You can do this.
You are created to navigate the uncertainty and anxiety of the situations and circumstances of these days. Although there are people who seem to have more knowledge and experience, the truth is no one has experienced what you are experiencing. Precisely because of the uncertainty and anxiety, it is essential that you step up to do your part at this point and time in history.
So, what brings you to this point as a leader? Here are some things that make you unique and qualified to lead for such a time as this.
1. Your Relationships
You are shaped by your relationships. You are who you are because of your interactions with the people. So, if you want to know yourself, learn to know the people around you. If you want to love the people around you, learn to love yourself.
2. Your Personality
Your personality is uniquely your own. From the time you are born to this very minute, you are shaped and molded by every experience, every triumph, and failure, every moment of strength and weakness, every bit of knowledge and wisdom you have acquired. No one else can or will have your exact collection of knowledge, experiences, and perceptions. No one else is going to respond to what you have experienced with the same emotions and thoughts that you have. No one is going to make the same choices that you make. You are uniquely who you are, a beloved child of God.
3. Your Attitude
Your attitude helps you influence the people around you as you lead them in the direction of safety, wholeness, and health. It informs how you perceive situations and how you interpret the actions people take in the midst of those situations. Your attitude is formed by your emotions unless you make an active choice to shape it differently. Whether you have a positive or negative attitude, you influence the people around you.
4. Your Experiences
Your experiences have a great influence on shaping who you are as a unique individual. Your experiences will either help you improve your understanding of the world and the people in it or will lead you to feel anxious and defensive when you face adversity or disruption. At your best, your experiences help you find a way to make better decisions.
5. Your Strengths
You are gifted with a combination of strengths that no one has been given. When your strengths interact with your personality, attitude, and experiences, you have something to offer that no one else has to offer. When you allow the strengths of others to compliment your strengths, you can accomplish more than you could ever imagine.
6. Your Perspective
No one sees the world as you do. No one has experienced life in the same way you have experienced life. No one has the exact same body of knowledge that you have. Your perspective is uniquely your own. That is why it is important to be open to the opinions and ideas of others. Whether you agree or disagree is not the point. It is in the exchanging of ideas that you clarify your perspective and that you can share your perspective.
7. Your Passion
Passion provides a path that allows you to leave your mark on the world. Guided by your values, passion is what stirs deep within your soul and speaks to a higher calling to do something greater than yourself. Even when you might be in a place where things are not good, your passion helps keep the fire burning to make a difference.
You are uniquely and wonderfully made. You become more who God created you to be as you step up to lead at this time. Nelson Mandela once said, “You are a child of God; your playing small doesn’t serve the world.” That is why I can say you are created to navigate the uncertainty and anxiety of the situations and circumstances of these days.
Your Next Step
So, here is what I want you to do.
- Focus upon one of the seven areas above.
- Affirm that you are a child of God and what you have to contribute.
- Reflect upon how you can lead the people entrusted to you.
- Offer yourself to be an instrument of God’s love and peace.
- Trust that by God’s grace you were created for such a time as this.
- Now, at the appropriate time, step up to lead as you are created to lead.
- Remember: “You are a child of God; your playing small doesn’t serve the world.”
Know that I am grateful for you and for your leadership. I am especially grateful for the ways you have already stepped up to lead during this crisis. I pray that God continues to bless you with a love that will never let you go. I also pray that you continue to bless others with that same love in and through your leadership. You are created for this time.
Know also that you are not alone. Sara Thomas and I are available to assist you in becoming who God has created you to be. You can do this.
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