Work in the real and virtual world

Some jobs need you to be fully present, on location, there in the flesh.  That is the primary reason I stepped down recently as the pastor of the International Church in Skopje.  I needed to BE there, and I couldn't.  Other jobs require you to be fully present mentally and emotionally, but not physically. That is the job I have now.  People still need me to be present, but they need my attention, my focus, my experience, my skills . . . but they don't actually need me to BE there. 

 These different types of jobs (and there is a whole scale of jobs between these two extremes) are equally important, equally impactful, and equally difficult, just in completely different ways. Please hear me well, I am in no way diminishing the critical nature of being a pastor, nor the difficulty of that job.  I should know, as I have held that job in one fashion or another for most of my adult life. 

 But the locationless job I have now is fascinating to me.  As my dear sweet wife pointed out to me, I am very particularly wired to do this and do it well.  My steady high scores and evaluations year after year, echo her belief.  I have accomplished some significant work this week in Ukraine, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Cambodia, and Myanmar.  I have helped save babies, teach church planting, been invited to teach, assess, create and develop.  and all this and more, while physically being in Thailand the entire time.

So whether your value is created by BEING there or by being THERE, make sure you don't allow anything to stop you from being awesome.

Day Four

Synergy. I am no longer sure that this is something you can plan for nor design. The last two days would be a perfect example. Yesterday was a day from hell. Everything that could go wrong did. It started out that way right after my workout. I had time to start a quick load of laundry before my appointment. So I did.

As soon as the load finished and I popped the lid up, I knew I was in trouble. The tangled mess of cables told me that I had washed my ipod along with my workout clothes! A soaking wet ipod is never a good thing. After placing my ipod in a small bowl of isopropyl alcohol, and then in a cup of uncooked rice to start the drying process, I headed to the internet company's office to complain about being without connectivity for the last two days.

The very nice Thai lady informed me that a technician would be calling me soon. He did and determined that the modem had failed. So I packed up the modem, and headed back across town to the internet office to exchange the modem. She politely informed me that I would have to go to the TP-Link office. So I did. There a miraculous repair took place. I happily took my now repaired modem home. It worked for a bit more than 60 seconds before it reverted to the same problem as before.

This time I jumped on my bicycle and headed right back over to the TP-Link office and asked him to exchange the modem. He said he would. He lied. Long story short, there was no exchange, although they went through an elaborate charade to make it seem that it had happened. It took quite some time to pull off. Then off and on my unsuspecting way home, I had a bicycle moment, where my legs and gears were not synchronize at all. Lots of pain and blood resulted. Insult to injury was when I got home and the modem worked about 60 seconds.

All that pain for nothing. And I have spared you the details. In spite of all that energy that I was expending to get stuff moving, no synergy was happening at all.

Fast forward one morning more, and the AC guy, AND the internet guy, both show up at the same time, ONE HOUR EARLY, which is the Asian equivalent of a lunar landing, and viola, both my internet and my AC are getting done - synergy happening in droves today.

My take away is that I don't know when to stop spending my energy recklessly and uselessly, and I don't know when to sit back and let it happen. I need to pay attention to the cultural flows and ebbs, as well as take a serious chill pill. Then I may shed less blood and experience less pain, than trying to generate something out of nothing.

Day Three

Day three. Priorities. Or you could think of it as triage. That's a great word. I learned that word while studying to be an EMT 27 years ago. Triage is what you do when you have multiple patients at the same time, all needing care from you. Which one gets treatment first?

The most critically injured patient gets treatment first, right? Well, not always. Sometimes a patient is so critically injured, that they will die no matter what you do because the injury may be beyond your skill, the hospital may be too far, the damage too great, or the cost of treating this patient will cost you the lives of others. Applied to your leadership (and mine), sometimes we have to let a patient (or project or task or relationship) die, in order to save the other 12 people who need attention.

Once we have determined what we need to let go of and release it from our sphere of responsibility, then we need to prioritize the remaining tasks (patients) in order of severity or urgency. In our leadership model or working model, this means that I read my RSS feeds before I do email. Seth Godin points out that answering or responding to something someone thought yesterday, is less important than creating something important or wonderful today.

The point being that I can only experience frustration in the long run if I am unwilling or unable to tackle the most necessary first, rather than the easiest or what I like to do best.

Day Two

This is day two. What are you going to create today? What are you starting, beginning, developing, working on, progressing, furthering, or finishing? Have you found the workflow you need to be creative and wonderful? Have you discovered your best place or environment to set it loose and do? I think the rooftop along with a nice Nicaraguan should do nicely.

Choices is the word of the day. You have to make some choices about how you will spend these hours, what you will produce and how you will go about doing so. And the choices you make, will also dictate that some choices were decided against, at least for today. A choice “for” something is a choice “not for” something other. In other words this morning for breakfast I choose between Dan and Carol's dive versus the corner dive - I can't eat breakfast today at both places, although I could eat at both places over the course of the day. Although by definition one meal would not be breakfast. Again a choice for one is a choice against another.

It gets more complex as we go, because the first choice puts pressure on other choices down the line today. The location of the two breakfast choices this morning would have made very different “coffee” and “workplacetoday” locations possible this afternoon. Choosing one determined if I could also do laundry or not while working. Choosing one over the other determined who I met, saw and worked with throughout the day as well. Not every initial choice has so much impact every day, but it always has impact. Calculating that impact into the first choice of the day is a very important factoring process.

All of these lead to a moment, an hour, a block of time where you produce … something. Often the quality of production, the magic, the value, the importance is highly affected by those previous choices. Choose well.

Thinking - Day One

Thinking, real thinking requires a measure of atmosphere or ambience or view in order to inspire said thinking.  This is true of most people, because the thinking itself is not enough for most folks, enjoyment-wise that is.  Inspiration and thinking go together like chocolate and peanut butter.

Exercise is one way to foment thinking thoughts, as the blood starts gushing hard through the old veins.  And if you can combine atmosphere and exercise together, then you have the makings of a truly solid thinking window.  Above is what a gorgeous Fall morning looks like from my bicycle in Macedonia.

I am always seeking out such spaces in my life, so that I can accomplish the best possible work with the resources that I am capable of each day.