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Intentional Leadership — D5, W1, M6 — Perseverance

As we begin this Friday, I am filled with excitement and anticipation. I leave for Guatemala on Sunday, and will be there for a full week. The John Maxwell Team will spend about 1-1/2 days in training, learning the new Transformational Leadership material from John, and then we will each train small groups (about 40 people per training, for several hours each day) over the course of the next three days. We will be teaching business leaders, government leaders, teachers, law enforcement officers, and members of the clergy. It’s going to be a phenomenal week and I am so looking forward to this opportunity.

I still have a few things to do to prepare…like pack! And, I’m looking ahead to the weeks that follow, as I have a lot going on.

This month’s topic is very relevant for me, as I build my business, perseverance is critical. Each and every day, I am planting the seeds that will allow my business to grow; I must be patient while the seeds germinate and eventually sprout and thrive. As you can imagine, a lot of things happen that could be quite discouraging, but I must not lose faith. I am beyond 100% confident I have found my calling, and I will allow nothing to deter me from making this work.

What about you…what are you passionate about that you are driving toward? What first steps can you take this weekend, that will allow you to persevere on your journey?

What else needs your time and attention?

What relationships do you need to nurture? Build? Repair?

What do you need to do for you?

What can you do over the weekend to set yourself up for success in the coming weeks?

Have an intentional weekend, and I’ll “see” you Monday!

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W1, M6 — Perseverance

Are you familiar with the story of Theodor Geisel? He was a writer and illustrator. Many years ago, having written and illustrated what he thought was a very clever children’s book, he set off to find a publisher. Filled with enthusiasm, he went to the publishing houses to share his work, confident one of them would love it as much as he did and agree to publish it. One-by-one he went; and one-by-one, 27 publishing houses rejected the book — 27 rejections!

Feeling quite dejected, and understandably so, following his last publishing house rejection, Geisel bumped into a friend who happened to work for Vanguard Press. He explained to his friend what had happened. He even threatened to go home and burn the manuscript! We have no way of knowing what motivated his friend — pity or true support of Geisel’s work — to take up the cause of getting the book published, but he did get the book to press. Soon after, Geisel’s first children’s book, And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, was published under the author’s pen name: Dr. Seuss!

By the time he passed in 1991, Geisel had written more than 60 books as Dr. Seuss; selling more than half a billion copies around the globe, his stories changed the way we thought about and measured children’s stories. Imagine what we would have missed, had Geisel not bumped into his friend that day…if he had gone home and burned the manuscript. What if he had given up after the first, tenth, or even 20th rejection?

His story is just one great example of perseverance and the rewards we may reap if we persist. As a leader, you will encounter multiple (and sometimes inexplicable!) sources of resistance to your initiatives and ideas. You will experience times when you doubt your abilities. You will be tempted to quit. But know this: If you press on and pick yourself up after you stumble and continue to press forward, your influence may extend farther than you ever dreamed.

For today, ask yourself this: What motivates me to keep going when I encounter obstacles?

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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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