The Meaning Manifesto

100 powerful ideas and strategies to Lead with Meaning

by Francesco Ferzini

«The artist must have something to say, mastery over form is not his goal but adaption of form to its inner meaning.»

Wassily Kandinsky

1. Leadership is all about meaningLeadership is no longer about position, seniority, titles, money, and the like.

Leadership is all about attitude and passion but it has nothing to do with some sort of egoic personality.

It comes deep from within, from the Soul.

What we deem valuable drives our own behavior and makes us the kind of people we are today.

The ultimate and necessary condition of life purposes is meaning. Leadership is all about meaning, as Life itself is.

2. The choice is yoursDo not get lost in procrastination and futile wishful thinking. You were not born to live a mediocre and fearful life.

Our natural state of being is Joy and we all have the ability to live a happy life and express the best of ourselves in all the areas of our lives that we deem meaningful.

Your life is a sum of choices. The present is a sum of choices you made in the past and the future will be a sum of choices you are making from now on.

Spend zero time on the past and keep an eye on the future. Remember, the only real power lies in the present and not in some sort of conceptual timeline.

The choice is yours.

3. Before you focus on your goals and strategyFocus on your inner world.

We live in a complex and interconnected real-time digital world. Time has become a scarce commodity in the hectic multitasking globe we live in.

Fact is that many keep listening to their seemingly unstoppable mental chatter. A structured and conditioned way to suffocate the soul. Focusing on the conditioned mind results in spending lots of time busy, just being busy: decisions are based on past data, we change our mind every 5 minutes, we are not really focused.

This is the main reason to direct your focus inside yourself, long before focusing on anything else.

Listen to your real Self and discover what you really want out from of your life.

Introspection helps you listen to the messages of your soul and not getting lost in the labyrinth of your tricky mind.

4. The power of being of service to othersProbably, one of the main problems of the entire human species in pretending to be other than the soul is the illusory and deceptive dream of power.

Power has been largely misunderstood and we have come to believe it means having power over others. We all learn competition (instead of cooperation) from a very early age. 

Let's look at the organizational behavior of many companies, for instance. Many firms want maximum profits, thrive on ROI, want to cut costs (especially the major fixed cost: HR) and express their power inside and out the company. Business schools offer electives on Strategic customer leadership, Strategic cost leadership, and so on. MBA students learn the dream of achieving power climbing the ladder. 

I guess that most of the time we got it all wrong.

Power is a inner game and means having the strength to overcome ourselves, win over our doubts and fears, and be Top-class performers. 

To be a leader, artist, merchant of meaningful wows you do not need to have power over others.

You shall be of service to others.

5. Choose your attitude of mindYour attitude comes with you everywhere you go. Always. It is your overall state of mind and it decides the quality of your life.

Neurosciences demonstrated that your willpower is like a muscle. It can be energized and empowered with certain energy qualities and by stretching beyond your comfort zone. On the contrary, apathy and inertia can arise from the habituation of unproductive negative energy (thoughts/emotions). Any state of mind involving negative emotions (fear, regret, sadness, stress, etc) that becomes habitual undermines the quality of your life and sabotages your way to success.

Identify your wrong habits and re-design your new life by pushing yourself through the limits of your comfort zone. Embrace change and ambiguity and keep exercising daily to build up the attitude and life you dream of. 

Choose not to give away your power to negative energies and adopt a brand new mindset and attitude.

«The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can altertheir lives by altering their attitude of mind.»

William James

6. The quality of your inner talkAs you know, your beliefs and perception of your potential largely determine the quality of your life.

How do talk to yourself? Would you be happy if someone else would talk to you in the way you do?

Self-responsibility means taking charge of your own thoughts and emotions and beliefs and way of being in the world. 

It means treating yourself (and others) in a very gentle way and learning to be your own best boss.

7. Inspiration and action drive performanceThomas Edison wrote that "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." 

It is important for you to nourish your soul with beauty and art. Inspiration and insightful ideas are essential. However, no matter how super and outstanding your idea might be, if you take no action nothing will happen and if you do not practice with dedication you will not master your dreams into reality.

8. Success is the result of your lifestyleYou were born limitless, with no ego, with no borders, without fears and doubts.

What about now? What stops you from achieving your dreams? What interferes with your soul growth?

If you are not challenging yourself, chances are that you fell for the illusory seduction of being safe. At this stage, boredom kicks in. Life becomes a daily, boring, risky... routine.

At the heart of dreams and personal excellence we find discipline.

Self-discipline is the result of a choice of yours. It is the result of a new lifestyle, hard word, devotion, and perseverance. The seduction of the comfort zone gives birth to the inertia of the status quo. Stretch. Push yourself over the limits and lean into your fears and doubts.

Keep learning and exercising your wonderful skills, day by day.

Nourish your soul and let it capture your heart.

9. Prioritize your successTime as become a scarce commodity, not to be wasted. 

Undoubtedly, you have many interests and you dream of a 60-hour day to have more time to do what you want. However, 24 hours a day are more than enough to accomplish whatever you desire. The trick is not to be seduced and act on things that just feel urgent. Instead of being reactive, you shall prioritize and be proactive on things that are important (on the long run, these will be the pedestal of your success).

First, make a list of things that you want or need to do and spot the ones that are really important versus the ones that just feel urgent.

Generally, the valuable and meaningful and important things in life do not feel very urgent so you should learn not to fall into the urgency trap. 

The urgency trap might be subtle and steal your focus from important matters. Sure, not a problem recognizing things that are both urgent and important, but what about things that are urgent and not important? And things that are important but not urgent? 

Taking into account that things that are not urgent and not important are (usually) a total waste of time (e.g. watching TV), how can you prioritize your daily schedule?

Ask yourself what is important and meaningful to you, set your priorities and protect your focus by learning to say no to any distraction.

10. From incompetence to unconscious masteryMost of what we do is unconscious.

A model that clearly explains this process is the 4 stages of competence.

At first, we are unconsciously incompetent. Ignorant.

Then, we become conscious of something we do not know. Consciously incompetent. At this stage, we feel anxiety and stress. It is the most difficult part for many. It is the dip and it takes motivation, perseverance, willpower, and strength to go on to the next level.

Here's where you are invited to challenge yourself, leave your comfort zone, experience discomfort, lean into your fears, and push through your limits. 

Then, as you stretch your willpower, you start becoming competent. At the conscious competence stage, you are a practitioner and keep refining your skills until you become unconsciously competent.

You develop super new habits which translate into a "Can do attitude".

Then, a 5th stage may be added to the model: the intuitive excellence that leads to unconscious mastery.

11. If you want to play world-class in business, in your new venture, in your art, and in any other realm of your life and achieve a mastery level of excellence, you have to love discipline.

Discipline is all about being committed to managing yourself, being very clear about what you want, and do what needs to be done to achieve it (prioritize and say no to the time wasters!). Success necessitates a committed discipline, practice, dedication, perseverance, and quality habits that determine your performance on the long run.

Success does not happen overnight. Mastery is a process.

It takes time, hard work and discipline. 

12. Protecting your focus is extremely importantBut, what are you focusing on? Are you focusing on your realistic and reasonable mastery goals or are you motivated by someone else's desires?

Who is the dreamer? Do you want to improve yourself and your life or are are you motivated by some ego-driven motives? Are you really committed by a strong desire to express your potential and getting better and better? 

It is very important for you to think about the Why you are doing something not to lose sight of your real objectives in life, if you want to earn your success.

13. Not getting what you want? Change your habits!As we know, most of what we do is unconscious, and the quality of our routines largely determines our performance and the quality of the Life we live.

We run around our habitual patterns and, most of them are out of our awareness. Habitual ways of talking, behaving, feeling, thinking, and so on. We structure maps and we conceptualize what we call reality through our filters. 

We create our states of being (the sum of all our emotional-mental-behavioral experiences in any given moment) which, in turn, control our system. If we live by super-habits we are on the road to getting better and better. If not, it's time to change our habits.

(According to the University College of London's study, it takes an average 66 days to form a new habit).

14. Do not waste time on past issuesOur mental thinking is not the only reality; and, more than often our frames of reference are built around some conclusion we attached to an event or experience on which we keep referring to for our decision making process. 

Change perspective. Every experience is unique and, to live a epic and joyful Life, you really need to challenge yourself to push through the limits you have given birth to in the past and do not let them govern your present and future.

Attitude is everything.

