Positive Ways to Thrive During Waves of Change

Today is National Let’s Laugh Day—time for all gigglers, cacklers, chortlers, and belly laughers to let loose and celebrate the uniting force of laughter!  When is the last time you’ve enjoyed a good laugh?  Times have been tough, no doubt, with regular reminders about the one-year anniversary of lockdowns for the COVID-19 pandemic.

As I considered an appropriate way to honor the day, I turned to Jon Gordon.  Several years ago, he cleverly wrote about positive ways to thrive during waves of change like those we face today in a fable entitled The Shark and the Goldfish

As Gordon noted, there’s a belief that most people embark on a quest to find their destiny. But more often than not, through adversity and challenges, our destiny finds us.  In fact, as we move closer to truth, the simpler and more powerful the lessons become.

It is during tough times that we ask the important questions and make decisions that positively change the course of our lives.

Gordon says, “And I believe one of the most important questions you can ask is whether you are a shark or a goldfish. Which one are you?”

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Be Mean About the Vision: Preserving and Protecting What Matters

With this month’s focus on Planning the Future, a critical piece is Vision.  At work, we’ve focused a lot on understanding organization purpose and leveraged Simon Sinek’s famous TED Talk on “Start With Why.”

As Dr. Ed Stetzer of Lifeway Research put it, “Casting vision is one thing, but vision without the ability to back it up ultimately becomes a pipe dream.”

Vision gathers people together for a common purpose so they might be focused on something greater than themselves.  Shawn Lovejoy has identified one of the biggest challenges any leader faces: how to gather people around a vision and stay true to that vision.

Click here for my summary of Lovejoy’s Be Mean About the Vision: Preserving and Protecting What Matters