Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Five Things I Learned By Losing 50 Pounds

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those examples, and it’s about lessons on leadership I learned by losing 50 pounds.

For over twenty years, I had stayed in the same 20-pound weight range. I had tried a variety of diets and exercise regimens, but nothing ever moved me out of that range, nor had any of them ever become a long-term lifestyle. I convinced myself that I simply had a stocky build, and even had a sense of pride about my larger size. And I believed that I was much healthier than I actually was. But then I was confronted with the realization that I was very overweight, out of shape, and unhealthy. My doctor had to prescribe medications to treat the effects of my poor health, and a family member confronted me about my overeating. I realized that I was endangering not only my own life, but also the care and well-being of my family.

It was then that I embarked on a journey that (literally) changed me into a different person. I changed some of my eating behaviors, incorporated several tools to help me maintain a daily awareness, and gradually implemented moderate exercise. The results shocked me – I consistently lost several pounds a week, losing a total of 50 pounds in just under four months to reach my goal weight. My greatest moment of joy came when I was able to once again wear the leather bomber jacket that my wife had given me at our wedding 26 years ago. As I traveled along this journey, I began to identify reasons why I was succeeding this time, when I had tried so many times before without the same results. What I saw was that there were certain specific behaviors important to my success, behaviors that kept me going and produced consistent results. After I reached my goal and reflected back on those behaviors, I realized that not only did they help me accomplish that weight-loss goal, but they also represented some very valuable and practical lessons on leadership. So, here are five lessons on leadership I learned by losing 50 pounds:

• Everyone wants to know your secret. After it started becoming noticeable that I was losing weight, people would ask me what are doing to lose weight, typically for one of two reasons: 1) they were looking for a trick, something easy and simple that they could do to also lose weight but without a lot of effort; or 2) they wanted to know what I had done so that they could do exactly the same thing and get the same results. The same thing happens in leadership. People will read books or attend seminars so they can copy someone else’s pattern or uncover the secret. But there is no secret, and if you try to be someone else, you are not being authentic and genuine.
• There are only a few core behaviors. It should not be a surprise that my weight loss and fitness really boiled down to diet, exercise, and a handful of core behaviors. It started with making better food choices and exercising in moderation. I found and added a couple of other accountability behaviors that worked for me, and the result was consistent, noticeable weight loss. Again, the same is true for leadership. There are lots of principles, theories, and ideas on leadership; far too many for any one person to use. But there are certain core principles and behaviors that show up in leadership research over and over. You need to learn, understand, and apply those core behaviors, and to use them in a way that matches who you are.
• It requires discipline and effort. There was no simple trick to my weight loss and fitness change. It took hard work, and one of the most important things I did was to keep moving forward, exercising when I didn’t feel like it, and resisting the urge to eat what I shouldn’t. Likewise, leadership is not easy. It requires discipline and effort, and there are times when you want to quit, but you must steel yourself to keep going, to not give in to those pressures. Keep doing what needs to be done. Keep leading, and keep leading in the right way.
• Moderation is essential. I knew that if I had jumped right into an intensive workout routine, it wouldn’t last. So I started with a little bit and made incremental increases. By the time I reached my goal weight, I had very gradually worked up to a moderate but consistent level. It worked because I didn’t overcommit at the beginning, and I made incremental, manageable improvements. Effective leadership understands that moderation is a key to success. If you overcommit your energy and resources before you’ve built up stamina and strength, you will run out of gas. Be balanced in your approach.
• It needs to be enjoyable. I eliminated unhealthy and artificial products, but I also ate food that tasted good and treated myself with some things that I thoroughly enjoy, but I ate them in moderation (see point 4, above). While eating healthy and natural, I also ate food that I could enjoy eating, and allowed myself rewards and treats because I knew that denying them completely would likely result in overindulgence if, or when, I gave in. In the same way, the work of leadership needs to be enjoyable. That doesn’t mean that it will easy, but you should be getting a sense of satisfaction from the work you are doing. So you need to find enjoyment in it, and you need to provide rewards along the way.

There’s one other lesson I learned, a bonus lesson, but it’s not actually a separate lesson; rather, it is a lesson that is woven through the other five. The bonus lesson is this: It has to be sustainable. All the work I had done would have been fruitless if, six months later, it was not something I could have maintained. Your leadership style and practice need to match who you are while focusing on core behaviors with incremental improvement, and it needs to bring you joy. Therefore, these five lessons, and the ideas they represent, have to be applied in a way that makes them sustainable. Don’t try to do things in a way that you can’t keep up, because you won’t.

I am in a much healthier place in my life now. In the process of getting there, but along the way, I also found some principles that transfer to a healthy approach to leadership. Ultimately, this change in my life that made me better also made me a better leader. There is no secret. Start with key core behaviors of good leadership, work hard, be balanced, and find joy. Do these things, and you will cultivate healthy and sustainable leadership.