Speaking of Leadership
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Aug
28
Tossing your hat over the wall
Filed Under Uncategorized
Friends,
In a speech delivered the day before he was assassinated, John F. Kennedy said: “This nation has tossed its cap over the wall of space, and we have no choice but to follow it.”* We all have our walls. Have you tossed your cap over any lately? Committed yourself to something that wouldn’t be easy? Last Monday one of my teammates and I each reclaimed caps we had tossed over walls back in January.
Our team decided back then that we would each set intimidating, life goals. We decided that the goal had to meet two criteria: it had to be important to us personally, and it had to make our stomachs do somersaults. The personal importance would ensure that the motivation was always ours, intrinsic, and not imposed. And the intimidating part meant that we knew we would have to stretch, face some anxiety, and likely learn something in the process. We thought that just having such goals would keep us more attuned to those personal dreams that can so easily get pushed to the background in the hurly burly of life’s demands. And we thought the somersaulting stomach part would ensure that we were growing and learning. So, we reasoned, we’d likely be more energized and engaged workers, too.
Gayleen began the year with a heart’s desire to work with sick children, but the desire had for all her life been suppressed by an aversion to seeing children in such turmoil, anxiety and pain. Last Saturday, after months of erecting scaffolding against that wall of fear — getting information about programs, for example, and signing up for training and certification — she leaped the wall. She spent 2-1/2 hours in the pediatric ward at Sparrow Hospital and committed to a year of Saturdays. Gayleen smiles a lot, but her smile was fuller for her accomplishment, knocking down a wall of fear and opening up a new space for herself and children in need.
My goal was less noble, but comparably scary: I vowed in 2006 to sing and play guitar in a public setting. Like Gayleen, I too built my scaffolding: I got a guitar teacher. I forced myself to play with friends. But while I was learning, the fearful side of me was “learning” that I was WAY less ready for prime time than I imagined. It seemed the more I learned, the more I realized I didn’t know, and the more I feared the incompetence others would see. I was totally committed to retrieving my cap. But I had no idea how, when, where, I might. I mean no idea!
Then 10 days ago a friend told me that she was attending a reception, and that her trio had been asked to sing. She told me I should play with them. I did. And it was great. Not my contribution to the music, but the feeling that I had eliminated an unnecessary limit in my life and opened a new field to explore. I also (re)learned a fundamental law of life. I offer it in closing to encourage you, especially if this column has inched you towards pursuing a goal. The lesson is expressed better by Julia Cameron than I could put it. She writes:
“In my experience, the universe falls in with worthy plans and most especially with festive and expansive ones. I have seldom conceived a delicious plan without being given the means to accomplish it. Understand that the what must come before the how. First, choose what you would do. The how usually falls into place of itself.”**
Toss your cap towards a worthy or festive place, and you really won’t have to do it on your own; instead, as Ms. Cameron says the universe will help you to
Lead with your best self,
Dan
* President John F. Kennedy, Remarks at the dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health, Center, San Antonio, Texas, November 21, 1963.
** Julie Cameron, The Artist’s Way, pp 66-67
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