What do you really want?

This is the number one question young leaders fail (and unfortunately a large number of older leaders as well) to answer with clarity. I have recently started asking myself this question each time a significant leadership decision comes up in my life. If I fail to know exactly what I want (to happen, to accomplish, which outcomes I am striving for, what end result is needed) then I am doomed to get something … else.

Leadership moves fast in this present world and we all want answers and direction. But if I fail to answer this question with some depth, then I can't move on to appropriate action. There is only so much each person can know and have experience to address and respond with, so we need the right coaches and mentors and peers around us to help us find solutions. If we fail to answer this question though, we can't move forward effectively.

If a leader doesn't know the answer to this question they will likely (unwittingly and without any malice) use people rather than serve them suitably. They will find themselves needing people rather than leading people. Of course there are layers and layers to every challenge and every situation and no, you don't have to know the answers all up front. Yet without some real energy being applied to solid discovery of what you want, you will find yourself floundering more and more.

So what do you REALLY want? Think about it ... now.

Traveling with Jim

There are huge opportunities in my line of work. I get to meet amazing people in interesting places doing life-changing work. This weekend was a perfect example of the beautiful synergy that can happen.

I met up with the Asia Regional Director while he was traveling through Thailand, on his way to Cambodia. He asked, and I decided to join him on this trip.

I got more accomplished in two hours at the airport with Jim, than most people do in a whole day. No crap. No bullshit. No posturing. No Politics. No spiritual-speak (the use of spiritual sounding phrases to impress the hearer of one's spiritual stature). Just great content, succinct, powerful, clear, impressive, better, easier, more. There are not enough adjectives to describe the great gift of thinking he has. And, according to him, I delivered everything I said I would and more. Death to bad meetings! Long live life-giving exchanges!! You should always employ my basic cornerstone of work/business/productivity  "under promise, over deliver." It has served well for decades now.

Here in Cambodia, the synergy continued. I would be hard pressed to recall a more productive weekend. What a roll! Evidently I need to travel more often with people who spark my imagination in all the right ways. The power of possibilities!

In the International Church smoking lounge?

Is that even a valid phrase in the anti-smoking world Americans live in? Yes. It is. There is a whole world alive here, an unreached people group if you please. Where Christ followers never (well ok, rarely) venture.

I am starting to think that I should start a new church, of the tobacco addicted, of those enslaved by the moments of tutun (the Macedonian word) clarity and pleasure, those involved in the minutes of hazy smoke-filled clouds of bliss. Where pilots and doctors and janitors and leadership gurus and jazz musicians and the welfare class share bad air together in complete nicotine equality.

Yes I am convinced that this is a un-reached people group, not pinned in by the 10/40 window as much as they are Marlboro and Camels and Galoussies.

This room of smokers is the most crowded room in the entire huge Istanbul airport! They are a homogenous group of weak individuals, who willingly and helplessly bow down to a compelling desire. Who better to experience the freedom of life in Christ? Who better to acknowledge their inability to do so without supernatural help?

They are a microsm of weaknesses we all face. They are us. Albeit a smelly smoky version of us. What an intriguing study of cultural anthropology! It is an international church with representatives from every European country, every African nation, every Asian country and every state! I have thought about targeting smokers as  a people group, much as I have tourists in Asia, and sex-pats (versus ex-pats) in Southeast Asia as those who need Christ as much as I do. Who is within your reach?

Raising the bars 2

“But frankly, none of us have the time we need.” I read this quote recently and found it very intriguing. I thought it went well in some ways with my previous post. It reflects the way the entrepreneurial world/business world is highly driven, over-scheduled, over-clocked, and believe it or not I am coming to the conclusion that the majority of Westerners do this, not just the C-suite executives . . . because we believe none of us have the time we need. We admire people who are workaholics, who sacrifice and succeed, regardless the price.

The article went on and explained WHY we are often this way, “the rewards of work are immediate, and the rewards of life accrue more slowly. (To some parents of teenagers, these rewards may seem practically glacial.) It becomes tempting to reserve the best of ourselves for the short-term gains of work and “automate” the long game of life.”

