What I’ve learned in leadership is that on most days, there are hidden factors at work. These hidden factors can make you excel, or they can completely work against you.
Knowing what’s at work in the background can be tremendously liberating. Once you realize what’s helping or hurting you, you can deal with it.
So what hidden factors threaten to make or break you as a leader?
Here are nine I’ve identified at work in my leadership. You’ll notice many have to do with a leader’s mind, while a few are more physical.
It should be no surprise so many of the factors are in your mind. Leadership, after all, is a mind game.
Work at the mental aspect of leadership and you’ll discover what many leaders have discovered: Changing your mind can change everything.
1. The weight of leadership
Anyone who has led anything remotely significant is familiar with the weight of leadership.
The weight of leadership is the sense of responsibility you carry that goes with your job.
The problem is it never turns off easily.
It follows you home. It accompanies you to bed. It travels with you on vacation.
It’s hard to shake the weight of leadership. You feel it because you are the leader, and you’re likely the leader because you’re the kind of person who feels it.
So what can help lift the weight of leadership? A few things:
Naming it
Doing something fun (the power of distraction)
Prayer
Talking to a friend or mentor who understands
When it’s appropriate, the weight of leadership can spur you toward leading better. But when it crushes you, all of the benefits of feeling responsible for what you lead disappear.
2. Pace
Many leaders run hard. But you can only run so hard so long.
For many of you, it’s been too long.
Any leader can run hard for a season, but even if you avoid burnout , eventually it becomes counterproductive to run hard all the time.
Why?
Your mood tanks. Your fatigue rises. Your productivity drops.
And—bottom line—it’s unsustainable.
Smart leaders ask themselves: Am I living in a way today that will help me thrive tomorrow? If not, why not?
! 3. Lack of sleep
I’ve written about sleep before, and I’ve become a sleep evangelist of sorts over the last decade. (Here’s why sleep is a leader’s secret weapon in my view .)
Frankly, my conversion was involuntary. I used to pride myself on how little sleep I got. Now, most days, I unapologetically nap during the day and generally get six to eight hours every night.
The truth is, before I started taking sleep seriously, I was awake, but I was a zombie. And despite being awake more hours, I wasn’t nearly as productive as I am today.
To say I’ve been 10x more productive since I started taking sleep seriously is probably not an exaggeration. I wanted to write a book all through my 30s. Never got a manuscript done.
I’ve written three in the last six years. Plus launched this blog, and a podcast , started speaking at conferences more often, and worked full time on top of that.
I find when I cheat sleep now, it feels like my world comes crashing down. If I can call an audible and simply admit “Man, I’m tired” and get some rest, things come back into alignment surprisingly fast.
Sunday, 17 July 2016
Focus on Gods promises...not your problems
When God wants to bless a man He gives him a promise. Huh?! A promise? Yes, a promise. You might well ask, ‘In all His glory and omnipotence why doesn’t God just snap His fingers or use a magic wand to change someone’s life?’ Because that’s not how God works. Could He if He wanted to? Sure He could, but He doesn’t. You see God has established this world in such a way that it is governed by both physical laws and spiritual laws. Physical laws are principles that don’t necessarily require your faith or understanding for them to work. For example, if you throw a book out the 7 th floor of a building it’s going to speedily plummet and hit the ground. But spiritual laws require faith and allow us to operate past the confines of the earth’s physical realm. When Jesus said
“My kingdom is not of this world”John 18:36 , He was referring to another realm in which He operated – a spiritual kingdom in which the source of everything that was and ever will be emanates from. It is from this realm that God even allows physical laws to be bypassed. For example when Jesus beckoned Peter to come and walk on water Peter was able to do so for a short time because his faith made him believe he could.
I’m just trying to illustrate that God works from a very different kingdom than that which we actually see with our eyes. And it is from here that God has established His promises. A promise is quite simply ‘a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something.’ It means that someone is giving grounds for expectation based on their word. That’s why God gives His promises in the form of a Word. Words can travel through and coexist in both the spiritual and physical realm. It is through words that God created the world and it is through words that God continues to sustain the world. Hence it is God’s promises that are suppose to sustain our spiritual lives so that our physical lives can blossom. God says that you and I have been given “…exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature” 2 Peter 1:4 . Whoa! Do you know what that means? God is saying that He’s not going to use a magic wand to change your circumstances, but He is going to give you a promise and that promise is going to change your nature from the inside out and eventually bear fruit in your life. That divine nature is the nature of Christ.
