Leading the Shirtless

Being a leader is hard and is often a role that I fall into, despite being opposed to doing so. But sometimes, you have to stand up and be that leader that others need. Usually, I become a leader in familiar environments where I know the people or I know the situation. I think it would be increasingly difficult if I was trying to be a leader where I knew nothing and knew no one. *cough cough Mr. President*

Since I have some experience with being a leader, whether it had been as team captain for water polo or a group leader for a project, I should be able to apply my experience to some new topics that I have been learning about. Sustainability is starting to gain a good amount of ground these days because of brave leaders and first followers. I aspire to join the movements that others have started in the sustainability field, but first, I feel that it is important for me to understand what I am doing before I try to inspire others to do the same. Some of the qualities that I feel that I would need to gain before becoming a great leader in the sustainability world include being bold, unafraid of criticism, friendly, accepting of contrasting ideals, calm, and courageous. To be a leader, you most definitely have to be bold because you are trying to make a statement and bolding makes your statement stand out and makes it worth reading. You must also be unafraid of criticism because in order to lead a successful movement, you should be able to accept criticisms to create the most alluring and successful movements. Being friendly is just good for life and for making a safe space for others to feel welcome which will help to grow our movement. To me, the hardest thing about being a leader is to accept that not everyone will have the same ideals as you and you can't  change everyone. Sometimes you have to accept that they have those ideals and you can't fight them on it. Any strong leader is calm, cool, and collected and acts on rationality opposed to on sole emotions. In the political atmosphere today, it is hard to find a calm person who uses rationality along with their emotions to lead their follows. And in the words of Rachel Green, "You gotta have courage." An ideal leader will embrace all of these aspects.

Being a first follower is incredible. I think it takes more guts than it does to be a leader because you are getting on board with someone who has no following and you are putting yourself completely into the unknown. At least the leader knows what they are doing, or so we hope. A first follower is crucial to getting others to join a cause. Like that shirtless dancing guy's first follower, you have to just embrace the movement and show others that it is ok to accept these ideas. As a very cautious and self aware/self conscious person, I do not think that I have what it takes to be a first follower. Usually, I wait for the approval of my peers before I jump on into the movement. A first follower is a brave soul and I definitely respect them. I have a long ways to go before I gain the confidence in myself to be a first follower. If there's another person being the first follower, I am more likely to join in on the idea. Even the first flow of people to a movement make it easier for me to get on board. As I continue to learn more about the world around me,  I hope to improve my confidence and hopefully take steps closer to the first follower and leader. We will see what I get myself into...