15. Aiming for masteryMastery requires a incremental approach. As the old motto says, Rome was not built in one day.

Mastery is a step by step process and it requires dedication, will, perseverance, passion and love for what you do.

In simple words, to structure our energies to achieve the desired objectives we need to stretch ourselves and, at the same time, enjoy the process.

We learn through experiences and the road to mastery is a learning process. Step by step.

16. New Leadership and the role of responsibilityYour publics are vital to your business more than ever—you have a potentially universal audience.

Employees are not less important and should be considered responsible and professional people, not costs or lazy people who do their best to avoid the responsibilities you are not willing to give them. If you think so, you might have a problem within the company you are leading.

As I wrote in "Marketing PRopaganda: from attention to the meaning economy", trust is vitally important in the workplace. Speed and agility and a proactive attitude are primary and basic rules within a company. Managing companies with the help of emotional trade-offs is not suggested in a knowledge-intense era that requires response-ability and robust sense of meaningfulness between humans—a unified human culture.

Be savvy with regard to technology and people and serve supreme meanings—the core ingredients for a perfect mix. Be outstanding. Be more than sublime by creating new meanings and exceeding expectations.

You'll be rewarded.

«Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many

alternatives.»

William A. Foster

17. Actualize your ideasIdeas without actions are just worthless wishful thinking. Isolate them, refine them, and develop them into strategic and meaningful actions. 

Do not let your mind float around.

Focus and make things happen.

18. Excellence in the Meaning economyNowadays, things haven't changed much if compared to ancient Greece. As Aristotele wrote, "Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."

In the semantic environment we live in, our habits largely determine the quality of our lives. If you want to be successful and achieve your desired outcomes, you cannot afford the luxury of wasting your time and energy with limiting thoughts, weak mental images or movies, and toxic habits.

Your ultimate source of freedom is your power of choice. Choose wisely and focus on what is truly important and meaningful to you. Remember, you are what you repeatedly do.

19. Tips on how to concentrate + maintain your focusIn the Meaning economy, the world is full of distractions. We are overloaded by content and bombarded by information. We are infoxicated. If you lose your concentration and focus you will end up with a major decrease in efficiency and productivity.

Here are few simple tips for you to improve your ability to focus:

1. Set clear goals (clarity is ultra-important)2. Focus on the attainment of goals that are truly important and meaningful.

Prioritize appropriately and concentrate solely on one thing at a time. To be more efficient and productive, stop multitasking!

3. Banish limiting thoughts and toxic mental images (positive self-talk is extremely important). Transcend doubts and fears and totally focus on the present moment. Clear your mind from distractions and focus on what you need to do with a fierce optimism. Have a supreme confidence in yourself.

4. Avoid to work long hours without taking short breaks.5. It takes energy to focus. Be careful about your diet and avoid junk food or

food items that can get you in a sluggish state of being (e.g. the ones rich in sugar or fat). Balance and moderation are two key elements to live a happy and joyful life.

6. Exercise your body-mind-soul system. Thanks to its neuroplasticity, the brain is like a muscle that can be exercised as your body. Nourish your soul with beauty and art.

7. Choose to be totally responsible of your choices and your inner world.8. Take your time to breathe, relax and enjoy yourself.

As Aristotele wrote, "we are what we repeatedly do." Remember that the quality your routine and habits largely determines the quality of your life.

20. The easiest formulaSuccess in any area of your life does not have anything to do with luck. It requires discipline, practice, and perseverance.

We all know the importance of setting goals to achieve the desired results but sometimes the biggest goals might be so overwhelming that are just to far away from the present moment. Authentic meaning, a sense of purpose and direction, clarity of values and vision are critical elements to the process.

Goals need not to be opaque but very clear and kept at the forefront of your mind throughout the day.Rome was not built in one day, so it is important for you to break down your big goals into micro short-term goals which need to be very specific (e.g. 5 goals a day).

Prioritize appropriately and concentrate solely on one thing at the time without wasting any time with futile distractions.

Your focus shall be on the attainment of the big goals that are truly important and meaningful to you. 

Short term coupled with long term is your road to success. Excellence is a step by step process.

21. Mental practice to World-class performanceMental practice and rehearsal is important as the actual practice. As we know, olympic athletes and other world-class top performers use imagery or visualization to perform better.

Essentially, rehearsing is the mental activity of practicing and visualizing something in your mind, using all of your senses, to achieve the desired outcome. Basically, we feed our brain with informations to be processed. In this way, just using your imagination, a network of neural coded programs that activate physiological responses is activated (our brain dictates movements to be carried out). Simply, mental practice strengthens your neural interconnections as an excellent way to support your training and skill development.

When you practice, use all of your senses (see, hear, feel) and dive in it in real time. Practice. Practice. Practice. Make it very realistic, ultra precise, and focus on imagining as vivid as possible the scenario you are visualizing.

By mastering your mind, you will master your Life and dreams.

(At the beginning, start with simple visualizations. Relax, breathe deeply, and avoid any distraction. Eventually, you will be able to practice anywhere and anytime).

22. We are such stuff as thoughts are made onMost of what we do is unconscious and our self-talk is no exception. We keep talking to ourselves and our dialogue is not always positive.

Many times, we tell ourselves we are not able to do something or we are not good enough.

We are constantly representing, encoding, interpreting, evaluating, and making meaning of pretty much everything. 

Our inner voice is called self-talk and can be either supporting and helpful or toxic, destructive, and sabotaging. Negative self-talk undermines our abilities and our self esteem. It is extremely important to get rid of any negative thought and substitute it immediately with a positive one. Your perception of yourself largely determines the quality of the Life you are living.

• Stop any negative self-talk• Have quality standards. With your self-reflexive consciousness, think and re-

think about your thoughts and feelings.• Abolish all of your prejudices, about yourself and about others.• Accept your vulnerability, your fallibility, and your imperfections. No one is

perfect. Failing just means learning to get better.• Build your self-confidence. Success takes discipline, practice, and

perseverance. Mastery is a step-by-step process and by practicing you will get better and better, building confidence in your skills and abilities. This will boost your self-esteem as well.

Replace any negative thought with a positive self-talk. Reframe any negative talk and avoid any low-level mental chatter.

Fundamentally, it means taking care of yourself and treating yourself with the due respect. Our internal dialogue affects self-esteem and our confidence in our skills and abilities. Positive self-talk will help you to raise your standard and achieve your goals. It helps boost your confidence and build up optimism, it keeps you away from stress and depressing or disturbing thoughts, it reduces anxiety and stress, and it helps you improve your performance in any area of your life.

Stop the mental chatter and listen/speak with your heart.

23. Be mentally resilientControlling your state of being is ultra-important for being mentally resilient. And, resilience is top-important for your well-being and for your success in any area of your life. 

We are quick to use heuristics and shortcuts to create our habits and, ironically, we condition ourselves to mediocrity and punish quality with our inadequate responses to the present moment.

We, as human beings, are gloriously fallible and vulnerable. We shall accept this and understand that failing shall not be considered mental-seppuku, or worse!  Our reality is a continuous exchange of stimulus and responses, energy and information.

For this reason, it is extremely important to control our psycho and physiological responses when aroused by the external stimuli of the environment and do not give our power to illusions. We need to challenge ourselves and face reality as it is with all its beauty and gifts.

Sure, setbacks do exist and it all depends on how we react to them. Take fear, for example, when we are stressed or feel the perception of danger, our body reacts by releasing cortisol and endorphin. It is a perfectly natural response to any stressful event and it is important to control yourself, do not overreact and never give up.

There is a simple technique to control arousal which is breathing deeply to relax. Breath deeply 5x5 times! Begin inhaling deeply for 5 second and then exhaling steadily for 5 second for one or two minutes. It is a very simple way to calm you down and release tension. 

Failing is learning. Keep calm, learn, improve. Do, Act.

Fail again.

Repeat.

24. GritDiscipline. Will-power. Practice. Passion. Perseverance.

Grit.

Good ideas and thoughts without effective action, discipline, and perseverance are just wishful thinking. In life, scope and purpose are vital with regards to our priorities and objectives. Passion is the fuel that keeps all of it alive and running.Grit is a fundamental trait to make and deliver your best art.

Fundamentally, grit is resilience. It is jumping back on your feet when you encounter challenges and setbacks. As NLPers say, "failure is just feedback".

That is it. Embrace challenges and ambiguity. Think strategically. Never give up. 

25. Learn to meditate effectivelyOur mind is very chatty by its own nature. Meditation helps you to calm your mind and channel your attention to usher awareness.

