Got caught last week. I’m talking deer-in-the-headlights, flat-footed, let-me-know-if-I’m-drooling caught. All with a simple question.
I was having lunch with a friend to told me he got caught flat-footed with a question he didn’t have an answer for. “So I thought I’d ask you the same question.”
Gee, thanks, I think.
The question: What are you looking forward to right now?
Huh?
Say that again?
What are you looking forward to?
“Duh….”
“I know, right!” he said gleefully.
I was coming off a couple of weeks of intense work, up until about 2:00 every night. I was in head-down, just-get-it-done mode. Who has time to think ahead?
Precisely.
I had no clue how to answer that because I wasn’t looking forward to anything.
Enough about me. How about you? What are you looking forward to?
I’ve had some time to think about that question a lot since then. Especially since Cassie, my daughter, came over the same night with her planning notebook for the Disney trip we’re all taking this Christmas, adorned with vintage Mickey on the cover.
I should probably confess here that my “anticipation” of a Disney trip for 11 people somewhere has the words “legalized theft” in it. But that’s beside the point.
The point here is that she’s living the trip now and we’re still nearly four months out. She’s already picked out the restaurants where we’re dining, gotten detailed maps of the whole Magic Domain, logged onto the advice sites as to how to avoid the long lines and all that.
In short, Cassie has her A-Game – her anticipation game – at least when it comes to Christmas this year. And she was pretty inspiring to me to find my own.
Here’s the bottom line: [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on July 17, 2013
in Ability, Allocating Your Resources, Five LV Laws, Hoarders, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Pleasers, Principle of Abundance, Principle of Freedom
Ever see something funny that wasn’t intended to be? When language could be interpreted a bit differently than its original meaning?
Example: One day when the kids were still at home we were on the way to school and passed a local hotel. In their attempt to be friendly to an industry meeting there, they posted this message on the marquee: Welcome Pest Control.
Yeah, that’s probably not what you want to see when you’re checking in.
More to-date, once a year I teach a strategic planning class for Crown College – a fine Christian school in Minnesota. Like most schools, Crown has an online system for maintaining accounts, library access, classes and the like. In their case, it’s called “my.crown.”
A few months ago, Jeff, the IT guru there, sent notice that the system was having some technical problems. The message: My.Crown is Down.
Go ahead, call me weird. But put in a different context, I just thought that was sorta funny, in a Dr. Seuss kind of way. [click to continue…]
Who are you?
No, that’s your name. Let’s try again.
Who are you?
You’re already answering that question with what you say, how you spend your time, how you spend your money, how you relate to other people, and how your emotions are triggered. But let’s look a little deeper.
Who. Not what are you, but who? I was scrolling through LinkedIn the other day and was fascinated by the “what” language people used to describe themselves. Of course, there are the standard job titles such as Senior Loan Officer and Whatever Bank. But then there are the more creative types like, “Thinker, Writer, Philanthropist,” “Dreamer,” and “Solution Architect.”
Sorta made me want to come up with my own list. Recliner tester. Dog herder. APA Policeman (if you have to ask what APA is, never mind). I don’t think I’ll list any of those, however. There is a difference between what you do and who you are. [click to continue…]
“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” – Yogi Berra
Had any punked-out plans lately? Any disappointments or unforeseen disasters? Have you lost someone dear to you or had your dreams shoved back into your face?
Have you noticed how the news seems to report more on what may happen than what just happened? Here’s a headline from Wednesday: With Dow Industrials at Record Highs, When Will Gravity Take Hold? Sheesh! Even the good news begs for more bad news.
Or try this one: Have you ever had something surprise you with such joy, so much delirium that you had no clue what to do next?
It was Benjamin Franklin who first said that in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. And yet we try, because nobody likes uncertainty. So what do you do when you’re standing face-to-face with a completely unpredictable future? You can offer money to people who promise to reduce your uncertainty – policemen, politicians, preachers, and “prophets.” You can bury your head in the sand and hope tomorrow never comes. Or you can find a way to confront your uncertainties with God’s power and courage.
Lessons from Paul’s Travel Plans
Now just to be clear, I’m not just referring to bracing for imminent disaster or catastrophic losses. I mean even those every-day surprises and disappointments. One source that has always been an example to me is the Apostle Paul. At the end of his first letter to the Corinthians, he runs through a list of travel plans. Travel plans! In the Bible! What’s his travel agenda doing in God’s holy book? Check this out: [click to continue…]
One of the most famous child self-introductions in history took place in Cincinnati when Martha Taft was asked to introduce herself to her classmates. She stood and said, “My name is Martha Bowers Taft. My great-grandfather was President of the United States. My grandfather was a United States senator. My daddy is ambassador to Ireland. And I am a Brownie.”
Love it, love it, love it! What Martha may or may not have known at the time was that she was demonstrating leadership in the making. With a simple statement she was saying, “I know who I am and where I came from.” She was wonderfully free to be herself. And that’s part of the stuff of ongoing leadership.
