It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)
Greetings to you!
Each week I send out a short leadership blog that's called "Tuesday at 2:00pm". The purpose of this is simply to provide a brief thought on leadership that you can read and think about in just a few minutes. I send it out every week at 2:00pm (PST) and encourage you to make an appointment with yourself to pause and think about the thing I'm writing about.
Russ...
LEADERSHIP QUOTE:
"Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience." Ralph Waldo Emerson
What does this stir up? Either write me HERE or comment at the end of the blog post HERE.
A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:
This month we've been talking about PACE, and I want to leave you with this last quote today.
To read past quotes & thoughts.... CLICK HERE.
It's interesting that I would write about PACE while in a really busy couple of weeks.
Once again, this weekly blogpost is much more about me and what God is teaching me than it is about anyone who might read this.
Friday evening, Gina and I went on a walk at the beach. It was a wonderful end to a very full week, and as we walked, we just enjoyed the beauty. We saw dolphins swimming, we saw rain clouds in the distance, we saw surfers in the water, we saw the sun setting and the glorious images of light through the clouds on the water. It was beautiful.
It was also life-giving. Walking with her, taking that in, slowing our pace to get out of our routine, it's so healing.
When I think about this quote from Emerson, here's what I'm thinking:
If I would just slow down, notice the things around me, see God's beauty in everything, breathe deeply, then I could understand what the "pace of nature" is all about.
If I could learn to be patient, to not rush things, to not power through things, to learn to pause, to learn to wait, then I could understand what pace is really all about.
If I might understand that this isn't a SECRET! Everyone talks about pace, everyone talks about the impact of a hurried life yet we keep moving and increasing our pace. It's not a secret!
I hope that this month as you've looked at these quotes and thoughts on PACE, you've been challenged and encouraged to look deeper into your own pace and the motivations for how you do life.
Funny thing... I received more comments from the post on September 16th when I shared, "I'm pausing today to catch my breath and find my pace". People sharing that they felt the same way.
Don't ignore it. Find your PACE. Look at nature to find and understand the secret. It's all around us!
DEEPER STILL:
At the end of 2019, a friend sent me the book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. I read the book over the holidays, and really enjoyed it. I thought it would be a great book to share with others, so I planned to use it at our upcoming Leader Mundial Summit in March of 2020. Little did I realize that this book would become a major influence in my life, leadership and sanity!
Coming out of Leader Mundial, the world shut down and I, along with most of you, was forced to STOP. It wasn't a slow stop, it was a hard stop. No travel, no people, lot's of questions. STOP.
We had just spent time in this book at the Summit, so in re-reading it I was reminded that:
Hurry:
Damages Relationships
Stifles Joy and Gratitude
Hinders Spiritual Growth
Leads to Spiritual and Emotional Burnout
This pretty much summed up my life at that point in time.
The book also talks about ways to eliminate hurry:
Silence and Solitude
Sabbath
Simplicity
Slowing
What followed was about 3 months of learning to slow down. During that time there was still stress, work demands, lot's of adaptation, but there was also some unexpected space for the first time in many, many years.
It was healing, and for the first time in a long time, I changed my PACE.
Today, I have a STOP SIGN in my office to remind me of the need to STOP from time to time, and to not get caught up in the crazy pace of life that fueled me for so many years.
What have you learned about slowing, stopping or changing your pace? What helped you understand and experience that?
Things I'm Reading, Listening To and Watching This Week:
Gina and I attended a Gala for an organization we personally support and have been involved with, Hope Ventures. They are raising funds to see 100 new people around the world trained and equipped to start their own businesses which impacts their family, but also their entire community as well!
This week I've been listening to a playlist on Joe Cocker Essentials on Apple. Really good music and sound!
Yes, I'm a golf nerd, and I enjoyed keeping up with the Ryder Cup this past weekend. Europe was amazing, and the USA had a great redemption day and shot at a comeback on Sunday! I love these players really playing as a TEAM!
A friend shared with me this journey: Itchy Boots. Tales from Noraly as she travels the world on a motorcycle. I'm just starting, but it's captivating! You can watch her on her YouTube Channel Thanks for sharing this Elizabeth. I'm always excited for a good motorcycle adventure!