I did this for years myself, and mostly (85%) I regret it. Yes it brought me where I am today, quicker than I could have arrived by valuing the rewards of life (the moment, my awesome wife, my amazing kids, my incredible parents, etc) accruing each day, than the immediate rewards of work, production, execution, competencies, education, and a paycheck. This proper balance is so incredibly difficult to find when you are in the middle of living it!

The key life moments and the key work moments seems to come at precisely the same time, at the very front end of your working and childrearing cycles of life. For men at least, the pressure and temptation to undervalue the childrearing and relationships, over the work dilligence needed to make some progress toward those types of goals, is huge. But whoever reaches the later stages of life and wish that they had worked more?? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my work, really I do, even though it is work :-). But my family and relationships bring me far more pure joy . . . and work, while often satisfying, just can't compete in the long run.

I would still argue that we need to raise the bar, increase our skills and competencies and capacities, but perhaps we need to measure the costs differently and with great care.

(These quotes I used here came from the blog, “Should You Automate Your Life So that You Can Work Harder?”by SARAH GREEN)

Raising the bars?

There are levels to every competency, whether that be intellect, physical, spiritual or hard skills. Most people get into a good groove of ability and they market that or maximize it to to a point of good functionality or ability. They find what works and they stay with it.

The problem is that what works in today's context likely won't be enough to suffice for tomorrow's demands, or you will discover that it is not enough to take you forward to where you find you need to go next, or you aren't getting the results that you want.

There are a number of factors that affect your plans to move ahead to the next level. Age is a big factor. This can adversely affect physical or intellectual skills. Moving up can be hampered greatly by age if you increase or want/need to accelerate your physical exercise or intellectual pursuits like language acquisition or scholarly studies. I recently pushed myself to ride more and eat less, and I was shocked to discover how slowly I could improve without doing injury to myself! And language learning is another area where I find it much more difficult to memorize and retain new words and grammar constructs, than I did 20 years ago.

But other things can be easier with age such as spiritual or hard skills. Experience can be a big asset in these pursuits. In fact it can be the totally-give-you-the-upper-hand asset in hard skills and in spiritual matters. You know what you know at this stage/age and the beauty of that is that you have honed down what works and what doesn't, what is needed and what is not, where progress can be made, where the pressure points are, where success can be found. Much more is known, far less unknown . . . now if you only won't allow these advantages blind you to the fact that you still have to learn . . . 

Context can be another big factor, and I would include timing, location, assignment, capacity, desire, family, cycle of life, resourcing and mobility under this heading (at the very least. There may be more factors that I have missed). This is a framing factor. I think of it as more as a structure than a limiting or enabling factor. It just is. If you are a missionary in South East Asia, you can't sell cars in Boise. Of course one of the beautiful things happening in the modern world is that these structure/context framings are stretching. Life is becoming more configurable than ever before. Reach and mobility have changed most equations. If you want to elevate your game, this one requires some diligent effort. I put about seven years of effort into this point before making my big jump away from my former parent group (of 23 years). Dilligent effort. Opportunity does not equal wisdom . . . 

 . . . though I would classify opportunity as the third most important factor in taking your efforts to the next level. Opportunity often feels like risk, and the risk-averse will have more difficulty in seeing the opportunity. What could you do, if failure were not possible, if resourcing were not a constraint, if dreams drove you?

I would like to say, that all you hope for is potentially there, is possibly possible, maybe might be, for the person who can see the steps, take them one at a time, and stay the course. Remember dilligent effort? It applies all across the board. It is the most consistent factor missing in those I work with who want to make big jumps in their abilities. You CAN do this, but you probably will have to work at it. Time plus proximity does not equal aquisition.

52 years old today

Today is my 52nd birthday. I am pretty sure that I spent it like few would choose to spend their 52nd birthday, but there is a method to my madness, but you just may want to have me committed to an insane asylum. Today marks my third consecutive (almost) birthday in Thailand, sweating profusely. I like to sweat, for I am convinced that it is one of the primary reasons I have zero blood pressure problems here in Asia, whereas in Europe and the USA, I have to take medication to keep things under control. Here I just sweat, and sweat and  . . . well you get the idea.

