On Becoming Mundane

Resurrecting a reflection on an experience from 31 years ago that’s as relevant today as ever…

It’s 1993 and I am 34 years old. I have planted a church in Canada and in Indonesia. Along the way I've gained experience in preaching, teaching, and administration. I'm gaining insights into leadership and organizational development. Now I am in Phnom Penh Cambodia, establishing the leadership structure for the international church I lead.

Life is good. Got to thinking about my future, and the thought crossed my mind that I could probably make it through the rest of my vocational ministry career without much more effort. I could ride that resume into the sunset of my career with no further effort. That was a very presumptuous thought. But more dangerous is the crippling attitude it reveals in me.

While I'm entertaining this perspective, I listen to a cassette tape by John Maxwell, a well know leadership author, pastor and coach. I don’t remember the topic, but I do remember the bomb he dropped into my world that day. He cautioned that the leader who is not on the growing edge is in danger of becoming “a mundane man or woman”. That word blows apart my presumptions and my comfortable world. My life is in danger of becoming commonplace, inert, mundane.

I had some choices to make.

Significant and developmental growth in our lives is determined or denied by the winner of the battle between choosing Courage or Fear. The challenge with Fear is its double edge. We fear launching into the new and unknown, but we also fear the consequences of inaction. At some point Courage must be exercised or we will remain immobilized between the two sharp edges of Fear.

I was immobilized. 

Not long after the challenge to my mundane-ness, I was presented with an opportunity to move outside my comfort zone, and build on my emerging interests and passions. I came across a master’s program in Organizational Leadership. Funny how the LAST THING I ever wanted in life was to go back to school. Certainly, there had to be other ways of developing myself. There were, and there are. But at that point in my life, I knew that I had to do something that would create a structure of accountability for my development. That program was it. I overcame Fear, borrowed Courage from my wife, and launched. The end result was not a degree on my wall, but the lifelong learning ethos it developed.

Why strive to grow? Growth inherently brings change, and change is hard. Why not remain content with where and who we are? There’s enough change in the world. We’re all tired of it. Is it not more virtuous and advantageous to be anchored? Is existence on the ‘growing edge’ worth it? You must answer this for yourself, but here are a few of my learnings and contributions to the thinking around this. Please add your own in the comments of this blog.

1.  'Mundane' in some contexts means the ordinary, the everyday.  Learning to be content with that kind of 'mundaneness' is an antidote to the hurry-up, never satisfied life. 
   
2. “The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge.” (Daniel Boorstin). Reflect on that as you think about discovering more about yourself, your abilities, your potential.
3. “Fan the flame” of what has been entrusted to you. (2 Timothy 1). You’re a steward of the Creators’ design in you, and of the input of the community that has nurtured you. They all believe you have something to offer. 
4. The answer to the prayer “Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth…” is fulfilled through inquisitive, growing, courageous and engaged people. We are not meant to sit back and wait for some divine rescue event. We are meant to engage, so engage well. Hone your life so it is a net contributor.
5. A commitment to growth leads down the path of discovery. That inherently opens new horizons, new reasons and new opportunities to influence and effect change for human flourishing. Be prepared to course correct. 
6. Personal development costs. So does a lack of development. Which cost are you willing to bear? What lost opportunities and unrealized dreams are you willing to exchange for your need of security and comfort?
   

I am now 65. The ‘mundane’ challenge is still (and again) before me. This is a time of life where most people would not begrudge me pulling back and ‘coasting’. I don’t have the energy of that 34 year old in Cambodia, and I still face the battle between Courage & Fear. But the only way to face it is to face it. So, I am launching into endeavours and engagements that will press me to learn. I will need to calibrate my energy and expectations at this stage of life. But I am throwing off the bowlines and setting sail.

Let’s see where this goes.

Harv

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.