Why Bother? Your Future Might Fail.

Are you contemplating a vision that will fuel your personal life or organization for the next phase? Do you want to ensure it will work out as planned?

Ten years ago when I was 48, I started to think about that arbitrary, yet significant marker of age 50. At that stage, I decided that I would not succumb to ‘retirement’ thinking and set out on creating a path to challenge myself vocationally & personally. I had a vision to achieve. Now that I am approaching the marker of 60, I am contemplating what the vision might be for the next stage of life. 

You should know there was a “disturbance in the force” while executing my previous vision.

The plan I put in place in my late 40’s and executed in my 50th year did not turn out as I imagined over the next seven years. There were twists and turns I never anticipated. In hindsight the path I walked enhanced and redirected my thinking and vocational orientation, but to be honest – this wasn’t the script I wanted to write. In fact, a lot of it hurt and just plain sucked.

Failure to achieve a vision as dreamed begs these questions:

Is it worth dreaming and executing on a vision?

Why dream about making things different in your personal or leadership life if what you start out with isn’t where you end?

Why pursue a future that may fail?

True personal and corporate leadership is less noun and mostly verb. In other words, leadership isn’t a position. It’s a risk.

Leadership by nature takes risks because to lead is to enter a process to discover the way to a place you have not yet gone. Thus not all people in positions of leadership actually lead. Many are managers. Not all people who say they want to lead their life forward actually do. Many are responders to life.

No one has a lock on the future. Despite all our geeky dreaming about time travel, no one has been to the future and sent back reports that will give you the information needed to come up with a no-fail

Many people ‘speak’ the language of risk and advance, but in practice simply manage their way forward. As an example from my world of Christian non-profits, church leadership teams can often speak about risk and mission advance to reach to the very edges of a society, but their default organizational orientation to safety, management processes, systems and orthodoxy of thinking and execution militates against their language, squeezing out those who are actual risk takers.

Risk is part of advance both personally and corporately. Real risk. Not the language of risk. That means:

Acting on your convictions. There’s a saying that in old age you won’t regret the things you did, but the things you did not do. Think about that. I have met many ‘leaders’ over the years in my work that possessed deep convictions about issues but never executed because they feared others wouldn’t follow, or they feared the potential change was too much for their organization. Some even feared they’d lose their job if they acted on their conviction. If any of these are your story, then…

…you are not a leader, you are an employee.
…something potentially significant was never birthed in or through you.
…the real you has been diminished

Prepare & Plan. Then be ready for it to change. German military strategist Helmuth von Moltke famously noted: “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy”. Risking doesn’t mean ignoring good preparation. It does mean that what you started with won’t last because the future is full of the unexpected and unanticipated. You will have to adapt and change. Will the prospect of that keep you from launching out?

Learn as you go. No one can ever know it all at the start. “Risk management” while it has its place, is also an oxymoron (and likely the creation of managers). Risks inherently can’t be managed but when faced; they can both inform and guide what needs to happen next.

Adopt a new perspective. A truly nomadic leader/thinker that is capable of navigating the changes life and leadership inherently contains, takes on a perspective I have taken from a book title: The Obstacle is the Way. (Author: Ryan Holiday). This perspective means we don’t view the obstacles that risk often presents to us as inhibitors to a vision but rather as the pathway to what’s next. You’ll need this if you have any hope of persevering. In fact, you’ll need this to even get started!

The next things in this world, whether it’s a cure for a disease, your personal dreams & visions, a new form of energy to be developed, a means to address exploitation, a path to get an organization ‘on purpose’, a way to bring true abundance to the marginalized etc., will ONLY come from those who say:

   This isn’t right.

      This isn’t enough.

         It can be better.

            I will try a new thing.

Be bold. God knows this world desperately needs courageous people.

Why I Struggle With (my) Faith

Let’s start with some music...

"Iridescent"

By Linkin Park

When you were standing in the wake of devastation
When you were waiting on the edge of the unknown
And with the cataclysm raining down
Insides crying, "Save me now!"
You were there, impossibly alone

Do you feel cold and lost in desperation?
You build up hope, but failure’s all you’ve known
Remember all the sadness and frustration
And let it go. Let it go

And in a burst of light that blinded every angel
As if the sky had blown the heavens into stars
You felt the gravity of tempered grace
Falling into empty space
No one there to catch you in their arms

Do you feel cold and lost in desperation?
You build up hope, but failure’s all you’ve known
Remember all the sadness and frustration
And let it go. Let it go

It's a failure of leadership development to not address issues of the soul.  Too much out there is focused on hard and soft skills, neglecting the sub-surface currents of the soul.  Linkin Parks' song is a soul-cry - and don't tell me you have not felt what this song expresses. That's why on occasion I speak clearly about the soul.  I am about to do it again, so either check-in for a read or feel free to check out now.

I struggle with my faith in Jesus Christ and have no problem saying that to my Christian community. This blog is about a Christian leaders' wrestling with pain, suffering, meaning and purpose.

 

What follows are not originally my words.  I came across this 'confession' in 2010 while doing research on a sermon focusing on the issue of doubt.  The source is unknown to me, but I give credit to this person, whoever he/she is. At the time I was living in Kuwait. A family crisis was emerging.  I was beginning to doubt a lot of things about my own identity as a pastor, a father, a follower of Jesus.  The situation only got darker when I repatriated to Canada.  I lived on the edge of a fight or flight response to God for 2 years.  What this person had to say on that website resonates more with me now (3 years later) than it did when I was on the front edge of my crisis of doubt. Things got really dark before I could see there was light there all the time. 