Nothing to prove. Nothing to hide. No one to manipulate. No one to pretend to be, other than yourself.
Compare that to another group of so-called leaders who were anything-but. They never lowered themselves to lift one finger to help somebody in need. Everything they did was for attention. They basked in the attention of being “all-that” at public functions. They insisted on being called by their respectful titles in public.
Important? Yes… every time they looked in a mirror.
Leaders? Hardly.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, [click to continue…]
Friday I was on my way to Virginia to make a presentation at a Servant Leadership conference. So I guess it was safe to say I had leading-by-serving on the brain…
I walk up to the ticket counter of the Dallas-based airline that will remain nameless (though I will point out that they don’t advertise that bags fly free).
Next to me is a fellow traveler who was trying to check her two bags. Here is the gist of the conversation… [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on May 2, 2012
in Consumers, Five LV Laws, Gamblers, Hoarders, LV Alter-egos, Pleasers, Principle of Abundance, Principle of Eternity, Principle of Freedom, Principle of Increase, Principle of Legacy
I have an urgent news flash for you: Just because you know something is wrong, that doesn’t mean you’ll avoid it.
Shocking, I know. And the corollary is also true: Just because you know you’re supposed to do something, that doesn’t mean you’ll do it.
Suppose you could interview Jonah – the Old Testament’s version of Gilligan – and ask him what the most important requirement was for prophets. What do you think he’d say? My guess is that he would tell you that a prophet’s number one job is to speak what he hears the Lord saying to speak.
Why, then, did Jonah have to travel from the boat to the belly to the burp to the beach before he decided to do what his own standard said to do?
Resurrect a first-century Pharisee and ask him what it took to please God, and you’d probably hear something about keeping the law and prophets, serving God and walking in humility and discipline.
Why, then, did Jesus refer to the scribes and Pharisees as unwilling to lift a finger to meet a need, doing all their deeds to be noticed by men, loving the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and insisting on being called by respectful titles in public? If serving God faithfully was so important to them, why did the Son of God warn people not to be like them?
Whenever the bad news breaks out about somebody who has shocked us with their oh-no, no-no behavior, we often ask silly questions like, “Well didn’t they know that was wrong?” Of course they did. Why, then, would someone violate their own standards of right and wrong? [click to continue…]
by Andy Wood on March 5, 2012
in Consumers, Esteem, Five LV Laws, Following Your Passion, Hoarders, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Pleasers, Principle of Abundance
How do you gauge success?
Does being a Christian or being in ministry change that somehow?
I don’t know anybody who gets up in the morning and prays, “Oh God, make me a failure!” But there have been many times when I and many others have used bad gauges to measure it. Here are the three most common:
1. Do I feel good? Was the service pleasurable? Do I feel encouraged, energized, healed or empowered? Do I feel loved, important, or attended to? Do I feel the pleasure of other people or God’s pleasure?
2. Did I see something good? In church world that is measured by the countable things like noses and dollars and building funds. In the Christian business world, the same thing is true – it’s about profits and losses and tangible contributions to the community.
3. Do I feel good about myself? Do I feel affirmed? Do I look good? Did people tell me I performed well? Did someone thank me or praise me or ask for my help?
So what’s wrong with any of that?
Absolutely nothing. [click to continue…]
Life is filled with plenty of things worth waiting for…
The answer to a prayer…
The fulfillment of a promise…
The completion of a process….
The realization of a dream…
These and many more are examples of the rewards of waiting for what is precious.
That said, there is one thing that isn’t worth the wait – now or ever. [click to continue…]
Quick Question: What do the people you lead (and you do lead somebody) do when trouble shows up?
Quick Answer: They do what you lead them to do.
More Thoughtful Question: Do the people you lead (and you do lead somebody) run for the hills or cower in fear at the first sign of trouble, or do they courageously rise up to the challenge?
More Thoughtful Answer: They do what you lead them to do. Not necessarily what tell them to do or manipulate them to do. What you lead them to do.
That reminds me of a story. True story. About a guy named Eli. Now Eli was a soldier, and being a soldier, he had a Commander-in-Chief. And the reason Eli’s Commander-in-Chief was the Commander-in-Chief was because he was the biggest dude in all the land.
You know what the problem is with making the biggest dude in all the land the Commander-in-Chief? Sooner or later he’s gonna run into a bigger dude. And that’s what happened. Eli’s boss went quaking in his boots to the rear of the line because he was staring down the barrel of an overwhelming challenge.
So you know what Eli did? He quaked in his boots too. I’m talking, Give up now. Better fled than dead.
One day later – one day! – that’s Eli with his shield up, his sword drawn, charging headlong into the enemy’s camp and taking no prisoners. What made the difference? [click to continue…]
Got caught last week. I’m talking deer-in-the-headlights, flat-footed, let-me-know-if-I’m-drooling caught. All with a simple question.