But I am not here to sweat, I am here to work in part (since I have such excellent locationless work, place is relative workwise) but more importantly to be with my brother, who has advanced cirrhosis of the liver due to an incredible commitment to beer in vast quantities, every day, for years. Until he was so direly diagnosised 2.5 years ago, we had spent little time together as adults. We are both enjoying the process of making some adult memories and sharing our lives together, even if it is more than a little late. There is a lesson in this for you too.

But we were actually discussing birthdays. So I spent birthdays 50, almost 51 and today number 52 here in Thailand. On number 50 I struggled to bicycle 16 miles. On number (10 days before my birthday) 51 I handled 26 mountainous miles fairly well. Today I did a very mountainous 54 mile circle and I feel really good! As you can see, I am making birthday progress, of a sort. At mile 36 I stopped at a roadside cafe and had an excellent breakfast of super spicy fish and rice (well I AM in Asia). Then when I returned to Chiang Mai, I showered and did a load of laundry (a never ending task where you sweat and sweat), and then I went and treated myself to a one hour massage to work out some of the kinks to a 52 year old body that biked 54 miles.

No email or work today . . . instead I am concentrating on all the things I am thankful for, blessed by, gifted with, and the opportunities that I have that I never thought possible when I was a chicken farmer's son growing up in rural GA. With some careful thought, it becomes apparent that I have been given some magical moments, turns, twists, chances, and offers. I am looking more to what the future holds than what the past has given. I am wallowing in the pleasure of the moment, today, this my 52nd birthday.  Its gonna be a great year!

Thinking space

Thinking space is hard to come by. It is rarely quiet enough to dig into the hard work of thinking. I am not talking about silence, though that too has an important role to play in our lives, but quiet enough to think. Wanting to think and planning to think is not the problem for many of us, it is much more how loud our environments are, the noise of life around us, the almost inescapable constant grind of traffic and construction, at least in the cities that I live in around the world.

This morning I decided to do an exercise experiment. There is a mountain cafe about 2 miles further along from my normal turnaround on my morning bike ride. I decided to pack up some working gear and ride with a small backpack on to this cafe. I decided to order a coffee, sit on the balcony that overlooks several ranges, enjoy a completely different ambience. Wait and soak, wait and listen, permeate my brain cells with less bombardment, feel the breeze less polluted by smog and noise, to actually be able to hear the birds sing, be surrounded by trees instead of asphalt.

The difference was astounding! No jackhammers, no shrill saws cutting pipes, no cement trucks racing their engines, little traffic, no one hammering in the room next door, no telephones ringing, no racing motorcycles, no crowds of people all talking on their phones, no loud music playing, no taxis honking their horns, no shouting vendors on the street. It wasn't silent, but the sounds were much calmer, more nature could be heard, much more soothing and relaxing and the thoughts began to flow, coalesce, take form, make new connections - thinking! Not just doing a mental to-do list in my head, but actual real honest thinking. And the coffee was great too.

What experiment do you need to do to find a thinking zone? I had to pretty much restructure the first half of my day in order to pull this off. It is not something that is practical to do everyday. But if you don't try, then you are sure to fail to find a place of creativity, rejuvenation and new possibilities.

Sacrificing for someone else?

When do you sacrifice for someone else's success? This is a trickier question than you might think. Most leader-want-to-be's are pretty good about sacrificing for someone else's success . . . as long as they can see the ROI eventually, in some manner, benefiting them. Even if that eventually is still a long ways down the road. Even if that potential benefit is small, they can still do it regularly.

It is when there is no "eventually" that separates the men from the boys, so to speak. If fact I would challenge you to think carefully, and see how many investments in people you have made, that can not ever bring some benefit back to your door, ever. Hell I am in the "helping others succeed" business and I am hard pressed, very very hard pressed to find more than a few. 

