Driven leaders move people forward. But healthy driven leaders often get sidelined by chaos, self-doubt, loneliness and exhaustion. I know because I've been there. I live with what I call the “Triple Whammy”, being a leader, being high-achieving and being successful, but afraid to fail. This “Triple Whammy” makes it hard for those of us who live with it to share our inner turmoil on the outside. Good for leading through crisis, bad for personal health and sustainability.
In any case, I cried freely for the first time as an adult in front of a friend when I was in my mid-twenties watching Jerry Maguire in the house I rented with 4 other girls.
I was sitting on the couch watching the movie alone and the end took me by complete surprise. This older man says, “I love my wife. I love my life.” And the tears just took over. I didn’t love my life. I was traveling weekly in a consulting job doing it’s best to get the most out of me while not asking for the best of me. I was disconnected in relationship, balancing two worlds: my consulting world wherever that had me and my “home base”. I wasn’t fully present in either place. And I wasn’t fully offering God’s design in me, driven by a bad fit in my job and badly needed growth.
Today, 20+ years later, I’m doing a job that I always seemed to have as a side-gig in whatever other job I was doing. Helping people dig deep to resolve problems, realize potential and rise in freedom. After most client interactions I spontaneously shout, “I love my job!” You can ask my son who is now doing school at home if he’s tired of hearing that from me yet. Loving my job helps me love my life. I don’t carry the frustrated exhaustion into my relationships, I carry joy. Some days I still bear the burden of exhaustion, but it’s undercurrent is joy.
Let’s dare together to genuinely love our life.
Choose to smartly fight to refine your unique leadership genius instead of fighting to redefine it! This is what it is to be a BOLD Leader. It’s to say, “But God”.
When we don’t understand, we trust that we are His. When we feel we’re isolated and alone, we know we belong. Let’s keep stirring one another up to endure in truth and love and good works. (Heb. 10)
“But God remembered…” (Gen 8:1)
“…but God will be with you…” (Gen 48:21)
“…but God intended it for good…” (Gen 50:20)
“But God loved you…” (Deuteronomy 7:8)
“But God will redeem me…” (Psalm 49:15)
“…but God is the strength of my heart…” (Psalm 73:26)
“…but with God all things are possible” (Matt 19:26)
“…but God raised him from the dead…” (Acts 3:15)