I share it because the realization that doubt is a part of true faith has transformed my relationship with God and I hope, my leadership. It has made me more honest with Him to the point that I feel more than ever that I have a true relationship with my Creator where everything can be on the table and we will still love each other. So, whoever you are out there who first authoured this– thank you for giving expression to my heart and thoughts. Your story is my story – and I know that as long as other Christian leaders are honest out there, that this is their story too…

"Ping. The hammer fell and preacher came tumbling after. It's funny, when your faith finally caves, it goes all at once. You realize you were just a shell held together with hackneyed rituals and desperate hopes. You are not strong. You do not have answers....St John of the Cross calls it 'the dark night of the soul'...It broke my heart. I grieved joint and marrow. My reptilian brain cried. I was sad all the way to the bottom.

I decided not to give up without a fight. I can be a stubborn son-of-a-bitch. I sought answers. I read the good stuff and talked with the good people. I learned some things. I found my way. 

Turns out Christianity is an eastern religion. The earliest Christians were Hebrews. Semites. People of the east. They did not know how to separate mind from body. They were holistic before holistic was cool. In our world we have separated mind from body to our great loss. Here a man may betray his wife and neglect his children, but he says he loves them 'down inside'. Bullshit. There is no 'down inside'. Love is something you do, not something you feel. Likewise, we think having faith means being convinced God exists in the same way we are convinced a chair exists. People who cannot be completely convinced of God's existence think faith is impossible for them. Not so. People who doubt can have great faith because FAITH IS SOMETHING YOU DO, NOT SOMETHING YOU THINK. In fact, the greater your doubt the more heroic your faith.

I learned that it doesn't matter in the least that I be convinced of God's existence. Whether or not God exists is none of my business, really. What do I know of existence? I don't even know how the DVD works. What DOES matter is whether or not I am faithful. I think faithful is a hell of a good word. It still has some of its original shine. It still calls us to action. Once I stumbled upon this very old truth, I prayed the most honest prayer of my life:

'God, I don't have great faith, but I can be faithful. My belief in you may be seasonal, but my faithfulness will not. I will follow in the way of Christ. I will act as though my life and the lives of others matter. I will love. I have no greater gift to offer than my life. Take it.' "

And what does the Lord require of you, O man, 

but to do justice, 

love kindness, 

and walk humbly with God

Micah 6:8

A family member who has also endured suffering and doubt along with me these past few years often plays that song by Linkin Park which has become a bit of a favourite of mine; capturing the emotion of that season.  The ‘let it go’ advice is partly right.  What I now know better than before is to let it go into the sovereign hands of a God who faithfully endures with me… (yes, God suffers along with us)

Harv Matchullis

That Messy Middle

 How long will you give it before you give up and throw out the F-Bomb (Failure-bomb)?

This is the quintessential question for anyone involved in some sort of start-up venture or project.  Whether it’s a business, non profit or a personal project, the difference between seeing the light at the end of the tunnel or the oncoming headlights of failure is your willingness to persevere.

The most dangerous and vulnerable stage of any vision is the middle.

At the beginning it’s all about the energy of the vision.  One reason for that energy is because ideas are free; free of commitment, cost, and sacrifice.  That’s why the initial stage of launching a vision is so invigorating!  Everything is possible and all obstacles are surmountable in that fluffy, untested world of the future vision. 

Once you get near the end you may be tired from the journey but you can now see the tangible outcomes emerging.  That sight-line renews your energy to complete the climb.

The problem is the messy or miserable middle.  It’s where:

·         Team members or initial proponents begin to leave

·         Criticism over ‘production’ starts to surface

·         The initial ‘master plan’ is facing regular re-think moments in order to adjust to realities

·         You doubt yourself

 

Do you stick with it or abandon ship and walk away with your degree from the School of Disappointment? 

Here are 12 guidelines for deciding when to quit and when to persevere, as posted by Rosabeth Moss Kanters’ blog in the Harvard Business Review of Oct 23, 2012:

1. Are the initial reasons for the effort still valid, with no consequential external changes?
2. Do the needs for which this a solution remain unmet, or are competing solutions still unproven or inadequate?
3. Would the situation get worse if this effort stopped?
4. Is it more cost-effective to continue than to pay the costs of restarting?
5. Is the vision attracting more adherents?
6. Are leaders still enthusiastic, committed, and focused on the effort?
7. Are resources available for continuing investment and adjustments?
8. Is skepticism and resistance declining?
9. Is the working team motivated to keep going?
10. Have critical deadlines and key milestones been met?
11. Are there signs of progress, in that some problems have been solved, new activities are underway, and trends are positive?
12. Is there a concrete achievement — a successful demonstration, prototype, or proof of concept?

If your answers are mostly yes, then press on!  If not, then it may be the right thing to fold up and move on.  Better to give up on something that cannot work rather than something that could have worked.

Just because the middle is messy, it’s not a good reason to give up.  Press on!

Harv Matchullis

harvey@visiontracks.ca

www.visiontracks.ca