Sure I find deep pleasure in seeing others succeed, really I do! But hidden inside all of those "helping others succeed" human transactions that take place in my life, there is also some reciprocation, some advantage, something I get in return, even if it is eventually.  Frankly that ruins my altruism. It wrecks my perceptions of how generous I am. It destroys my sense of largess. It displays how shallow my good goes. At the end of the day, it reveals my utter selfishness.

This was brought to light in my life today, when I could find no happiness, no pleasure inside of me, for the success of another. Her success cost me, and there is no eventual benefit for me. I had to pay the price, receive less, be patient, be generous, wait, make allowances, spend my time, change my plans, thwart my goal, in order for her to succeed - and there is no eventual benefit for me. And I don't like it all. And that shows my smallness: as a man, as a Christ-follower, as a leader.

Unusual compression, more of the present?

The coffee was surprisingly great. Not my typical experience on a plane. The steward told me that it was a new Columbian blend they were trying from South Africa. I told him flat out it was a keeper! I had four wonderful cups to prove my point!

But I skipped the history that brought me to this place. Age has given me a number of gifts, two of the more unusual ones are that I can now sleep on airplanes and I rarely experience dreaded jet-lag. I attribute these two gifts to age, as surely it could not be that I am changing time zones so frequently that my body has given up jet-lag?

So after two intense hours of work, interrupted only by a flabbergasted stewardess who simply couldn't believe I did not want to eat dinner, although she couldn't know that I rarely eat food served on airplanes, and after four hours of relatively good sleep – I was ready for coffee.

Typically I slurp down a cup or two, just to hold me until I can get off the flight and get ahold of some real coffee. Today I might skip that ritual altogether, as I sit here contentedly (did I just use that word on an airplane??) sipping a very hot tasty brew and jotting down these thoughts on my iPad as my brain is waking up.

Everything can be more intense on a trans-ocean flight. It is like time and work and thinking and food and the air in the cabin is compressed into a more intense experience than a normal day. Perhaps it is as simple as sitting in a space designed for children rather than adults for hours on end, but even the waiting is compressed and each moment can seem to take several hours depending on your state of mind (on the other hand, the flight West took 10 hours and 30 minutes, this one East only took 7 hours and 15 minutes!). I mean compressed in the sense of MORE rather than in the sense of SHORTER.

Dr. Marshal Goldsmith, an excellent leadership guru of high caliber, started me down this path a number of years back. He travels far far more than me (I shudder at the thought!), and he advocates that the best way to travel and make it as productive and painless as possible, is to live in the moment only. Not as my lovely bride does, bouncing mentally back and forth the entire flight between the time zone she left and the time zone she is heading toward - but the moment. Perhaps this is why everything seems MORE? Perhaps this unusual compression is fostered by living in the present moment, no more, no less.

Clarity of purpose . . . at a price

There are all different kinds of clarity needed in life, but clarity of purpose may outrank them all. Surprisingly, pain can actually bring some significant clarity of purpose.

I recently went through round three of excruciating back pain – all three were very different – except for the pain part and the excruciating part. At least in this third round I could sit without dying, but walking? It very well may kill me.

So what do you do when hurting physically? You probably will think me completely crazy, but in my family, we pretty much do whatever we would do if we weren't hurting at all. I mean, it is gonna hurt no matter where you are and no matter what you do, right? Just as well work.

And that is what I did. I remember sitting on my second flight of the day, heading to Berlin for three days of intensive work. But this hurt so badly those last 24 hours, that I seriously considered just tossing the whole trip into the garbage can and bailing out. All that money, all that planning, all those irretrievable moments - down the tube. Lost. But I couldn't do it. Because of clarity.

The clarity I had of the possibilities of what might be, what could happen, what potentials exist to change the world, all of that was at stake. And it is gonna hurt no matter what, right? Some of you might suggest that I over-estimated the importance of my trip, or suggest that I didn't really hurt that badly, but you would be wrong, on both counts. It is clarity about the importance of what I do, and the limits of what I can't, that put me on that plane that day, and through the agony of the next three days walking in Berlin. Clarity! Purpose! Meaning!

