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Intentional Leadership — M5 — Passion Wrap-up

These past four weeks, we’ve focused on passion. We’ve gained a clearer understanding of what passion is, what our passions are, and how it rallies around purpose and supplies leaders with energy.

At the end of the day, our appetites matter just as much — if not more than — our aptitudes! What we are passionate about, fired up about, driven by, is much more important than what our skills are…because passion will drive us to move forward with a force beyond our wildest imagination, if we allow it to!

Before you can lead with confidence and force, you must first understand where you want to go, and why. What consumes your thoughts? What grabs your attention, tugs at your heart, and won’t let go?

Once you discover your passion, nurture it. Life will assault your passions, disappointment will assault your passions, and responsibilities — and, yes, self-limiting beliefs and self-imposed constraints — will try to crowd it out and keep you from pursuing your passion. I encourage you to be strong; refuse to bury your passion under life’s many challenges. Passion is the key to finding fulfillment in life.

Consider what Henry David Thoreau said:

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

I encourage you to not let this be an apt description of you. Take the time to discover your passion. Then nurture it, feed it, allow it the time and space to grow. Harness it to your leadership and the song you sing will outlive you.

Having only recently (within the last few years) allowed my passion to be fully acknowledged and developing my dream and plan to move forward into my potential and my vision, I can say from experience, it’s an amazing, exciting, energizing, reinvigorating, fun adventure. I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

So, what are you passionate about? And what are you doing about it?

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Intentional Leadership — D5, W3, M5 — Passion

I am loving this month’s topic — Passion! I would say, of the topics we have covered so far, this is the one I feel most aligned with, as I have been giving myself permission to recognize, express, revel, and demonstrate my passion much more openly over the past 18 months. In fact, with the self-assessment we did earlier this week, I can honestly say I’m between 8-10 on most of the measures. It feels good.

What about you? We’re just about to start week four of our fifth month of this intentional leadership journey (how is that really possible?!!)…which topic has resonated with you the most, so far? Which one do you need to spend more time and energy on? Personally, I need to spend more time on focus. I know what I need to be doing, but I don’t always stick with my schedule and stay as focused as I would like; so I continue to work on that.

Now it’s time for our Friday ritual! It’s a holiday weekend, at least for those of us in the US. One might imagine it would change the way you’ve looked at this weekend, since many take the opportunity of a day off to extend their weekend and go on trips. We are staying home this Memorial Day weekend; last year, we spent it exploring Baltimore’s inner harbor — that was a really fun trip!

For the weekend, I will attend a birthday party with my son. I see this as a good opportunity to get to know some of the other parents better. I will get more sleep (have been running short for a couple of weeks now), maybe even make the time to watch a movie (that would be decadent!).

You see, as I am so focused these days on moving more deeply into my passion area, I typically spend most of my free time pursuing it in some fashion — reading, working on growth plans, going through John Maxwell curriculum, developing new materials for workshops, teaching opportunities, and mentoring…I don’t spend much time on what is typical “fun”…but what I do spend my time on is truly fun for me.

In fact, I will be working on lesson 2 of the Empowerment Mentoring program, all about being in one’s comfort zone…sounds cozy, but if you are interested in growth, it’s not a good place to hang out!

What about you? What’s on the agenda for your weekend and the coming week?

Who will you share your time and attention with? How will you spend your energy?

And are you thinking about the coming weeks? I’m headed to Guatemala in a few weeks, to teach Transformational Leadership with John Maxwell and our amazing team…so I have some homework to do — learning about the culture and the people, etc…

As always, no shortage of opportunities or demands on your time and attention, I’m sure. I hope this journey is helping you to invest your time and attention more intentionally. After all, this is the only life we get!

Have a great weekend, and I’ll “see” you Monday!

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Intentional Leadership — D3, W3, M5 — Passion

Having spent some time yesterday measuring your level of passion and your pursuit of your passion, today let’s shift focus to someone else.

Think of a co-worker, friend, or family member who has expressed a passion, but is not living their passion today.

Food for thought:

1. Go online and purchase a book in the area of their passion. Give them the book with a hand-written note encouraging them to pursue their passion.

2. Think of someone in your network who  has a similar passion. Connect this person with the person in your network to give them a new connection, support in pursuing their passion,  and potential opportunity.

3. As them about their passion. Take an interest in them and really listen. Share with them they are not alone in their journey and that you are committed to their success.

How can you help stoke the fires of their passion?

What can you do to help them move forward into it?

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