When God gives you a promise or rather when you get a revelation of God’s promise in your life, you need to hold on to it. It is the devil’s aim to take from you your faith in God’s promises. Just as the seeds that are sown by the wayside are eaten by the birds (Matthew 13:19), so Satan wants to take God’s promise from you. It is inevitable that each one of us will face challenges, trials, temptations and the like through life. The devil will want you to think these problems are too much, life is too hard, there’s just no point! While God will say to you “My son, my daughter, hold onto My promises for nothing is too difficult for me. I’m going to see you through. Focus on My promises…not your problems.” King David said “I cling to Your testimonies; O Lord do not put me to shame!” Psalm 119:31. In effect he was saying I’m not letting go of your promises, they mean everything to me and I need to see them work in my life; please don’t let me end up looking like a fool! We also need to
cling to God’s promises, kind of like a baby clings to his or her mother. In that mother’s arms there’s assurance, safety and protection. God’s promises act not only as assurance, but also as a shield from the lies of Satan (Proverbs 30:5).
God’s promises deal with all aspects of our life - our health, relationships, finances, family, work, love, etc. You have to search God’s Word, find His promises and hold onto them. Speak His promises over your life. Thank Him for His promises that are in your life. Whenever you speak God’s promises on your life, its manifestation draws nearer. Whenever you thank Him for them, you remain in His will. So if, for example, the devil tries to tell you something like
‘You’re sick and you’ll never be well.’ you say ‘No I don’t think so, God promised me that...by His stripes I was healed.’1Peter 2:24. Then you turn your attention to God and say ‘God I thank you for your promise…it’s in you I put my trust.’ Even at times when it seems the hardest, don’t give up. Don’t entertain Satan’s thoughts. He’s not worth your time!
If you ever came to a place in life and felt you had absolutely nothing but a promise from God, then you have enough. Always strive to focus on God’s promises and not your problems.
“My kingdom is not of this world”John 18:36 , He was referring to another realm in which He operated – a spiritual kingdom in which the source of everything that was and ever will be emanates from. It is from this realm that God even allows physical laws to be bypassed. For example when Jesus beckoned Peter to come and walk on water Peter was able to do so for a short time because his faith made him believe he could.
I’m just trying to illustrate that God works from a very different kingdom than that which we actually see with our eyes. And it is from here that God has established His promises. A promise is quite simply ‘a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something.’ It means that someone is giving grounds for expectation based on their word. That’s why God gives His promises in the form of a Word. Words can travel through and coexist in both the spiritual and physical realm. It is through words that God created the world and it is through words that God continues to sustain the world. Hence it is God’s promises that are suppose to sustain our spiritual lives so that our physical lives can blossom. God says that you and I have been given “…exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature” 2 Peter 1:4 . Whoa! Do you know what that means? God is saying that He’s not going to use a magic wand to change your circumstances, but He is going to give you a promise and that promise is going to change your nature from the inside out and eventually bear fruit in your life. That divine nature is the nature of Christ.
When God gives you a promise or rather when you get a revelation of God’s promise in your life, you need to hold on to it. It is the devil’s aim to take from you your faith in God’s promises. Just as the seeds that are sown by the wayside are eaten by the birds (Matthew 13:19), so Satan wants to take God’s promise from you. It is inevitable that each one of us will face challenges, trials, temptations and the like through life. The devil will want you to think these problems are too much, life is too hard, there’s just no point! While God will say to you “My son, my daughter, hold onto My promises for nothing is too difficult for me. I’m going to see you through. Focus on My promises…not your problems.” King David said “I cling to Your testimonies; O Lord do not put me to shame!” Psalm 119:31. In effect he was saying I’m not letting go of your promises, they mean everything to me and I need to see them work in my life; please don’t let me end up looking like a fool! We also need to
cling to God’s promises, kind of like a baby clings to his or her mother. In that mother’s arms there’s assurance, safety and protection. God’s promises act not only as assurance, but also as a shield from the lies of Satan (Proverbs 30:5).
God’s promises deal with all aspects of our life - our health, relationships, finances, family, work, love, etc. You have to search God’s Word, find His promises and hold onto them. Speak His promises over your life. Thank Him for His promises that are in your life. Whenever you speak God’s promises on your life, its manifestation draws nearer. Whenever you thank Him for them, you remain in His will. So if, for example, the devil tries to tell you something like
‘You’re sick and you’ll never be well.’ you say ‘No I don’t think so, God promised me that...by His stripes I was healed.’1Peter 2:24. Then you turn your attention to God and say ‘God I thank you for your promise…it’s in you I put my trust.’ Even at times when it seems the hardest, don’t give up. Don’t entertain Satan’s thoughts. He’s not worth your time!
If you ever came to a place in life and felt you had absolutely nothing but a promise from God, then you have enough. Always strive to focus on God’s promises and not your problems.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)