Rush

I love the breeze blowing (and sometimes whipping!) through my hair and across my skin.  I love the rush of taking the curves fast and furious. I love carving those big fat S's and hairpin turns. I love the tension of danger, the near possibility of falling is always present and it usually hurts. But the energy given and released in exchange for being on the edge of the board, or the side of the tires, the lip of disaster, is generally a fair transaction. Ok, I am adrenalin junkie. Anything with two wheels or anything with snow and everything pointed downhill and curves!! Let's go!

There is something very powerful in these moments of movement. The controlled risk, the measured danger, the pain of making an error in judgement, all necessary parts of living loud and experiencing something completely other, than sitting at my desk all day. Having fun is an essential part of balance as you integrate life and work. What do you need to do today to get your blood pumping and make your heart jump up into your throat?

(disclaimers: I always wear a helmet in each of these activities. I love the rush, but I take some precautions against utter stupidity, and for the record, my bike helmet and snowboarding helmet have saved me numerous times. Have not tested the motorcycle helmet against the asphalt and hope I never do.)

Moments

There are many moments in life where we can make a difference. But seeing them can often be the challenge. What I mean is that we are so focused on other things, that we miss many of the golden moments that cross our paths. Most of us have been taught to actually do this on purpose, to show how focused and attentive we are to our objectives and goals and how we "get things done."

But activity is not necessarily productivity, especially when productivity includes (demands) that we see and respond to these moments, these opportunities, these events that cross our paths. Busyness is not the goal, making a difference is the goal, changing the world is the goal, doing something meaningful is the goal, far more than how many hours I clock each week. I am not suggesting that we stop working diligently nor reducing our standards to something less than excellence. I am merely observing that punching the clock (for those of you old enough to remember that) does not translate into definite success in terms of making a meaningful difference in the world.

I would suggest that this requires us to cultivate an awareness of God and new ways of "seeing" or observing the world around us. It takes practice to discern what is an opportunity versus what may be simply a distraction - but it is a different kind of "focus" and one well worth every second, so we don't miss any of those God moments and join in with His plan to change and love people.

Positive energy??

While reading an email from a friend today, I had to spend some time thinking through an assessment he made of me. His choice of words messed me up a bit. He said " I am drawn to the positive energy you consistently exude." Those are not words I would typically apply to myself.

Its not that I think I am anti-positive necessarily, but more like I am married to Polly-Anna. In comparision, Brenda would generally make the real Polly-Anna seem like a curmudgeon. Compared to Brenda I am positively negative, and it is a good thing too, because someone needs to balance the universe!

Now perhaps my friend John just works in an office filled with toxic and lethally negative people, but I don't think so. He never complains about work. Ever. And so I had to stop and think a good long while about what he said and why he may have said it. 

In the end I came to only one conclusion . . . he needs to get out more. Haha, just kidding! The conclusion is this, I do make an intentional effort to see the possibilities in each person in my life. Looking for that potential all the time leaves me with very little flaw-gathering time. So perhaps what he sees in me is positive in that it is focused on what could be, rather than what may be lacking today.

What would he say about you and your energy?

Long nights

The long night happens to everyone eventually.  And the longer you lie there awake when you should be/want to be sleeping, the more things you can think of that you should be getting up to do, since you can't sleep afterall. This most often happens to me the second night after arriving at a new location around the globe. Some call it jetlag, I just call it sleeplessness. And irritating.

Its the lack of productivity that makes my mind go faster and faster as I think of all the details/tasks I have missed or failed to complete, and the urgency to just get up grows. It feels like this is lost or wasted time . . . when there is so much demanding my attention. But the reality is this, that getting up is generally a big mistake, because it will just compound the sleeplessness problem the following nights. Lying in bed in the dark is still rest, regardless of how it feels. But that overpowering feeling of unproductiveness . . .

. . . is simply wrong too, because the busier you are, the dumber you may be.  You must resist this lie the most in the modern age, perhaps more than most others, because overclocked schedules keep us from not only not resting well, but from thinking clearly, and of course since I slept so little last night, my thinking processes are even more slowed today. So I must give myself more space and margin today in order to break the cycle of unproductivity tomorrow.

