Principle #5: Self-leadership means evaluating how you are doing in the areas that are important to you.

Make improvement your initiative.

Self-evaluation is not easy to learn, nor is it easy to do. It takes true humility to admit that things may not be going so well—that you are off course. But self-evaluation is a key asset to sound self-leadership. It is something that never really ends, but that continues to develop over time.

My good friend John Maxwell said, “Success is a continuing thing. It is growth and development. It is achieving one thing and using that as a steppingstone to achieve something else.”

In order to achieve and move on to something else, you must be able to evaluate your progress. The strong leaders are the ones who are always making improvements in their personal and professional lives so that one harmonizes with the other.

Achieving professional success doesn’t mean that you’ve arrived, rather, that you’re always moving toward your next project, your next opportunity for success. As Winston Churchill asserted, “Success is never final.”

What about you? Are you simply living for temporary success? A true self-leader is always striving to better their craft, grow as a person, and find success in whatever avenue presents itself.