The Character of Initiative

Character Leadership - The Character of Initiative

"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." - Conrad Hilton

Definition:   The power or ability to begin or to follow through energetically with a plan or task; enterprise and determination without prompting or direction from others.

Resistance to change, Refusing to put forth effort, and Laziness are the opposites of initiative. People with these negative traits will not see the goodness they can have; rather only the work and effort that is required for them to finish a task because they will not consider it worth their endeavor to do well in their job. They are like a virus and will also cause others to follow their lead into laziness and excuse making!   

The character of initiative, on the other hand, will motivate a person to recognize and do what is needed before being asked to do it. This character will help power us though set backs, failures and adversities. However, not all initiative can be good, as it may sometimes lead us away from our original intention and objective. We have to be discerning that our motivations side by side with the rest of the other good character traits. If not, we may motivate ourselves into the wrong direction, and rationalize all kinds of excuses when things do not turn out right.

Reflection:

Ask yourself; “What are the issue is my life that would improve with more initiative?” Yesterday is already gone, tomorrow is not here yet so the only time to do anything is today. Continually postponing projects encourages laziness which shows a lack of initiative. Initiative will motivate us to start something without being told to do so and this habit is beneficial to us.

As Character leaders, we must extend ourselves to other people with initiative and what flows out of initiative are potential leadership skills and potential wealth and knowledge. A person with initiative focuses on the problem and in doing so finds solutions to solve it. A person who criticizes without doing anything to help solve the problem becomes part of the problem as he causes others to be distracted or become negative. A person with initiative helps others rather than wait to be helped. Leaders fall under this category.