Journey to Self-authorship

I think that as leaders, we all want to act like we have already achieved self-authorship because it is something that screams "leadership". Leaders don't rely on external forces to give them insight or tell them their beliefs, they already know these things and this is how they influence others. However, the concept of self-authorship is more complex and goes farther than leadership.

This concept goes into how we develop as humans from children to adults and how we have to rely on external forces for a good portion of our young lives. As babies and young kids, we cannot take care of ourselves and don't have the capacity to understand many things, so authorities of parents and teachers take over. As a psychology major as well as personally, this begins to change in adolescence. We start to question the beliefs that we have been told and either agree with them or disagree. The point isn't whether you agree or disagree, it is on whether or not you critically analyze the world and when you do, who you trust: yourself or the world around you. We are shaped by our experiences, by the people in our lives and a big part of cultivating self-authorship is to understand how you were shaped and how that changed you as a person. I think this is something that I have been thinking about more and more through these leadership articles and discussions, doing so will allow me to reshape myself, a process I have recently started in small ways.

College is the first place that I was introduced to this idea, not formally but when I really thought, do I agree with this or not? Why? I think I still have a long way to go in this process, as we learned leadership is a process and is ongoing throughout life. I think that I do listen to and trust my internal voice but I am also still cultivating it, still gaining knowledge and experience. Would I say that I still want others to accept me? Yes. Would I say that I put that over what I think of myself? No. Life is about relationships and leadership is especially about interpersonal interactions. However, if a leader is developing or has developed self-authorship they are more likely to allow others to begin this process and become better leaders themselves, something I would like to do. Leaders can be authority figures or they can be educators and I would like to believe that by taking part in this process myself, I can help others get the most meaning out of their life through being in control of beliefs, identity and social relations.