Mistake or Gift?

Speaking of leadership with it’s titles, status, perks, benefits, bonuses, responsibility, accountability, opportunities…

This “bonus” (today’s second post) jungle jeff blog post shares my response to a faithful jungle jeff reader.

We are all leaders.  Every last one of us. Even if it doesn’t seem so.

We all travel through life with the exact same “currency” – time.

Mistakes are gifts.

Past mistakes become worse when we don’t open them up as the gifts they are, and reflect on the reason they happened, and the opportunity they represent.

To me, failure is never opening the gift.

The gift-giver is actually ourselves. If we cannot thank ourselves for our mistakes – our opportunities – we lose.

Stay strong, dig deep, find quiet space, and open your gift.

Then send yourself a thank you note

Time Waits For No One

Quote from John Maxwell, courtesy of Bob Stewart.

“Law of the Niche: People are most valuable where they add the most value.”

Duh, right?  No brainer.  Obvious. Get a clue. You can’t be serious.

In the hectic pace with which we travel through our days (weeks, months), we often miss the most basic of life’s truths.

This happens to me with our son.  I’ll get caught up in my work, and the next thing you know, the week has flown by and our son has done amazing things, but guess who hasn’t noticed?  Guess who wasn’t there to add a little coaching, a little fun, a little encouragement?

Guess what else?

Life is like this.  Always was, is now, and always will be. Whatever your level in your organization, you must find your own ways to stay engaged, to stay passionate.

I see so many people who are stuck.  Many of them leaders, responsible for inspiring and developing others, the way a parent does with children.

They get stuck managing their to-do list instead of inspiring and developing their people.  Just like a Parent.  Just like me.

But the days (weeks, months) fly by.

Our son can not wait for me to find the time.  His life marches on at an incredible pace. He will not slow down for me. I must find the way(s) to keep up with him.

Same is true as a leader, and as an employee who follows orders. Same as you. You must figure this out yourself and not wait.

Because if you don’t, what are you stuck with?

“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” - Japanese proverb

If you went and looked in the mirror and were compellingly honest, which side of the Japanese Proverb would you fall into?  The left side or the right?

“A frog in a well can not conceive of the ocean”. — Japanese Proverb

Hope you can comprehend the first proverb.  If you have the title (real or assumed) and you don’t understand it, go look in the mirror again.  Are you an amphibian?

It’s been said, “The unexamined life is not worth living”.  Carpe diem.