This December 18th, the seventh installment of the Star Wars saga is hitting the screens. We want to take the premiere of Episode VII: The Force Awakens as a chance to extract these nine life lessons we have learned from the Jedi and that will help you succeed:
1. Keep an open mind
“You’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view”- Obi-Wan Kenobi. If anything defines the attitude of the Jedi is their willingness to listen. Keep an open mind, put yourself in the place of others to find out why they do what they do or why they think what they think. Only with empathy you can get to know the needs of your people and then implement actions that will achieve the goals that you set.
2. Be positive
We all know that both good and bad things happen in life, and that is also the case in Star Wars, where the Jedi suffer calamities (for example, the exile of Master Yoda), but if anything characterizes them is their good disposition to cope with adversity. As a leader, you must trust that situations are part of cycles; bad times will not last forever. Therefore, keep a positive attitude that will feed the motivation of your team.
3. Free yourself from the superfluous
Simplicity is the motto of the Jedi Knights to be happy. Obi-Wan Kenobi and the great Master Yoda (after their defeat by the Emperor) quietly retire to live in a remote place without nice amenities. They focus on staying calm and being happy, and from there they exert their influence to teach other Jedi.
4. Run away from the “dark side”
Honesty is an indispensable quality for exercising good leadership. In the tough world of business, it is easy to neglect qualities such as integrity or decency, but a leader should seek to move away from the ‘dark side’ and let these virtues be the hallmark of their organization and their whole team.
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5. Take care of your health
Have you ever seen a Jedi in poor shape? Under their robes and their mental strength, the Jedi also take care of their appearance, no matter their age or the obstacles they have to overcome. Look after your health as the Star Wars masters do, so you will be emotionally healthy too, and you will see that it is easier to move towards the real goals.
6. Look for a good mentor
“Always two, there are; no more, no less. A master and an apprentice”. Having a “mentor” to guide us is important to develop strong leadership. Do as Luke Skywalker, who first relied on Obi-Wan and then on Yoda, and be close to someone you trust and whom you can ask for advice whenever you need it. That will help you make decisions or find solutions to problems that come up.
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7. Learn from your mistakes
Take each failure as an opportunity to improve, and not as a defeat. Obi-Wan Kenobi said, “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”.
8. Seek excellence
Always give your very best; if you make a mistake you can learn from it. But do not settle for just trying. Yoda’s famous phrase goes: “Do or do not. There is no try.” In other words, seek excellence, you will only do things right if you aspire to do things right.
9. Move
Look for new goals, do research on the latest trends in your sector, learn about the issues that concern you and that may affect your business, set alerts on the Internet on topics that interest you, etc. In other words, move! “Always in motion is the future,” Yoda dixit.
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What other life lesson have you learned with Star Wars?
Image: 3D shoot / Flickr
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