Adventure awaits if you choose to answer the call
In the previous post, I shared what it’s like to live in the ordinary world. A world where most people in positions of leadership struggle between giving directive and passively waiting for things to change. They look outside themselves for someone else to step up and fully own the accountability in their organization. Or, for someone to wave the magic wand to make it better. That’s the ordinary world, and you might be in it, but if you’re anything like me — you want to be anything but ordinary.
When we choose to answer the call of leadership, we’re answering a call to adventure. When we answer a call to adventure, we risk many things: the way things were, the familiarity of our comfort zone, the fear of stepping boldly into the unknown world. Stepping fully into leadership can be a scary and sometimes lonely place.
Think about it. If you take complete ownership of everything that happens, bad or good, there is no one else to look to. The easy route is, as Teddy Roosevelt said, to point out where other people stumbled or where the doer of things could have done them better. But the credit only belongs to the person who actually stepped into the arena to take it ALL on. The blood, sweat, and tears, the stumbling and the dirt on the face… with the occasional celebration of triumphs.
If you’re unwilling to experience a period of discomfort and fully commit (or re-commit if you thought you were done) to become a new version of yourself with new habits to get on the other side of the ordinary world, then stop here. There’s no use spending more time reading this if you’re not going to put it to practical application. If you’re running a business, as most people do in the ordinary world, then there’s one thing I know for sure — there’s plenty of work to keep you busy. So you better get to it. Life has many options and staying where you are is one.
There were many times I had the opportunity to answer the call of true leadership. They were LOUD and frequent. But to me, they sounded like problems that other people needed to solve. If only someone would offer me time off to relax and recharge. If only someone would come to my rescue. If only someone was telling me what the hell I was racing for and where I was racing to. In other words, the other characters weren’t playing their roles in my movie. I later learned that this was normal. This is how many people in positions of leadership operate, but I’ve also learned that wasn’t TRUE leadership.
Why then do most people operate this way? Because self-honesty is a jagged pill to swallow. It’s often the medicine we need the most that doesn’t go down easy. Setting our pride aside to admit to ourselves that we are the Alpha and the Omega in our own business and life is not the ego boost we may have hoped for — it is a truly humbling experience.
Humility is a good thing.
Humility is a mark of a true leader.
Change is hard and scary. That’s why most people don’t answer the call to adventure. It’s why I didn’t for so long. Most people wait for their mentor, their boss, or their mystical guru to save them. What they don’t realize is that their mentor is with them always. Inside of themselves.
If you feel trapped and conflicted about wanting what’s best for you, your family, and your life while also not wanting to disappoint anyone, it’s safe to say you’re in the ordinary world. When we answer the call to leadership and we begin to live in the way of a real leader, we are grounded. We are clear. We are guided by our clarity, and we provide that opportunity for others. If you aren’t feeling grounded and clear, regularly, this might be the call you need to start your new adventure.
In the ordinary world, I lay awake in bed many nights wondering why my employees were calling off, and feeling as though they were ignoring my every request. I wondered why our orders were short-filled, why our accounts weren’t up to terms. Why the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Why I had a pit in my stomach every morning before walking into the office. I really didn’t like people not taking accountability. I really didn’t like feeling like I was failing. That was an awful feeling.
Maybe you’re not as critical or harsh on yourself, and maybe you can lean on your support system or cush lifestyle that tells you things aren’t so bad. But if you can relate to often feeling disappointed or feeling like you’re failing, I really encourage you to answer this call.
Now, I manage my expectations and I take full accountability for the outcomes I expect others to deliver. I also know that if I am moving in integrity with myself and my values and if I am proactively leading myself, I can never fail. It’s not a thing. Failure doesn’t exist in this reality. Setbacks, maybe. Mistakes, sure. Failure? Nah.
In my experience, albeit only two decades, the call to leadership is a lifelong journey. It’s committing to not let anything stand in your way of achieving your dreams. It’s knowing yourself inside and out and committing to living in integrity with your values and your vision. That’s the call to leadership. The best part? The journey itself, not the destination. Sound cliche? Well, it is. Cliches exist because there is truth to them. If it rubs you the wrong way that people repeat these sayings, you have more work to do on your journey. Once you accept that maybe there’s some truth to these statements, you’re already halfway there. One giant step closer to freedom.
The call to leadership is a call to adventure. This is the call to recognize that the change starts with you and that leading anything requires you to lead yourself first.
Self-leadership. That’s it. It’s all it ever is. It’s truly all it’s ever about.
Answering the call to adventure comes at a steep price. It will cost you your old life. But if you’re like me, and you literally just can’t even go one more day feeling like things are outside of your control — you need to rewrite your script. You need to stop looking at yourself as the victim waiting for your knight in shining armor to rescue you. You need to tell yourself, I AM the HERO. I AM the one that is COMING TO SAVE ME.
So, if you’re still with me and you want to leave the ordinary world, I invite you to drop your guard and go back to a childlike state where you can play make-believe. I invite you to write a script of what your life WILL look like, painting yourself as the hero and drawing in whatever fluffy little clouds and happy little trees you see along this journey. If you’re like I was and haven’t tapped into your imagination in decades, below are some prompts to help.
The next eight posts will help you along the way while you answer the call to leadership. They’ll tell you what you might expect after you make the decision to become your own hero. They’ll introduce you to your mentor (spoiler alert: it’s you). This series will help you cross the threshold from where you are today to get you to the next stage in leadership and life. These will become the habits you maintain forever and for every new level. The blogs and action prompts will help you predict what you’ll be faced with on this journey. Think of these blogs as guideposts pointing you to your ultimate reward — the magic elixir: taking complete ownership of your life and your business AND having fun in the process! If you’re ready to answer the call to the adventure of leadership, keep reading!
If you think you are ready to make the first step in answering the call, do one small thing now. Take action!
Take Action: Taking what you wrote from the previous take-action exercise where you wrote about where your organization is at today and where you’d like it to be, start writing or recording a script putting yourself as the hero of the story. The story is about where your organization is five years from today and what YOU did to get it there. The more detailed you can get the better. For example, who is this person, the hero that took the business from where it is today to where it is five years from now? What is he/she like? What characteristics does this person possess? What daily habits does this hero have? Imagine someone you know that you look up to — maybe your hero embodies some of these qualities? Start there.