Ancient wisdom tells us the many benefits of meditation, and recent scientific research highlights that improved cognition can be achieved only after few weeks of practice and dedication.

Meditation for fifteen or twenty minutes a day will surely provide you with extraordinary results in few months. As an inexpensive stress reliever, you may enjoy a better response to stress and negative emotions and many benefits such as the positive effects it has on your mind and, consequently, on your holistic system.

26. Stress? Survival is not enoughStress is not always negative. A little stress is a challenge for us to evolve and stretch beyond our limits. On the other hand, too much stress leads to distress and it is totally unproductive. Too much stress means low energy levels, playing the victim, foggy decision making, anger, worry and doubt, fear, disturbing thoughts, lack of mental clarity, hiding from taking ownership of your own powers. Stress can be either positive or negative. Constructive or destructive.

In Life, it is likely you will experience stress. However, think about reality in terms of a stimulus and response game, where energy and information are continually exchanged between the parties.

You shall be held responsible of your own responses. 

Many people live a conditioned and passive life made up by stereotypes, prejudices, a unhealthy lifestyle, and the like. They react to events. Their automaton thinking style makes them react impulsively and, most of the time, in a totally inappropriate and inadequate manner.

It is essential for you to know yourself and truly understand how to manage the inevitable stresses you will encounter. We live in a world where stress is considered a major epidemic.

Key to survival is the ability to manage your own states of being and stresses you will encounter.

Survival is not enough.

27. Train your body but don't forget your brainWe all know the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and the positive outcomes of doing regular exercise. On the other hand, many focus on the body and forget the brain.

Your brain is just like your muscles and needs exercise as well. The brain is not immutable after childhood but remains plastic into adulthood as well. Its plasticity means that we can strengthen our internal interconnection pathways and get stronger. Just to mention a few benefits, exercising the brain helps improving concentration, focus, and willpower.

Challenge yourself and go to your limits. Stretch boundaries and push yourself out of your comfort zone. Your mental capacity can be built and improved.

On the other hand, if you spend your evenings as a couch potato, passively watching TV and eating Junk food you are not doing any good to your brain, your body, and certainly not nourishing your soul with divine content.

Interrupt your daily habits and explore something new every day. Keep challenging yourself by being committed to Life. 

Stay cool and stay Rock!

28. Be a Wilhelm Tell Wilhelm Tell is a Swiss folk hero. He was an expert archer with his crossbow. The legend recounts that Austrian tyrants, seeking to invade the (Swiss) region of Uri, raised a pole with one of their lord’s hat on its tip in the central square of the village of Altdorf, and they required all the villagers to bow in front of it.

It was 1307. 

Wilhelm Tell passed by without bowing. As a punishment, he was forced to take a shot at an apple positioned on his son’s head. He split the apple. However, he also had a hidden spare bolt he would have used to target the imperial Vogt. It is believed that Wilhelm Tell played a leading role in the rebellion that eventually led to the formation of the Swiss Confederation.

He was forced to target the apple. Your stakeholders are not an apple. People should not bow in front of a hat. Your customers do not like to be named “targets.” Meanings need to be altered for a better service. The word target is no longer tempting in today’s e-market world of ideas and meaning. Meanings need to be altered for a better life.

We are all interconnected (not only online) and it is absolutely foolish to believe that what is happening on the other side of the world is none of our business. The world is our business. We are so hypnotized by the powerful propaganda of the mass media, the mass economy, the mass religion, the mass-herd, that we are totally conditioned to insanity.

Become an expert archer with your heart. The world you live in is a state of mind you are largely contributing to, by giving your energy to it. Be a leader. Be Wilhelm Tell against the tyranny of the global ego.

29. Take short breaks to be ultra productiveIn the meaning economy focus is extremely important. Vital. Prioritize and set your goals but do not forget to take short breaks in between. We are not robots. We are human beings and we usually rely on heuristics and rules of thumb.

Our brain is a terrific tool but we are often overwhelmed by complexity. 

Infoxication is not welcomed. Take short breaks. Stretch your body. Go for a walk. Do not work long hours without a break. To help you in this task, set a time limit. For instance, work on a important task for a couple of hours and take short breaks every little while, and then go for a walk or have a little rest to re-energize yourself. 

Online, I just discovered the pomodoro technique and I guess it is something you may consider. However, we are all unique and you may prefer setting the alarm clock or timer on your mobile or some other great idea of yours.

Prioritize. Optimize. Focus. One task at a time. No multitasking allowed!

30. Focus on your most important meaningsToday, in a highly dynamic and volatile media environment, we consume content across a panoply of devices and rely on multiple sources of information, experiencing a hybrid media landscape. We have lots of choices available and less time. We are bombarded by content and attention has become a scarce commodity. 

But, what about meaning? 

For many of us, it is extremely difficult to be present and passionately focussed on the work or activity in front of us. The world wants our attention. We are continuously distracted. We are not properly focussed on what's truly important for us in our lives.

We are now in the meaning economy and what really drives us is meaning. Once you have found your meaningful objectives, you shall decide where to channel your precious attention to. No matter if you have lots of tasks to accomplish. Do one thing at a time, from the most important to the least important. Be very careful with regards to your perception of what's important and what is urgent. Often, the most urgent things are the least important, whilst the important ones do not feel so urgent (but they're the basis of your long-term success!).

Never trade quality for quantity. If you want to deliver your best and be (much more) efficient and productive you shall be absolutely responsible of your focus and where you are channeling your energy. Remember: energy follows thought. 

Stop multitasking and focus on your most important meanings.

31. Nourish yourself with healthy foods for your body, mind, and soul.

We live in a complex world and we need all of our energy to perform at our best.

Our meanings require energy to channel our attention towards our desired outcomes. We cannot afford the luxury of sabotaging ourselves with junk in terms of thoughts and foods.

When you feel dizzy, a lack of energy, and your body is telling you that you need to eat, avoid to grab the nearest thing to gulp down. We all know that nutrition is extremely important and vital for our functioning and you can find a lot of studies and researches on how junk food negatively affects our health. Opt for something healthier and avoid food items that are fat or super-ultra rich in sugar (check out Nancy Appleton's blog about this) that can make you sluggish, de-energized, and disempowered.

Remember: nutrition is not exclusively related to food. The Japanese know this well and, as far as their delicious cuisine is concerned, much effort is put on the art of food presentation: you eat with your eyes first, they say. 

Nourish your soul with beauty, art, higher qualities and virtues.

32. No need for fear in your Life"There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so." (William Shakespeare).

Fear is an intense emotional response to dangerous circumstances, real or conceptual and imagined. A threat, for instance, can trigger the same emotional response as a real life situation. In a real life situation, fear can have a positive function and save your life. On the other hand, we cannot pretend we have no fears. Deep inside, each one of us is frightened by something, to a conscious or unconscious level. Few of us are trained as Navy Seals or S.W.A.T or S.A.S or The Royal Thai Army and, yeah, without doubt no human being cannot pretend to have no fears.

The world is going through a profound and deep change. Marketing and business are transforming. The old Leadership model is now obsolete. It is time for a change and to understand who we really are and make a simple choice: not to live in fear and give away our power to these low vibrations.

It is time to stretch and lean into our fears and doubts.

To challenge ourselves and stop trusting our fears. To win the inner game, push yourself to face your fears and do things you do not really like. Understand your fears and get to know yourself better.

Fear is just a part of yourself you have not yet understood and welcomed.

33. You can lead without a title, not without meaningI just love Robin Sharma's art and I do perfectly agree with his mantra: anyone can lead without a title. The world is changing fast. There's been a revolution in the way people communicate. Marketing has changed more in the last few years than any other business discipline. Business is transforming and people are taking back their personal power. Old models are obsolete and every single individual on the planet has the power to drive positive change from wherever they are.

On the other hand, people cannot lead if they struggle to find meaning in their world and life. 

As human beings, we are a semantic species and we are meaning-makers. We create meaning and, ultimately, it is meaning that governs our inner world. As a recent research on leadership demonstrates, those who lead from within outperform those who lead with additional and external outcomes and rewards.

Just think about Viktor Frankl.  By quoting Nietzsche’s “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how” as a could-be guiding motto for all psychotherapeutic and psycho-hygienic efforts regarding prisoners, Frankl wrote, “One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment.” He considered what he defined as “Super Meaning” as the ultimate meaning necessarily exceeding and surpassing the finite intellectual capacities of men.

