow on their own accord, in their own time. Those who choose to withdraw from following you, or they choose not to follow you at all, obviously make the choice to do so because they would rather continue to engage in negativity, and that's their prerogative. You can't inspire change and positivity upon every one, but you can start with one, and still create inspiration and positivity in the world. Ultimately, your aim should never be to build a list of followers anyway, it should be about building a list of leaders, people who can go on to succeed and positively influence others off the back of your inspiration and encouragement. It's leaders that generate change, not followers. So irrespective of the fact that I only have a couple of hundred followers personally and businesswise, I am not going to allow that to distract me from continuing on to inspire others to achieve their goals, and supporting them to create the life of their desire. For me, it's leadership over followers every time! I am not going to buy followers, or seek to drag people in to liking my profile. Those who want to follow, who are goals driven, and seeking motivation and encouragement in their own life, they will follow on their own accord. For me, I will continue to lead by example, and progress with the journey to achieve my own life goal, whilst seeking to help, encourage, uplift, support, motivate, and inspire others along the journey. Never be dismayed by the number of followers you have, because it's the positive change you are attempting to inspire is what matters!

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