Life Lessons from a Saint.

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.

70 years ago, a passionate and driven woman started an organization which today has operations in 125+ countries and over 5000 employees. They are in a very unique business, the business of spreading love.

Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa in 1950 with its headquarters in Kolkata, India.

Born on August 26, 1910, as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, and known to the world as Mother Teresa, she portrays a reservoir of love, warmth and selfless service. Mother exemplified her values through her thoughts, actions and behaviors. Traits of an Authentic Leader.

Throughout her life, she was committed to the cause of uplifting the poorest of the poor and empowering the most vulnerable sections of the society. She believed that the world could be changed only through love and compassion.

We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace. We need Love and Compassion.

Mother is one of the few leaders from history who embodied the servant leadership style in the way she led the missionaries. In 1999, Gallup ran a poll in the United States to identify the Most Admired Person of the Century and Mother received the top position on that survey.

Having studied in a catholic school, I was exposed to the life and work of Mother from an early age but only in the last few years, through my reading and interest in finding leadership traits within people I admire, I had the opportunity to discover the Great Leader within her.

Here ar three practical, impactful life lessons from the life of a saint.

1. Build Your 'Simple' Personal Brand
2. Find Happiness in Discipline (Routine)
3. Give Your 100%

1.1.Build Your 'Simple' Personal Brand

If you show a picture of Mother to any person, she would be easily recognized through her beautiful smile, joyous eyes and the sheer simplicity of her presence. This brand took years to build and must have taken a lot of love, patience, and sacrifice. In this VUCA world, you also need to work upon building your brand and some lessons from Mother's life would be directly applicable. The key to building your brand is to keep it simple. Brands are built not over months or years but over decades and thus patience is key. Stay authentic. Your message to the world is what you must believe in, and stay true to your beliefs through your actions.

2. Find Happiness in Discipline

Imagine being the CEO of an international organization and providing selfless service to millions across the globe. Mother was an exemplar of discipline and deliberate practice. In an interview, Mother shared her daily routine - she woke up at 4:30 am every day, morning prayers by 5 am, Mass at 6 am, followed by hours and hours of service to the underprivileged. And she traveled internationally all the time. She smiled through it all. Like other human beings, she had her downtimes as well, but she did not let anything come in the way of her disciplined action. In life and leadership, we are asked each day to stay focussed and disciplined. To achieve any goal or execute any action, we need to adhere to a system, a process. And we need to realize that this makes us better in the long run. It helps us achieve the targets we set for ourselves. The critical thing is to learn from Mother and keep having fun along the way. The smile on our faces should never go away. We have to learn to find our happiness in the discipline.

3. Give Your 100%

Throughout her life, Mother was focused on her mission and she gave a 100% of herself to every moment and every interaction. You will notice this by simply observing her interactions with the sisters or with the community she was serving. (Mother Teresa - 20th Century Humanitarian | Biography) Are your interactions transactional or human? Is it only about give-and-take or do you build bridges of friendship? The depth of this connection does not depend on the amount of time you spend with them but by this awareness and the energy you bring to the interaction. Stay aware of your own and others' body language, energy, and words. And at that moment, make them feel as if they are the most important person in your life.

What have you learned from the life of Mother Teresa? Is there some other leader who brings forth that guiding light?