To this regard, he developed logotherapy (logos meaning deeper than logic) focusing on the will to meaning as the worth of life, which is based on the premise that human beings’ primary motivational force is to find meaning in life, which is opposed to existence being driven by power or pleasure, as proposed by Adler and Freud.

Meaning added to intention equals intentional meaning and influences our realities. We construct the reason for which we want or desire something.

From meaning, we give birth to everything we deem valuable. 

From meaning, from your soul, you can lead without a title.

What makes a top performer is meaning.

 «But he that dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose.»

Anne Brontë

34. Leadership is all about attitude, meaning, and choicesHowever, there are three ultra-important R's not to be forgotten: 

• Responsibility or response-ability: Life is a series of choices. A continuous exchange of stimulus and responses, energy and information. There is always a gap between a stimulus and a response, a choice. Your choice. Absolute responsibility of yourself and your inner world is fundamental.

• Respect: Take care of yourself and your world in the broad sense of the term. We are a big family living on a big planet part of a big Universe. We are One and we shall understand that mutual respect in every interaction is vital. How we treat nature and other people just mirrors how we treat ourselves.

• Reciprocity: this is about interconnection and authentic relationships, built on a robust meaning and a mutual and reciprocal exchange of energies. In other words, helping and being of service to others.

We are now living in a period of deep changes and everything radically changing. It's a big time for changing everything and start to live without fears and without giving our power away or allowing low level vibration into ourselves. It is time to apply the Law of the 3R.

35. The Meaning economyTechnology developments have been impressive. The web, cybernetics, medicine, artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology, the quest of immortality at Singularity, the quest for transplanting the human brain into robotic units, and human consciousness into the virtual world at Global Future 2045, et cetera. 

The new channels of thought and communication have become the greatest medium to reach a potentially universal public, and the approach to information management shifted to treating human cognitive aspects as attention to being a scarce commodity.

Epistemology and semantics have always been core, fundamental traits of human life. The scarcity of consumer attention is no longer a limiting factor when a rich sense of meaningfulness is attributed to any experience. We live in a knowledge-intense semantic world, and we are a semantic and symbolic class of life.

Every decision we make is often built around pure emotional states, and we tend to justify our behavior and actions with rational and intellectual thinking. Emotions are governed by meaning and meaning is a man-made creation.

Meaning is the ultimate and most critical element in human life. Just imagine living a meaningless life with no purpose or direction; even in the socialization era, your social sphere and willpower would collapse.

Despite the fact that we live too close to our planet to grasp its wholeness at the outside of our constructed realities, social intercourse between humans still depends on communication, and we need the cooperation of other people for everything we need, want, or desire in our lives. The secret of success lies in effective communication added to compelling and meaningful experiences.

The ability to influence opinions and establish attitudes through PRopaganda is well-known throughout history. The Fathers of propaganda developed strategies to mold public opinion, broadcast their word to a large number of people, and manufacture consent. To date, the new media avenues give the opportunity to transmit ideas and relate to and interact directly with others at a tremendous velocity, bypassing the conventional mass media filters, time, and geo-limits. As a preliminary remark, no two people are alike in the whole world, but established and unified attitudes may be manufactured. The study of meaning—how it is conveyed through language and signs, how it is interpreted, how it affects neurology and the differences that come into play between different cultures—is a basic requirement for every effective communicator. 

Blurring the line between virtual and reality, there are a multitude of new highways of thought to approach the public mind. All these means by which human beings communicate to one another, are instruments to propagate opinions and ideas to influence, mold, and form the will of others—in other words, PRopaganda.

Securing attention is the very first step to induce action. But, what’s in between before a decision is made? Awareness leads to interpretation, and perceptions are the result of the processing of information governed by the meanings people have created as their worlds of reality. Well-timed and highly relevant content needs to be imbued with meaning. Human nature needs meaning. To seduce minds, it is imperative to get to the heart of things and explore human knowledge and motives, adding meaning to the formula. 

How do your publics know what they know and what it means to them?

Leadership is all about shared meanings.

36. Meaning is the ultimate and most critical element in human lifeMeaning is the most critical element on earth and we cannot live without it. Jung said that "we shall stand against complete atomization into nothingness or meaninglessness. Man cannot stand a meaningless life."

The ultimate and necessary condition of life purposes is meaning. However, meaning does not exist out there in the world. You are the meaning-maker. The meaning-creator.

Life without purpose and direction cannot be depicted as Life. Taking into account that excellence is a process that is given birth from having a vision, creating and developing super clear goals and priorities and be very specific on where we want to go plus the fact that meaning is what we deem really valuable and important, we already have a formula to develop our specific world-class efficiency skills to mastery.

Focus on what really matters.

37. Unhappy? Change somethingEinstein said that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

In fact, if you keep doing the same thing that does not work you cannot hope for different results.

Please understand that we live in a process world and everything is constantly and rapidly changing. 

Even a small change can lead to unexpected results.

So, interrupt that old pattern and try something new. Do something different, at least one thing.

Change your perception. 

Change your approach.

Change your attitude.

38. In the Meaning economy Attention is not enoughAttention means awareness. 

In today’s complex world, earning attention is fundamental as a first step in the process leading to the desired outcome: intention. Intention comes after attention; it is something that happens inside ourselves. 

We create our own realities—our maps of the world and matrices. We create our meanings.

Meaning begins at the primary level of attention and awareness when we simply link, associate, compare, and contrast things. We upload information in the form of words, symbols, happenings, images, videos, posts, and the like. We paint images inside our heads, and we may even install the same in other people, directing and channeling their thoughts.

Inside our minds, we loop around and process all the inputs by creating new meanings about the meanings we have previously created and attached to the objects of our awareness. Typically, what comes to mind is a re-presentation of something that caught our attention; however, before we make a choice of path motivating and orienting us to make some sort of decision or go in a certain direction, we rely on intention, based on meaning, choice, and what’s socially acceptable.

If you want to communicate effectively and persuasively, you need to create and provide the quality of meanings that promote a deeper educational understanding in other people’s brains. Unless you are able to control every source of information, you cannot have total control of your Marketing PRopaganda, and you need to make it easy for people to connect among themselves to share your Gospel by architecting their decision-making processes and thinking.

Intention and meaning are found at a deeper level of our minds if compared to attention and awareness—a higher level where motivation, wants, and desires reside.

To be the Michelangelo of the mind, you shall rise to higher levels than primary awareness.

39. A leadership mindset driven by meaningNowadays, the relationship between business and public is closer than ever in human history. It is a many-sided relationship.Attention, as we know, is not enough. Relationships are mutually and energetically beneficial only if it is a give & take game.

This is why responsibility, respect, and reciprocity are so important. Vital.To this regard, business imagination is quite important. How do you stand in your public's mind? How do your publics' stand in yours?

Meaning is what we deem valuable and important. What's worth (more) for us.What's needed is a better understanding of who we really are and a more effective and sincere communication between humans. 

A new kind of mindset driven by reciprocal meaning.

40. Leadership is an attitude you decideSometimes, it's easy to get confused and believe that the events you experience are a force beyond your control that shapes your destiny.

Do not buy this lie.

The most critical element lies in how you interpret these events and experiences. You always have the opportunity to choose your attitude and how to respond to any given set of circumstances. It is the meaning you attribute to these circumstances that create your path.

The choice is entirely yours. 

«Nothing can stop a man with the right mental attitudefrom achieving his goal;

nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.»

Thomas Jefferson

41. Have real meaning to your publics and to yourselfThe old methods and models of Leadership, Marketing, and doing business are as archaic and ineffective as advertising methods before the wheel was invented would be today.

Old fashioned approaches shall be transformed into form strong and robust and long-term relationships to build a new and better way of living, world-class quality and excellence.

Reality just mirrors your inner world. Everything starts from within.

Have real meaning to your publics and to yourself.

42. The quality of your Life arises from MeaningWilliam James wrote: "Most people live in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of energy and genius to draw upon of which we do not dream."

That is it. 

The main problem, probably, is that the evolution of many has not kept pace with the social evolution around them. Boring routines, bad habits, and a lack of will are all to be found under a big umbrella with capital letters on it: INERTIA.

Inertia will keep your dreams small and your performance very mediocre. No growth. No personal development. 

Evolution needs energy. We all have a great potential inside ourselves. We all have our dreams and passions. We all have a vision.