I know that sounds counter-intuitive, and so does my suggestion here, but you have to just relax and live in the moment of the long night. Otherwise it may become a pattern, and that would actually be a real problem.

Hanging by a thread?

Imagine my surprise today when ropes started flying across my balcony, quickly followed by two men with five gallon buckets, all on the 12th floor!! They redefined for me what it means to be hanging by a thread! Now for some folks, they may consider painting buildings while hanging from a single rope, to be the best jobs in the world. While the majority of us may think, "what desperation drove these men to take such risks every day?"

But it won't take you very long to think of times when you have backed yourself into a corner which led to you taking big risks for low rewards. Most of us have been in this spot in our lives. Even though we are not Burmese laborers working for sub-par wages in Thailand, we still have woke up to find ourselves hanging by a thread, emotionally, financially, vocationally, spiritually (hopefully not physically like these guys!). It is a horrible place to be, yet, in some way it quantifies the non-hanging by a thread moments and events.

So my challenge to you (and of course myself) is to accurately assess where you are today, compared to, one of those hanging by a thread times in life. 

Suddenly my day just got a lot brighter and better.

One of THESE days!

Sometimes you can't believe that you get to be where you are today! Since yesterday was “sometimes you don't want to be where you are” day, it is fitting to have a follow up day to the contrary. Honestly this is my more normal day, where the world is tilted correctly and most things happen in a predictable manner that allows planning, thinking and building something important.

Today was one of “these” days. Even sick, this day is about 1000 times better than yesterday. What objectively changed? Really nothing at all…at least that is measurable or visible. In fact, it rained most of the day! So it wasn't the weather. I am in fact, sick and sitting on…er…the throne, or at least not getting far from it (like six steps is the limit). So what is the difference, that even an Asian bug can't falter? What is better today than yesterday? No resets needed, no change of scenery or pace to get things moving in the right direction. What is different?

Only small things, and that is both wonderful and horrible. Perspective that happened mentally yesterday, but never made it to the feeling level, was just right today, the feeling and thinking were in sync. Sleep was better last night, the exercise today about the same. Food was just as good. Weather was worse. Physically I felt much better today, well until about an hour ago when Matsuma's revenge attacked. Like I said, very small, little things. The great news is that it doesn't really take too much to have a much better day. The horrible news is that it doesn't really take too much to have a much worse day.

It seems to me that I am, or should be, much much much much more resilient than that. To think that so little could swing the pendulum so far. In fact, if you had asked me two days ago, I would have told you that I was indeed, much much much too resilient to be swung by so little in either direction. But evidently I am not, at least not on these two particular days.

One of those days

Sometimes you just don't want to be where you are today. I know you have had one of “those" days. One of those days where you are glad you can swear in three languages - fluently. One of those days, where your feet are dragging and your heart is flagging and your thoughts are sagging. You make a valiant effort to turn things around and get them moving in the right direction - any direction other than the one you have been headed in the whole day. You step back and think it through and know in your heart that this is a temporary phenomena but you can't seem to convince your soul.

It's one of those days where it seems everyone is nasty and mean without any cause, much less a "just” one. It feeds your negative experience. You are discombobulated and out of whack and just off it seems. The day can't end fast enough. Even a great meal can't assist you in turning the corner…half way through, you just lose your appetite and really don't enjoy the great thing before you, but you eat it anyways, out of habit more than joy.

You attempt a number of “resets” but it isn't happening. You just want to go home, but you don't know where that is any longer, and in my case, I haven't known where that is for decades. There is almost a sense of cosmic mischief afoot, determined to wreck the battle. A long walk to change the speed and pace, and all you get is a headache. Purpose seems to have deserted you completely and you can't remember all the reasons in your heart, for bringing you to this place, for this need, for this very necessary presence, here, right now. Or the price seems unnaturally high for the results.

Thankfully tomorrow is a new opportunity and start. May it be much much better than today.

