March has simply flown by in a whirlwind of rain and snow. I’m looking out my back window at the snow falling on my tulips, realizing Easter is next week and R turns 9 on Wednesday!
Hopeful
“True poverty is often the absence of hope.” I’m sure we have all been there — the dark pit of hopelessness. Feeling trapped and alone in the dark. As one who lives with depression, I face this more often than not. After the divorce, there were several times where money was not enough and I had no idea how it was going to work out to pay for day care, food, and put fuel in the car. That feeling of drowning with enough air, my heart trying to pound out of my chest as it constricts, and the tingling feeling of limbs waking up as all sound rushes from the world is a familiar feeling that I like to avoid at all costs. Having hope suddenly gives my lungs permission to behave, my heart to calm down, and sounds to penetrate. Hope is a currency I like to deal in.
There is a fine balance between optimism and reality though. In my group of five friends, I have one friend who always sees the positive in things. We could be sitting at a picnic when it suddenly starts to rain and ruins all the food, I would be packing things and kids as quickly as I can, but she would stop and say, “I have some dish soap in the car. We should make bubbles in the mud puddles with the kids!” She sees the reality, but chooses to see the good and make memories in the process. How I love her in those rainy times (and the dry seasons, and the windy days . . . ).
A manager will work on the here and now, but a leader will also be able to look ahead and invest energy into tomorrow. There is also a balancing act here — staying present while also thinking ahead.
Vision-centered leaders have these qualities:
- Optimistic
- Focused on the best in their people
- Never satisfied but always content
- Consumed with making tomorrow better than today
- Accepting of change
- Inclusive
- Personally bought in
Be known by the problems you solve. What is the legacy you are hoping to leave? Write it down next to your personal calling statement and review them both as necessary.
Collaborative
Stay fresh to have better solutions
more input leads to more output
Keys for making collaboration successful:
- Make sure expectations are clearly laid out
- stay adaptive, humble, and accessible
- See collaboration as a need, not just an option
- Choose wisely
- Be intentional
- Make connections: community is oxygen
Call to Action
- Write a Legacy Statement. What problems so I want Mpact Clubs to solve?
- Continue to work on facing fears from last week’s list.