Inside yourself you have all the necessary resources to excel in your field of expertise and become who or what you want. Find your inner meaning and you will find your inner strength.

It is how you engage in all the areas of your Life that governs the quality and nature of your Life. As you think, so you will experience.

The quality of your Life will arise from your attitude and your choices. From meaning.

To quote Abraham Maslow, "What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization."

43. Leadership chutzpahThe world is changing fast and the old ways of doing things are no longer working.

For instance, marketing has changed more than any other discipline in the last twenty years, public relations is no longer to be confused with media relations, and the old leadership model is finally obsolete.

Most of us are still grappling with the status quo, hoping to find comfort in the comfort zone they were used to. Fear kicks in with all the worries and doubts that dislike change.

However, this is risky because the comfort zone you were used to in the past is no longer there and it is just an illusory image in your mind.

Face your fears and doubts and worries as fast as you can. Work on them, understand them, and translate them into audacity.

Be willing to do whatever it takes, in spite of all your fears.

Today, in the meaning economy, leadership requires chutzpah.

44. Leading from withinHas become some sort of mantra but, do we really know what leading from within really means?

We are not talking about some noisy mental chatter of ours. We are not talking about leading other people whilst our decision making is made on historical facts and we're just thinking about profit and loss, pleasure and pain, and the like. We are not talking about the projections of our busy minds.

Leading from within is leading with the most profound and deep meanings of our soul, and reunite our hearts with our minds.

Spirituality and a materialistic view of the world shall not be confused as being antithetical. On the contrary, a balance is very welcomed and preciously needed. Leading from within means rediscovering ourselves and who we really are. This is just a new mindset which really comes from the inner meaning of the soul and not the lower and chatty part of our minds. 

It is operating from an internal locus of control and living beyond (external) dependency. Leading from within means taking off all the masks and find your real power.

A super power that is much greater than any fear you may have.

The power of love.

45. New Leadership is self-awareness and ministration (not creating followers)Ministration is the act of serving. The Minstrel was a medieval storyteller, a poet, a musician, a composer, a wandering singer, and much more. 

Jesters were buffoons employed to tell jokes, and Troubadours told stories and sang songs of chivalry and courtly love.  All of them were hired to provide general entertainment to the heads of Monarchy. There are no more Kings as Louis XIV remarking “l’état c’est moi” and in this new era of knowledge-intense and real-time information, we desperately need Minstrels. Leaders.

Corporations, Media, Public Schools, and Governments took the king’s place and you are asked to fit a rule in the society you live in. Nowadays, you have the power to tell your stories. We do need leaders/storytellers—people willing to stand up for something, people who do something, people who are flexible in their thinking, people with a beautiful soul and a curious and fluid mind, and people who change the world for the better (not the other way around). 

We do need you.

The greatest enemy of any attempt of changing the herd's habits is inertia. The evolution of the entire globe is limited by inertia.

Modern leadership is not creating followers. It is about Self-awareness and the very act of serving for a higher purpose. This is critical to the process. Vital. It is all about creating a better vision of the world where every single soul is an essential part, like a drop in the ocean.

Leadership is all about attitude and choices. It is all about helping others to find their inner strength and meaning. It is the act of serving and creating shared meaning, not creating followers who blindly accept some new dogma.

46. How to improve your Leadership and PR skills? Learn to listen.

As you know, most of the people hate to listen, as they hate to read. People love to talk, especially about themselves.

Active listening skills are a must in the influence and learning process. Listening is a psychological process and differs from hearing, which is physiological. The key here is to be able to listen and gather vital intelligence. Speak less and listen more.

Everyone we meet has something to teach us and we can learn a lot from other people, seeing that reality mirrors itself.What is meaningful to your interlocutor?

Ask and pay attention by being sincerely interested.

Listen to your publics.

47. Self-awareness, authenticity and geniusBenjamin Disraeli said: "Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm."

Anyone can show leadership but, paradoxically, the difficulty lies in inducing (latent) leaders to lead.

The quest is for people to find themselves in terms of Self-awareness and authenticity. 

Find your inner meaning and you will find enthusiasm.

You are a genius.

48. Leadership is the very act of serving for a higher purposeWarren Bennis is considered as the world's most important thinker on modern leadership studies. 

For him, inspiration was at the core of the leadership process and, he firmly believed that the role of the leader is to inspire and motivate.

Leadership, in fact, is not about creating followers. 

It is all about engaging them to find their Inner Meaning (the Truth within) and developing new leaders.

49. Provoking credibility or being authentic?Credibility is the ability to be perceived as such. People see you as an authoritative source and are then willing to listen to you, believe what you say, and trust you.

On the other hand, being credible is absolutely not about faking being someone or trying to sell lies. It is about being someone truthfully.

Authenticity is vital in the leadership process.

Thought-provoking, cool, entertaining, educational, and persistent efforts are great traits if compared to the boring and me-too follower style, aren't they?

Leave the herd. Write your story.

As Oscar Wilde said, "Be yourself, everyone else is already taken."

50. What do you mean to your audience?We are going through a deep period of change and it is up to us to stop living for our personal gain and understand that we all share our present and we are all responsible for our future. Not thinking about others and being willing to just fulfilling one's selfish ends could be seen in old and obsolete models and behaviors. Now, I believe there is a time for change and we shall understand what is wrong and fix it.

The world is made up of billions of minds connecting and interrelating with other minds. What’s in it for people to have anything to do with you? What do you mean to them? Are you the one who makes their worlds a better place, or do you just want to take advantage of their realities?

«Your understanding of your inner self holds the meaning of your life.»

Leo Tolstoy

51. Love and find a journey worth of your hearthLeonardo da Vinci said: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

What's more important than Love in your Life? Love is a very powerful and yet simple Force, and shall not be confused with Valentine's day. Unconditional Love is one of the top secrets to win your inner game and live a successful life on your road to mastery.

In the real-time and super interconnected world we live in, we are distracted and we are not focused. Many of us run around their lives being extremely busy being busy. This is a road to nowhere. If you are not passionately focussed, there is absolutely no inspiration behind the curtains of the theatre of your life and things feel quite stressful, and most of the time distasteful and unpleasant you need to stop for a while for a moment of introspection.

Are you living your dreams?

Ask and listen to yourself. If you are not passionate and you do not love what you do you will never excel and find happiness.Find the journey of your soul. Stay focused. Be Passionate. Be Great.

Be exra-ordinary.

Love.

52. You need your big idea and... disciplineWe all know: inspiration drives performance. However, great ideas without implementation are just wishful thinking.

To truly succeed in developing your personal excellence, you need to take action.

Discipline, grit, and dedication are vital ingredients if you want to surf your life and actualize your big ideas.

Yes, the word discipline may evoke images of discomfort to some of you. Something to be avoided. Do not believe these pictures! If you want to succeed, leave the herd and get out of your comfort zone.

53. Is learning fun for you?As we grow and develop, it is quite easy to get bored with our activity.

Funny enough, some even think that personal growth and development is not for them and stop refining their skills.

What a shame!Stop making excuses. Life is a never-ending school and learning is key to the process.

We need challenges. We need to stretch our boundaries to evolve.Be eager to learn.

55. Refuse to give your power awayOur reality is a continuous exchange of stimulus and responses, energy and information.

We are the meaning-makers of our realities and we are the ones who attribute meaning to events and experiences. Essentially, we are the ones who have the ultimate freedom of choice.

The power of choice.

Avoid to allow interferences and sabotaging elements in your Life.

You, and only you, are in charge. 

The power that is exercised on you by someone or something is exactly the same as the power you have given them.

The choice is yours.

56. Leave the herd and embrace ambiguity and conflictThe more skillful you become in your field of expertise, the more likely you will find yourself where discomfort and conflict live.

The member of the herd avoids responsibility and opts for distractions, denial, and a passive and reactive lifestyle.

You are a game-changer and you are passionately running after your goals. By doing so, you are standing out from the crowd as a unique individual.

The masses do not like change and do suffocate individuality: it might be they will try to tear you down, to shatter your dreams, to laugh at you.

Conflict is inevitable (fear of criticism, rejection, being wrong, et cetera).

Take back your personal responsibility.

Being a leader is a lonely act.

Do not follow the crowd.

Lead with meaning.

57. To make an impact and contribute to the worldYou need a vision or dream or big idea but, you need to act and, most of all, you need to care. 

How big is your Great big Why?

If you are not bold with your dreams you are not living a remarkable life. if you spend your time with something you couldn't care less you are sabotaging your existence and selling yourself short.

