Have a personal board of directors as role models and decision makers
Summary
- Choose a group of individuals who have qualities and attributes that you want to imitate and put them on your theoretical 'board of directors'
Details
- Every time you need to make a decision, figure out what the board of directors would answer.
- Chose individuals who have high values and character
- Over time, we will internalize their values and it will be automatic to think, reason and feel like the people you have chosen as your board.
References
Quotes
Look around, find the best examples you can of people with the attributes you want to cultivate—the people whose default behavior is your desired behavior, those who inspire you to raise the bar and make you want to be a better version of yourself. Your exemplars needn’t be alive. They can be either dead or fictional, as well. We can learn from both Atticus Finch and Warren Buffett, along with Genghis Khan and Batman. It’s up to you.
Put all of your exemplars on your “personal board of directors,” a concept that originates with author Jim Collins:Back in the early ’80s, I made Bill [Lazier] the honorary chairman of my personal board of directors. And when I chose members . . . they were not chosen for their success. They were chosen for their values and their character. . . . They’re the sorts of people I wouldn’t want to let down. The exemplars on your personal board can be a mix of high accomplishment and high character. The only requirement is that they have a skill, attitude, or disposition you want to cultivate in yourself. They don’t have to be perfect. All people have flaws, and your personal board will be no different. But everyone is better than us at something. Our job is to figure out what that something is and learn from it while ignoring the rest
It’s not enough just to pick exemplars and assemble a personal board of directors. You also have to follow their example—not just once or twice, but again and again. Only then will you internalize the standards they embody, and become the kind of person you want to be. Imitating your exemplars involves creating space in the moment to exercise reason and evaluate your thoughts, feelings, and possible courses of action. Doing this retrains past patterns of behavior so they align more closely with the patterns of your exemplars.