How I Learnt Leadership From Depression
A personal life lesson.
I found my old journal, dated back to 2013–2014. I read all my entries again. In my depressed times, there were 34 entries. The rest were either the spark of my depression and getting over them. Bottom line is: I was depressed because of isolation.
What I want to share with you all is the leadership behaviors I picked during the time I was depressed. I am not saying that all people should be depressed to be a leader, it is just some people like me stumble upon those at different moments in their lives. Here are mine:
Be Your Own Cheerleader
During my depression, I had to stand up on my own. There was no more time to have another person to encourage me to do that again. I admitted my flaws and worked hard to overcome it and be a better version of myself. However, if you found someone who supports your big dreams and believe in them, remember and keep the guys. It’s hard to find the right friends these days.
Friends Come & Go
Friends are important. But you have to know that not everyone will be there for you. There are times when you have buddies, and there will be times when they won’t be with you anymore.
The people I was closer with back in school are the ones who are still willing to catch up with me, and vice versa. My best friends and I are best buddies and we would engage in a lot of meaningful talks together. It felt like a family talk, and speaking of family….
Family Is Very Important
I finally realized that my family were supporting me by letting me fail but learn to stand up again. They did this so that I will know the concept of reality and ask help when I really need them. Knowing this, I made sure I spend some time with my family, including my aunts, uncles, brother, and cousins. Thank you Paps and Mam.
Sometimes, we also see our friends as family, take Freddie Mercury for example. When he left Queen to do his solo album for more money, he never felt satisfied. In the end, he turned to the bottles and drugs until his ex-fiance, Marie Austin, convinced him to come back to Queen. Eventually, he got over his bad habits, sang in honor for AIDS patients, and after his death, they performed for the AIDS awareness. He also became one of the most influential people in history. This was because Freddie finally reconnected that lost connection and he found his “why” again: to sing for the audience together with the people whom he helped to find hope.
Serve Others
It may sound cheesy, but helping others will give you a lot of satisfaction. When you do this, you will feel the satisfaction of helping people.
For me, I joined a charity service to help kids with their school works when I was depressed. I felt so happy to see the kids doing their best and I saw the spark that they want to achieve more in life. In fact, I felt like I would rather teach them than going to my own school.
In relationships, all the small things matter just like leadership. This can be applied such as: holding the door for someone, help picking up dropped books, anything that involves assisting people. This is not people-pleasing. The difference between people-pleasing and helping people is that: people-pleasing has the drive to make others like you, whereas helping is to serve and the drive is to help the other improve.
Even your work can inspire others. In an interview, Johnny Depp revealed that he wanted to help the suffering kids and their parents to smile even in their bad days. When the work we do is recognized by people, we will feel satisfied because we put a lot of effort into it and that you are noticed, bringing to the last point.
Get Yourself Busy
When I was depressed, I found an interest of drawing. It helped me keep my emotions in check and let the feelings in my drawings out. You can check out my DeviantArt here. This helped me a lot as well because I was able to connect with other people online, and did a few free-lance for them.
It also helped my relationship with others as well. I was a total freak in movies until now. I love it to the point I would watch it with anyone.
I let my passion out instead of status. Most people think, at least in my case, that if you invite people, it means you are lonely or you are so cool that people are looking for you to hang out with. For me, that is never the case anymore. I invited people whom I believe have certain interests in their hobbies, that is when I invited them to watch. In the end, I was able to maintain my relationship with other people.
All In All..
What you can take from here is that: you are strong in your own way. Most people wouldn’t believe you, but really, actions speak louder. Show them that you are your own boss.
Today, I write because I want to inspire people to be better versions of themselves through leadership. Leadership is very important in corporations, but sadly not many managers are maintaining this. Simon Sinek also made a break down on how generations today are more depressed than the previous ones. Additionally, he also said that corporations also lack of leadership. Come on, guys!! Our next-generation are going to be the next leaders!! If they are easily depressed, what could the future be like??
And because I love movies, I made many breakdowns of leadership in their characters. I was also able to convince some friends and family members of mine to watch because that is how I maintain a relationship: having similar interests. Most of all, movies give better morals.
I hope you learn something from here, and I will see you in the next post. Have a wonderful day :)