Dig deep into your inner meanings and find your GREAT BIG WHY. This will help you to keep refreshing your attitude with new challenges, energy, and information. You will feel thrilled and psyched about being challenged and get even more motivated by the fuel of your dreams.

Refuse to settle for mediocrity, you were not born for a meaningless life. 

«He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.»

Friedrich Nietzsche

58. Lead with meaningMarcus Aurelius wrote: "If you are pained by an external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but rather your judgment about it."

What you think largely determines your feelings, moods, and your perception. For instance, it is your perception of your potential that largely determines what kind of life you are living. Your are always with your attitude and the game you play determines the quality of your reality.

The way you look at things is fundamental and if you want to achieve personal mastery you need to take charge of your own creations.

Leadership starts with taking responsibility of your inner meanings.

59. Who is the CEO of your reality?All your states of mind and being are created by your attitude and meanings (the way you perceive the world, your beliefs, your thoughts,…).

Are you in-control or out-of-control?

Inside ourselves, there are many different parts who try to lead the game of your life. This leads to random and chaotic thinking and to a chaotic life.

Leadership starts with taking charge of your inner world: inner meanings.

60. Reorganize your inner meanings and live fantasyYou were born with no limits but you have learnt to believe not to be confident in yourself.

Lacking self-confidence is a great obstacle on your road to mastery and success.

Be aware of your inner world and dig deep into yourself to find your most intimate meanings. Peel away all the limiting beliefs that condition the quality of your life and, with your self-reflexive consciousness, let your fears and doubts come to surface.

You have the power to think about your thinking, about your feelings, and about your beliefs.

Do not get lost into the shifting sands of your fears and doubts.

Reorganize your inner meanings and live the life you dream of.

61. Your reality shall be a consequence of your inner meaningKandinsky: "The artist must have something to say, mastery over form is not his goal but adaptation of form to its inner meaning."

Kierkegaard: "Inner meaning is the source of eternal life."

Jung: "We shall stand against complete atomization into nothingness or meaninglessness. Man cannot stand a meaningless life."

Your thoughts arise from how you choose to think. Nothing can make you feel or think in a particular way, unless you allow it. Think about your thinking and about your beliefs. Do they serve your inner meaning? Have you found your inner meaning yet?

Take charge of your inner universe, starting from now.

62. From victimization to leadershipYou can either passively suffer reality or intentionally taking charge of your life.

We live in a choice world and the good news is that the ultimate power of choice is in your hands.

Victimization is all about blaming the world and making up excuses.

Leadership is understanding that reality does not exist out there.

it is a inner game. 

63. How do you encode your life?What sort of messages do you send to your brain?

Remember that our brain is a perfect information processor and it elaborates everything you give it, sending messages and orders throughout our nervous system.

The way you represent events, experiences, and ideas into your mind largely determines the quality of your inner universe and your life.

Choose wisely.

64. Act as if...Our body-mind-emotion-soul system is highly interconnected and every single thought or behavior affects and influences the entire system, as a whole.

The as if principle can be very useful for a wide range of purposes. As William James wrote, "Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." For instance, if you do not feel confident, act as if you were. Inner feelings of confidence will be activated through your behavior.

65. Redraft your mental architectureOur conceptual reality and the mental atmosphere in which we live is a sum cultural beliefs, understandings, meanings, myths, habits, propaganda, and so on.

Their super power lies in how we never question them. We assume they are real and take them for granted.

By believing we make our thoughts real. Think about your beliefs and question them. 

Are they serving your dreams in a legendary way, or sabotaging you?

Rewrite them, if necessary.

66. The power of journaling your states of beingThe ultimate power over your experience is your choice to own your powers. It all comes down take responsibility of your choices and your inner world.

Leadership is all about attitude, meaning, and choices and it is extremely important for you to develop and practice a set of skills to manage yourself and your states of being.

Our mind is a noisy and chatty machine and, in case you are not aware of your states of being you will not be able to manage yourself properly. We cannot manage what we lack awareness of.

The first thing you should do is to observe yourself. States of being may habituate and, as you know, the quality of our habits and routines largely determines the quality of our life.

Just imagine you are an observer of your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, feelings, et cetera, and keep a record of your states. By journaling them daily, you will gain consciousness of the games you play in your day-by-day routine and check if the strategies you normally use are efficient and super productive, or not. 

Name your states and notice all the details about them (intensity, corresponding physiology, cues that trigger them, et cetera). Seeing that most of what we do is unconscious, this exercise will help you discovering more about yourself, improve your performance, and change the game.

At the end of the day, ask yourself what did you learn, what you need to change, and what you need to improve.

67. Interrupt any disempowering and unproductive states of beingSometimes, it may happen we go into a totally unproductive state of being. Seeing that these states may develop a life of their own they might be quite powerful and overwhelming.

At this stage, when the negative state is triggered and fires off, you absolutely need to stop it not to undermine your effectiveness, your peace of mind, and your sense of empowerment. You cannot allow yourself the luxury to be controlled by the negative state or by out-of-control emotions.

The easiest thing to do is to interrupt the state. State interruptions happen all the time; for instance, when you are focussed on a project and the the phone rings (and you have difficulties re-focussing again). 

When the state emerges, you may start breathing deeply for one or two or five minutes to relax, and use everything can help you to stop the state, which usually involves interrupting the physical component of the state as well.

Say No! to the venomous beliefs and ideas that feed the state, change your posture and move around, shift your tonality, go for a walk.

Do not waste your precious energies.

68. Get out of your infertile states of beingWhen a toxic and disempowering state of being fires off,  you can either interrupt it or transform its components.

It is quite simple and fun. When the unproductive state of being emerges as a 3D movie, just use your imagination and transform the picture show into a little snapshot. Eventually, you are the art director of your mind.

You can play as you wish with your internal representation and physiology. Observe the picture, name it, push it far away from yourself, change colors, tonalities, name it, deframe, shift, reframe it into new resources, meaningful and empowering states.

69. Make your internal world more powerfulAs you already know, you can journal, interrupt, and reframe a toxic state of being.

The good news is that you can also access a powerful and resourceful state.

There are two ways.

The first is to use your history to re-induce a state, by using your memory to recall it. The second is to use your imagination to empower yourself by imagining what such a state would look, sound, and feel. Essentially, this is done by using the as if principle, to invent new scenarios and possibilities.

By intentionally using your imagination and your representational power you can send signals to your body-mind-emotion-soul system and amplify the states you desire.

There is no fundamental difference between a given image that appears as a result of external stimulus or out of your own internal creation.

70. The reason number one to avoid distractionsMagic happens when you are totally committed and you experience an intense, concentrated and passionate state of consciousness. It's when you are totally fascinated, intensely focused, obsessed about what you are doing.

It is where world-class and genius level work is done.

But, what happens when something interrupts or distracts you?

You lose your 100% passionate commitment and you find it almost impossible to recover that graceful yet powerful flow.

Avoid distractions.

71. Is your ordinary thinking empowering?In other words, does your regular thinking serve you well?

Do not keep your inner meanings in the basement. Update your old thinking style and keep refreshing and refining your skills and talents with ongoing learning.

Your present is a gift. Waste zero time on your past issues.

72. Stop identifying yourself with ownershipHow you perceive yourself and your potential largely determines the quality of your life.

William James defined the Self in terms of identification and ownership: "A man's Self is the sum-total of all that he can call his, not only his body, and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friend, his reputation and world, his land and horse and yacht and bank account." 

Is it the things you own that define who you are? Is it your academic title? Your career?

Whatever you think you are, you are not.

Stop identifying yourself with those things and find your true nature, your soul.

Be.

Become.

73. Energize and empower the content of your thoughtsDe-energized thoughts will bring you nowhere so you need to empower them. First of all, you need a well-formed objective in mind and to dream big. Then, you need a well-formed strategy to refine and energize the content of your thoughts.

• Make your internal representations super vivid, rich, and realistic.• Your content shall be valuable, significant, and relevant. + meaning• Eventually, we are talking about your most intimate vision. You should be

super passionate. + passion• Be very specific in the use of words or languaged expressions. + specificity• Our brain is like a muscle and you can install new habits. Use the power of

repetition to do habituate your neurology. + repeat• Remember that great ideas without action are just wishful thinking. + ACT

74. Your power of choiceLife is a series of choices and our decisions pervade our mental and emotional states of being.

Attention, as we know, is not enough to drive results and it needs to be aligned with intentions and meaning.

