Leading

This past week was really unique - I packed in Wed & Thurs last week with meetings, Friday was 4th (took off, aren't you proud), Saturday with friends, Sunday slept in like never before (body was like sleep debt is real bro), Monday all day wedding for a close childhood friend, and today, clocking 15 hours and still have a keynote to make for a workshop I'm hosting tomorrow (Parkinson's Law, remember??)

How random is that? What a time to be alive. God is good, following His leading, and loving life (as stressful as it sometimes ;)

Leading Conceptually, I love leading.

Practically, I'm daily amazed at how hard, taxing, and seemingly impossible leading is.

From work to personal life, all of life is filled with constant leadership demands that frankly, no one told me about.

And I think we're all in the same boat, at least from the many conversations I have every week that seem to uncover this reality that we're all trying to figure out life while not letting others on to the fact that we have absolutely no clue what the heck we are doing.

Leadership in particular is an interesting thing.

Everyone wants status (hey I'm a "this" or I'm so and so's boss, or whatever).

But no one seems to want to apply the initiation, accountability, courage, sacrifice, perseverance, grit that leadership requires.

And I'm saying that with me being #1 in line for that statement, even though I might not have said it a year ago out loud.

I've been seeing recently how impactful it is to take initiation and just lead.

People follow.

And it's a bunch of ... nonsense, we'll say for this email ... to believe that people can't change.

Those that long to will.

Those that don't, won't.

It's mostly that simple.

There's more friction when the natural tendencies are opposite where you're leading, but that doesn't mean change is impossible.

It just means you have to work at it a little harder.

I realize more now than I did two years ago that your inputs direct correlate to your outputs.

What you put in, directly impacts what you get out.

Stop blaming others, outside factors, or random circumstances.

Take ownership and take action.

That's a hard pill for me to swallow, but I need to more today than ever.

Fun lessons, good time to be alive, great opportunities to learn and grow.

Let's get after it.