Good morning fellow leaders and influencers. I hope it is a beautiful day inside and out today!
My office window looks out over a little deck and a gate to the street. Between about 8:30 and 9:00 am I am treated to the sounds of children’s voices as kids and some parents walk to and fro headed to the various schools in the neighbourhood. My neighbourhood has at least three schools within a few blocks; a public elementary school, a Jewish girls highschool and a French elementary school. What struck me this morning was the wide range of emotions about going to school in the kids that walked by the gate. One of the first was a young boy, his backpack about the size of his entire back. He was leaning forward and marching, he was on a mission. And a few minutes later, a Dad, on the other side of the street cajoling his two young daughters along; neither one of whom was particularly interested in getting to school, it seemed to me. He finally got them moving by saying, “if we go home, neither one of you will be going outside at all today!”
We are an amazing species eh?! How many of us have experienced the same excitement, or the same hesitation about a project, or even, going to work! I’m often reminded of the brilliant short 1979 film from the National Film Board of Canada, called getting started. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7yiHiDDyQc . (It’s about 9 minutes long) The premise is a pianist getting started to rehearse. One of my favorite moments is when he sits down, moves the piano stool up to the piano, and then takes out a measuring tape to ensure it, and he, are in the exact position before he can begin! And that’s in the first minute or so, it just gets funnier from there! All of this to say, as leaders, we are being watched; people notice our excitement, people notice our hesitation, people notice if we’re not really engaged, or wish we were somewhere else.
As I’ve mentioned before in these notes, my friend (and brother-in-law) Paul Alofs wrote a very good book published last year, called Passion Capital. http://www.amazon.ca/Passion-Capital-Worlds-Valuable-Asset/dp/0771007477 As the subtitle names it, our passion is our greatest asset. The young man with the heavy backpack who walked by my front gate this morning was breathing passion. The two young woman were breathing a different passion, a passion for play and a beautiful day outside. When I am passionate about something, almost nothing will keep me from it. One of the keys to this kind of passion is from the old idea of vocation: that is what I am called to do, or even, who am I called to be? The place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet, to borrow from Fredirick Buechner. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Buechner
I believe that we who are leaders have a responsibility to be true to our deepest selves. We have a responsibility to be working passionately on and through our vocation, and not just, doing a job. If you are just doing a job, imagine what you could do, imagine who you could be, imagine what an amazing difference you could make if you were in fact living into your vocation; where whatever it is that makes you happy, meets the world’s deep hunger.
May this week, we find ourselves a little closer to marching to school, even with a heavy backpack, or even learning about life in the midst of a beautiful day.