The thing is that focus alone is not sufficient without a strong enough why to support the overall architecture towards mastery.

Our deeper meanings and intentions govern our attention.

Energy flows where attention goes, but for achieving epic results your intense focus of attention requires a strong intention behind it.

75. Re-set your old internal policies to new empowering beliefsBeliefs govern our inner world. They are thoughts we have validated and confirmed and determine the quality of our life (especially the ones about ourselves) by operating like commands to our nervous system.

Identify your limiting beliefs and dis-confirm them. Say a Super-No! to limiting, dis-empowering, and self-sabotaging thoughts, ideas, and images that pop up in your mind.

Say a Super-Yes! to your empowering ideas and build up a super strong mindset.

76. The great importance of translating big ideas into actionIdeas alone achieve nothing without any action. It is extremely important that you apply what you know and translate great concepts and big ideas into real life.

For sure, as pretty much everyone, you know more than do. Unleashing your inner power means taking effective action to make things happen, to realize, to actualize, to fulfill your values and obtain your desired outcome. 

Inject more importance and more value and more significance (more meaning!) into your goals and objectives. 

Implement with passion.

Do. Do. Do.

77. End the civil war withinWe are a highly interconnected system comprised of body-mind-emotion-soul. There are many different facets of ourselves that can get into battles and struggles and work as a destructive force to sabotage our dreams, hopes, and higher aspirations. 

Inner conflict occurs when one part of you wants to accomplish one thing, yet another part does not wish you to do it and keeps distracting, obstructing, and interrupting in order to stop you or to prevent you from staying focused on your desired outcomes.At this stage, you need to turn your attention inward to discover which are the parts that do not want you to achieve your goals. Quite yourself, breathe deeply, and allow your thoughts to arise in the form of memories, beliefs, images, pictures, movies, et cetera. This is extremely important to flush out the parts that are causing the misalignment. 

At the end, these are parts of you that want something for you. Essentially, their intention is positive and you shall understand what are the reasons for them to sabotage your efforts by exploring your inner meanings.

To be successful you absolutely need to end the civil war within and align your fighting parts towards your objectives.

Keep leading with meaning.

78. Are you effectively organized for a world that no longer exists?The old models of marketing, public relations, and leadership are now obsolete. Old style thinking is obsolete.

If you find yourself locked up in the prison of old values, understandings, beliefs, stereotypes, prejudices and the like… 

Just stop! 

Sometimes we have to stop what we are doing and take a break to refresh our ideas and our mind and listen to our soul.

Stay sharp.

79. Type on the keyboard of masteryAs with learning to type on a keyboard, the process to mastery may take some time and lots of trouble in order to translate the principle into a coordinated action and deeply imprint it into your system. 

First of all, you shall identify your principle. To do so, it is extremely important you explore and discover your most intimate and profound meanings. Then, you can write down a compelling personal declaration of your vision and belief (I believe…).

At this stage, reformulate your beliefs into choices and decisions (I choose…) and make thoughts real into your system. Experience them and embody those ideas into yourself as if they were normalcy.

Remember that our linguistics program our neurology and by believing we make ideas real.

80. Your ultimate goal as a leader and artistAs you know, inner meaning is critically important. 

Your inner meaning leads emotions, habits, skills, and talents. The inner game of yours governs the very quality of your experiences by determining the outer game of your performance. 

As Kandinsky said, "the artist must have something to say, mastery over form is not his goal but adaptation of form to its inner meaning."

Your ultimate goal is to take charge of your inner meaning.

81. Leadership is taking charge of your inner meaningThe way you see and perceive things comes out from your belief system. Your intention is above your attention and it describes the level of meaning running in the back of your mind. 

Intentional meaning makes up for your big WHY. For all your reasons for why you are thinking what you are thinking and doing what you are doing.  

As William Shakespeare said, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." 

There are no right or wrong choices, either. 

There are un-useful, useful, or super powerfully useful choices.

You are the decision maker. You are the meaning-maker.

82. The gap between knowing and practicingHow much do you know? 

Most of us know much more than we practice or do. It may be that you are super informed about productivity but fail to be productive and run around in circles, being busy to be busy. You may be super informed about effectiveness but you are not being super effective.

Implementation is key.

Personal and professional greatness do not just happen by chance. It takes practice, discipline, and grit.

Never leave the scene of a super big idea, a thought or intuition, a new knowledge or understanding without taking some action to close the gap.

«Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.» 

William James

83. What can you do to make things better?Stop making excuses. Stop blaming. Stop complaining. Stop procrastinating. Stop the victim complex.

By choosing to take ownership of your personal power and being more aware of your inner meanings, you will have more control over your states of being. 

Your inner meanings determine your performance and attitude plays a crucial role: leadership is a inner game. Your state of being (body-mind-emotion) shall be viewed as a holistic mental and emotional energy field.  

Often, the problem is that we use past experiences to determine our future and we erroneously believe that destiny is predetermined. By playing the victim you are turning your psychic energies against yourself, falsely believing that past experiences predetermine your future. This self-reinforcing loop puts you in a mental jail and forces you to run in circles. 

"The world is a bad place" or "poor me" or "I can't…" or "it is not possible…" et cetera is a super negative and improductive way of thinking.

Stop the negative loop and get out of it immediately, and please understand that the experience never determines reality. Instead of focussing on what's wrong and bad, modify your attitude and nurture your soul with beauty and art. Focus on what you can do to make your world a better place. 

You determine reality. It is all about your meaning-making style.

84. The power of awarenessOver a lifetime, you have constructed your inner meanings, which make up the person you are today.

Most of what we do is unconscious and we may be totally unaware of some habits of ours, inner meanings and beliefs, or programs that run our brains and are unproductive and ineffective. For this reason, it is extremely important to be Self-aware.

Self-awareness is the wonderful ability to think about your thoughts and feelings and detect any structure or framework that is sabotaging you.

You can turn your attention inward and check the quality of your thoughts and feelings and see if they are contributing to a super attitude or being venomous to your overall performance. Attitude, in fact, is always with you and determines what life you live. 

Your success and, really, the quality of your life lies in your ability to spot the toxic meanings and transform them into super meanings.

85. Use world-class language to architect your meaningThe very structure of your language sets a framework for meaning.

We make sense of the world through meaning and the words you use largely determine the way you perceive reality.

With words, you encode your mind and neurology.

Even small words and terms count. Words have power and, if you keep using a pessimistic and negative vocabulary you will end up architecting a very different state of mind than if you use the language of opportunity, leadership, passion and love. 

«With your words you create a world around you.»

Navajo proverb

86. Why do you do what you do and think what you think?Inside ourselves we play many games. We live within our meaning universe, yet on the surface we may not have any conscious awareness of the why we do what we do and think what we think.

To transform your mind into a powerful ally, you need to take charge of your choices and be willing to be absolutely responsible for your inner world. 

Turn your attention inward and give yourself permission to know what is your most intimate why and take absolute ownership of your personal powers. The power of awareness is a game-changer but, as you know, knowledge is only powerful when you know how to use it.

As soon as you discover you most intimate meaning, you can redesign your beliefs for actualizing all of your potentials and act on what your real passion is.

87. Shift your attitudeIf the reality you are living does not serve you well, you can always choose to alter you attitude and transform the meanings you architected. 

By changing your inner framework you can immediately shift the way you perceive and experience your life.A profound and fundamental shift in your attitude will lead to al complete metemorphosis in your productivity, effectiveness and in the quality of your private and professional.

Leadership is all about attitude, meaning, and choices.

«Men are not disturbed by things, but by their estimate of things.»

Marcus Aurelius

88. Question your beliefs and shape your perceptionsMost of what we do is unconscious. Our main problem is that we never question why we do what we do. Most of us operate without awareness of our inner dynamics and are conditioned by some twisted belief frames they co-created with others (e.g. family, culture, etc.).

As Franklin Roosevelt once said, "Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds." 

Everyone has the wonderful opportunity to think about beliefs. Question your beliefs and reframe them if necessary. With this artistic ability you can shape both your perceptions of the world and of yourself. 

What we need today are new ways to think.

89. Energy flows where attention goesYour mental, emotional, phisical energies go where you send your attention to.

In the so-called attention economy, everyone wants your attention. The good news is that you are in charge and you can choose to send your attention to things that you determine as being valuable and significant to you.

Be focussed on what matters and what's really important to you.