Role changes

There are many roles that a person plays over the course of their lives. One that I never envisioned for myself is caretaker … of people that I love. It started about eight years ago when my wife suddenly and unexpectedly started having seizures, as a result of the epilepsy that we never knew she had. Of course unless you grow up wanting and expecting to take care of people as a vocation, you never will anticipate this role sneaking up on you. (since then, my brother and my mother have joined in the need to have some caretaking - my role expands)

Now let me make it abundantly clear, my wife is no wilting violet, hypochondriac, in no way does she ever live a “poor pitiful me” attitude in life. But there have been a number of moments in the last eight years where she is utterly dependent on help to even get dressed or showered or out of bed in the morning. Something neither of us ever could have imagined when we got married over 27 years ago. Something that neither of us would have believed could happen to us. But it did and it does. And now I am going through severe back pain in a chronic ongoing pattern that is both incredibly painful and very worrying, and I need a caretaker!

So we find ourselves at another one of those moments, recent surgeries keeping her immobile, as much as she hates any kind of perceived weakness in herself and as much as she detests having me (or anyone) help her. The result is that I cook by proxy sometimes - another unimaginable role that I can do now with aplomb. Cooking by proxy entails Brenda telling me what to do from whatever prone position she finds herself forced to remain in, while I make jokes and behave badly in the kitchen. Thus it takes two of us to make a simple cobbler, one that a small child could have done. But we did it together … in roles that we could not have imagined just a short while ago … and we had some good laughs along the way. Perhaps these role changes are not as bad as they seem? Perhaps this is the way to really grow and develop, by being forced to do so? Hmmmmm . . . 

Focus

Where are you focused? And what do you see there? Call it vision, call it foresight, call it prophecy. Or it could be more concrete, like my current scenery. Here is what I am looking at, now, at this very moment of writing.

Some would say that I am focused on a huge mountain range, some might say that I am focused on how small I am in comparison. But actually I am focused on you - my surroundings are just giving me scale to think, scale to be inspired, to see what I could not with a lesser vista.

So what are you focused on? The immediate? Depending on the task or need, it can be most excellent and most productive to be fully immersed in the now, in deep work, in the current, in the present, in the urgent. Or are you focused on the end game, the future, the result? How well can you see it? Can you sense it vaguely, or is it a sharp and persistent vision? Can you envision what it can be, what it will be, how it will take place, the steps to get there, to experience it, to bring it to fruition?

Focus has at least two parts, and maybe more depending, the first part is understanding WHAT you should be focused on - the timing of your focus, now, mid and future - and the second part is WHAT you see, the product, the sermon, the content, the competency, the skill, the reality out there … eventually. I could focus on the vista in front of me, the cool slight breeze on my face, the sun peeking through the clouds, the ambience of this mountain side cafe, the smell of the fresh air, the sounds of the birds chattering. Or I could be focused on you, what you are facing, what you are challenged by, what you need, your dreams, your goals, your hopes - fueled and scaled and inspired by all that is immediately present around me.

Tender skin?

“You don't have tender skin!” The guy mumbled under his breath as I walked away … after decking him hard on a cold Sunday afternoon football game many years ago. He had been giving me a hard time because I was wearing forearm guards. When he asked me why, I had told him that I had tender skin. It's important in football, and it's important in life, to have skin in the game. Nike has a slogan these days similar to this.

Are you invested enough in your work, your life, your family, your passion, your calling to have skinned knees and elbows? Have you wrestled to the point where you have left skin behind? Have you competed, struggled, stretched, reached, discovered, thought, inspired, mobilized, empowered, and settled for nothing less than your best in your fields of responsibilities? In your areas of opportunities? In building your core competences or products? Have you sweated and toiled and been diligent? Do you have skinned knees and elbows to show your commitment, your resolution, to produce something beautiful and unique and of high quality?

Most people think following your passion is simply about doing what you want, or what comes easy, or what requires the least from you. I believe it means quite the opposite. It means caring enough about the outcome that you leave skin behind. Everyone considers my wife a great linguist, and it's true that she actually enjoys language learning (shudder!). But what no one but me sees, day after day, year after year, and now decade after decade, is how hard and diligently she works at it. She has got skin in the game. What about you?