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Intentional Leadership — D2, W4, M6 — Perseverance

They say experience is the best teacher. I beg to differ…Experience is the best teacher when we choose to reflect on our experience and learn the lessons inherent in them. This is when we gain wisdom. If we don’t do the reflection, then we have merely lived through a string of experiences.

Sometimes, we don’t recognize the lesson until much later, following an experience; it may be days, weeks, months, even years later before we can see the positive impact a challenging time had on us.

Think back to a difficult season in your life. What was it and how did you face it?

Looking back, what benefits were there for you as a result of that difficult time, that you weren’t able to see then? (Did the situation redirect your path in life? Did it bring you closer to family, friends, co-workers? Did it prepare you in some way for your current work or some other challenge you’ve faced since then?)

How does your new perspective motivate you to persevere as a leader in your current situation, know that there are unforeseen rewards on the other side?

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W4, M6 — Perseverance

Perseverance offers a number of rewards, some of them may even be sweet!

Think about Milton Hershey. Yes, THE Milton Hershey of Hershey’s chocolates fame. He was fired from his first job as a printer’s apprentice, for lack of attention to detail. Next, working in a candy store, he discovered his passion and opened his own shop in Philadelphia. Although he had plenty of financial support, he went bankrupt. He moved to Denver to work in his father’s mining venture, but missed the opportunity.

Again, he went to work in a candy store. Learned some new things, and moved east, again. He opened another candy store in NYC; again, he went broke!

No one would have been surprised or would blame him had he given up and gone to work, again, for someone else. But he didn’t. He summoned his courage and tried, again. (There’s that word, again — “AGAIN”!) And aren’t we all thankful he did? Personally, I’m partial to the semi-sweet variety of his chocolate and am enjoying some now, as I write!

The key is, he was persistent. And his name is synonymous with chocolate.

And what about Walt Disney? I believe he went bankrupt seven times before his dreams for Disneyland were realized. I’m sure we could all think of several other similar stories of passion, adversity, perseverance, and eventual success.

Leadership and failure are inseparably linked. When you attempt to bring your vision to life, you will experience bumps in the road, you will find you have fallen into a pot hole or even a giant sink hole along your journey…or you may be blazing an entirely new trail, with all kinds of unforeseen obstacles ahead. The trick is to learn from these setbacks, grow through them, and move beyond them. You will feel the amazing sensation of satisfaction — along with your success — when you do. And my friends, there’s not much like true satisfaction in knowing you stuck to it and accomplished what you set out to do.

Spend a little time today thinking about your greatest setback in your life to-date. What was it?

How did you get through it?

What was the bittersweet reward?

What did you learn from it that you have carried forward and use in other situations?

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Intentional Leadership — D5, W3, M6 — Perseverance

Wow! It’s hard to believe it’s Friday, again, so fast! I don’t know about you, but the last two weeks feel like they’ve just flown past.

As you know, last week, I was in Guatemala with the John Maxwell Team, teaching a new transformational leadership process, and it was a lot of fun! It was also an all-consuming week. You know what it feels like to be fully engaged — emotionally, spiritually, and mentally — right? Well, when I’m with this group of people, that’s how I feel, and it’s energizing and stimulating…and when I come back home, the environment is completely different. It’s like disconnecting from a power source — an extremely powerful energy source. And, so, all week, I have been really tired! Good tired…I spent a week doing something significant tired!

So, I am looking forward to getting a little extra sleep this weekend. But it won’t be a totally leisurely weekend — I have lots to do! I’m working with a new coach, and we had our initial call today. I committed to drafting the base of a strategic actions plan for the next five weeks to really accelerate my studies, content preparation, and client interaction. I have a lot to do, and I’m very much excited about being to dedicate almost the entire weekend to this important work.

I’ll go for at least one long walk, weed my flower beds, and maybe even take a nap!

Looking ahead, I’m planning a couple of trips, so need to spend some time on the details.

Finally, I have some letter to write. I love getting handwritten correspondence, so I try to send some to others on a regular basis.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Who will benefit from some time with you?

What do you have going on in the coming weeks?

What could you be doing now to prepare for those things, that will save you some time and anxiety later?

Whatever you do with your weekend, I hope you make it an intentional one!

“See” you Monday!

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