Remember that energy flows where attention goes (and you can take charge of it with your intent).

90. Avoid to enter conflictual communicationsWhat happens if someone criticizes your idea or your art? Do you prepare for battle?

Nonsense. 

By following your vision and leaving the herd, there will always be someone who tries to put you down and to shatter your dreams. Do not argue and do not enter any fight with those people. Directly fighting with them means giving away your power (and giving it to them).

Leadership is about taking absolute charge of your inner meanings and being totally responsible of your choices.

You are the one who decides how to respond and, in this particular case, entering conflictual communications translates into accepting to play by someone else's rules.

Go beyond this win/lose mechanism and please understand that someone's opinion is just what it is.

Their opinion. 

Always do your best and do not listen to cheap talks.

91. Don't fear your fearsFear can undermine your peace of mind, your effectiveness, your productivity, your sense of empowerment, your success, and the very quality of your life.

Your fears may hide and dress up as unproductive thoughts, distractions, negative emotions, toxic states of being that prevent you from achieving your goals.

Do not trust their negative looping around and do not run away from your fear. On the contrary, run towards your fear and learn to dance with it.Don't forget that your fears have power over you as the power you give them.

92. If you are not empowering your people... you are dis-empowering them.

This is pretty much the same principle as theory X and Y, developed by Douglas McGregor.

Leadership is all about empowering people by creating shared meaning. Dis-empowering people by trying to manage how they think, feel, talk, and act has nothing to do with leadership.

Take charge of yourself and be absolutely responsible of your inner world and choices.

Willingness to have power over others is selfishness.

 «Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one

wishes to live.»

Oscar Wilde

93. The foundation for successThe best leaders are those that understand the importance of their inner world. 

James Allen wrote, "As a men thinketh in his heart, so shall he be". This is key to the process. The power of decision, for instance, is crucial for shaping our destiny. In deciding, we do much more than just conceptualizing and choosing. Our heartly decisions involve our highest intentions and govern our attention, by giving us the power of imagining new ways of living and act on them. We can transform our old meanings and create new inner games, by deciding to bring to life the very best version of ouselves.

Will power is the result of your deepest decision-making processes and quality decisions allow us to live true to our values and passions.

Your mind shall be an instrument of your heart.

All it takes is a robust and authentic decision. What choice can you make, right in this moment, that will completely transform your life?

94. The magnificent obsessionSetting goals seems quite easy and simple. Yet, many people have great difficulty with meaningful goal setting that can transform their lives.

New Year Resolutions are a perfect example of vague goals that lead to disappointment and frustration.

The question is: what is really meaningful, important, and super valuable to you?

Boring goals and wishful thinking do not unleash your energies and personal power toward a desired outcome, are not what pulls you out of bed early in the morning, and do not contribute to your grit. Most likely, you will give up at the first set-back.

No, your super goals need to be fueled with passion, purpose, a strong sense of direction and meaningfulness to inspire your heart.

95. Be open to new ways of mapping your inner worldThe choices and decisions you are making right now will control the quality of your future.

Remember that all of your ideas, beliefs, memories, imaginations, fears and doubts are mental maps of yours and shall not be considered as static. Everything is constantly changing, so shall your maps.

Do your maps empower you and enhance the quality of your life?

Push through the fog of your limits and be committed to stretching beyond your comfort zone.

You are the map-creator.

96. Treat every aspect of yourself wonderfully wellYour body, your mind, your emotions, and your soul are not distinct entities. You cannot focus on just one aspect and forget all the others.

Your ability to take action and translate your intuitions, visions, and dreams in to action requires energy and personal power. To do this, you need to be holistically ultra-fit. For instance, how can you pretend to maintain a mental and emotional vitality if your body is not in shape? Physical fatigue may lead to reduced mental clarity and emotional stresses.

Every aspect of your being (physical, psycho-logical, spiritual) shall be treated preciously.

97. New ways of thinking are much neededThe old economy model was all about scarcity. 

Knowing that the offer is scarce (e.g. time, quantity, information) pulls the emotional trigger to act immediately. Deadlines, exclusive offers, and hard-to-collect items trigger actions. Clever calls to action play with the fear of potential loss, because no one likes fear and we all dislike loss and restrictions to our freedom.

This means that we would compete for a pie, assuming there would not be enough for everybody. This is playing the win/lose game. The taker's game.

In the new economy, the alternative vision of the world is a better one, in which all of us are an essential part. With this in mind, a perspective of abundance takes a different stance. Cooperation, instead of competition, asks for a win/win situation. Generosity is the giver's game.

If we run short of pie to divide, we can simply find new ways to bake more pies.  

98. Erase the word failure from your dictionaryDo you know what Thomas A. Edison replied when he was asked about the failed experiments and the lack of results?

"I have not failed. I have just found 10'000 ways that won't work."

That's a key point. Unfortunately, the idea of failure is still predominant in our culture and we over-identify with it.

Please erase the word failure from your dictionary and just imagine that it's only results and information. Start referencing things as feedback to be more resourceful and resilient. 

To achieve your success, keep doing, keep learning and adjust your behavior accordingly.

99. Create new momentumWhat can you do, right now, that will put you in the direction you really want to go?

The present is key. You do not need anything more that what you already have in this precise moment. 

How can you implement your knowledge and take the very first step towards your dream?

100. From now, Live in the nowIn which time zone do you live?

Do you focus on events that happened in your past, on what is currently happening, or what you want or wish to happen in the future?

We use the concept of time to order and compare events, yet only the present exists and is real. The past and the future are just conceptual representations and exist only in our minds. 

Time is subjective and if you focus too much on the past or the future you will fail to take effective action in the present. 

Learn from the past and keep an eye on the future, but be fully present in the now.

Leadership is an aspect of the Law of service. Fundamentally, as we can see in business, if you treat people poorly, they will do pretty much the same (yes, there are few exceptions) with your customers. 

In the meaning economy, one shall understand the great importance of service.

Leadership is to serve and the win/win formula shall be the very basic attitude for dealing with other people, which means treating them with all due respect and dignity.

Leadership is to take absolute responsibility of one's choices and inner world and help others to do the same. "Do unto others as you want others to do unto you" shall be your golden rule and guiding motto.

Essentially, leadership is serving and creating shared meaning.

Meaning does not exist out there in the world. We are the ones who create and attribute meaning to pretty much everything, even to ourselves. 

Life is all about meaning. For instance, with regards to the feeling of meaninglessness, in his book Viktor Frankl wrote that "people have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning." (he added that, to be sure, some do not have the means).

It's not the means, it's the meaning.

Meaning is the most critical element on earth and human beings cannot live without it. To quote Carl Gustav Jung, "we shall stand against complete atomization into nothingness or meaninglessness. Man cannot stand a meaningless life." The ultimate and necessary condition of life purposes is meaning.

To take charge of your inner meanings, to become authentic, and true to your vision. It is about being yourself truthfully. Leadership, in fact, is a choice

Our life is dynamic in its nature and we are always in the process of being and becoming. You can grow and develop unleashing your uniqueness or you can choose not to grow and let your fear dominate you.

No one can choose for you.

Start with Meaning

Leadership is not about growing one's fan base but rather about being someone truthfully and helping others to find themselves, their independence, and their meaning.

Each soul has her own meaning in life.

What is yours?

«Inner meaning is the source of eternal life.»

Søren Kierkedgaard

Thank you for reading.& Feel free to share with anyone who you believe may find this Manifesto

meaningful.

Leadership is all about attitude, meaning, and choices

Lead with meaning

Who is Francesco Ferzini?

Francesco Ferzini is a Swiss Leadership coach.

He worked in management positions in the travel and tourism industry and the international fashion trading business. He holds a MBA from Australian Curtin University of Technology (GSB), graduated as marketing and sales expert at the Swiss Marketing Club, and he his certified in the professional use of hypnosis by the UK Regression Academy.

He developed a transformational Leadership program and he is devoting his Life to helping people and organizations developing robust and authentic meaning and channel their intent toward their desired outcome.

He his the author of Marketing PRopaganda: from Attention to the Meaning economy, President of Swiss cultural Association NoiUno and founder of a technique for personal/spiritual growth and leadership he named Memoria evolutiva©.

At the time being, he lives and works between Italy and Switzerland, helping people and organizations to Lead with Meaning. To get in touch with Francesco, email is the preferred method.

Francesco's blog (Italian)

Francesco's blog (English)

Facebook page

@FFerzini