Leaders that lack passion will soon be pulled in opposing directions. 

Leaders that lack a passion for their vision or their goals will be torn apart as their organization moves forward. There are always going be distractions, competing interests and adversity that the leader must recognize and respond appropriately to.

What is Passion? 

Passion is a sincere energy and a contagious enthusiasm.

If someone can catch your energy then you have contagious enthusiasm. It is often called charisma. Leaders have to have some of “it”. This is often the “it” that is undefinable, but totally followable by others. Leaders that lack this will simply be filling a position. They will not have the power to motivate those around them. Subsequently, when a leader lacks the power to motivate, he/she will resort to manipulation.

Leaders are masters of motivation and never resort to manipulation. 

Manipulation is the twisting of another for your personal achievement. Deception and flattery are the twin arms of manipulation. Beware of people who falsely praise you (flatter). Beware of people who twist things (deception). Leaders operate in the light. The light is transparency.

Motivation is the ability to inspire others. Passionate leaders have the ability to inspire others, where place-holder position people (poor leaders) resort to coercion, manipulation and extortion. Inspiration and motivation move people from the heart. The ability to motivate and inspire people results in the growing of the leader’s influence.

Leaders aren’t motivated by praise, they are motivated by passion. 

It is impossible for a leader to positively influence others if they do not have at least a baseline level of self-motivation. Leaders do not wait for the applause or praise of others to move forward. They don’t need the crowd’s approval. Passion is built from conviction. Conviction will stand when others sit and sit when all others stand. Conviction is born of belief.

Leaders move forward with conviction, not the crowd.

Leaders don’t test which way the wind is blowing to make a decision. These type of leaders are not leaders, but position fillers who are more concerned with themselves than the mission of the organization or others. Leaders who live by the crowd will also die by the crowd. Leaders must have conviction that stems from their heart and translates the thoughts in their head. If you are all head an no heart, then you will be swayed into a position that you may not be comfortable.

Leaders are courageous, not cowardly. 

Leaders face their fears and move forward. Place-holders, who think they are leaders because of their position, see shadows and retreat or run away. Courage is required by all effective leaders. Courage is strength on display. Cowards capitulate and surrender to fear. Leaders are willing to take the first step all the way until the last step.

“You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.“

Christopher Columbus

Leaders full of passion will take more ground, inspire more people and cross oceans to reach lands where dreams do come true.

Go live your dream. Inspire Others.

Pursue it with Passion.

Property of Redwall Leadership Academy. 

All material is (c) 2016, Redwall, LLC.

“No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and she be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do you want to make a difference in the world? Or are you content just existing in your daily routine? 

If you want to make a difference in the world, start with your world. With over 7 billion people in the world, very few people, if any will really impact all the different languages, cultures and groups. While it is noble to feel such a way, if you really want to make a difference: start with those people right around you.

What you do is important. It may not feel that way. It may never be appreciated. So, you have to get over those things. In essence, you have to get over yourself. You are the biggest obstacle to making a difference in the world–starting with your world. Those that have had the greatest impact in the world, were the ones that learned how to make those around them feel the most significant.

I’ve walked in the shadows of a few great and noble men whose influence grew with each step they took. These men had several things in common:
1 – When they spoke to you, they made you feel like you were the most important person in the world.
2 – They did not gravitate towards the powerful people, but towards the common people. They loved people, especially normal, boring or unloved ones.
3 – They always took time to encourage the ones they were talking to or were looking for someone to encourage. They had learned to live without the need for others to encourage them.
4 – They did not seek greatness, recognition or reward. Rather, they sought to fulfill their mission, their duty or their task.
5 – They were largely unaffected by criticism or appreciation. They lived in the spotlight but not for the spotlight.
6 – They really enjoyed helping others. Their help was genuine and their motivations were authentic.
7 – They were generous. Pretty simple, they were givers, not takers.

It was almost as if they were with us, but not one of us. Things that seem to affect us all in a negative way, moved them in a different way. They viewed what they did, no matter who would or wouldn’t see it was all important, all significant and all of major importance. Time was a commodity they understood and made the most of it.

The world is a hard, broken and nasty place. People are getting angrier, more mean-spirited and jaded. Pressure and stress are mounting. Insecurity and uncertainty are growing. The people that have the most significant impact are the ones that step through these forces give of themselves with no thought of return.

You work in a boring job with mean people and never get thanked. You see your future as a dead-end or uncertain or unsatisfying. What you do is sapping your strength. Then I have a solution for you: Change your mindset!

Start by doing everything you do with excellence. People that make an impact are always excellent people. Excellence is the launching pad of inspiration. People aren’t inspired by sloppy, haphazard and inconsistent work or performance. People are inspired by a marriage that has spanned more than 60 years or the mother who has been a lifelong caregiver to her 40 year old son with cerebral palsy. People are inspired by those who give there lives to secure the life of another. People are inspired by stories of real people who really made it, who really did and who maintained to the end. People don’t need concepts, ideas or wishes. People need people. 

When I was 16, my family moved from a very small town to a very large city. This was my junior year of high school, I was popular, top of my class and a three sport letterman. I hated my new high school. I resented my parents for the move. I felt lost amidst the bells of changing classes and new faces. Enter, Mrs. B. J. Hayes, my 11th grade AP English teacher. She changed my world. How did she change my world? My first assignment in my new school, amidst my genius peers (I was the new guy looking like Luke Perry and Jason Priestly from Beverly Hills 90210) and Mrs. Hayes singled me out. I was horrified. She held up my paper and proceeded to tell the class that she had discovered a writer—despite my embarrassment, I believed her. It was my favorite class. She gave me a lifeline. She breathed life into me and stirred a dream deep within me. 

Many people start well. Many people get stronger during the race. Many people jump in half way through. But, few actually finish well. The finish line is the story. What story are you telling? You are always finishing a chapter and beginning a new one. Because you have a bad chapter, read on. Those who make a significant impact in their world does this thing better than others: they finish well. Your focus must be on the finish line. Stop focusing on the applause, the recognition, the appreciation or the reward. Focus on the next step. You can’t run race until all the steps have been taken.

Change your world. Change your mindset. Go change someone’s day. Go make someone smile. Go give something away. Go give someone a compliment. Go encourage someone. Go bring someone flowers. Go write a thank you note to the person who never gets thanked. Go give someone a hug and say “thank you.”

Thinking about changing your world will never change your world. Planning to change your world will never change your world. But, stepping out and doing something will set in motion change that’s necessary for your world’s transformation. It’s not chance that determines your destiny, it’s the choices you make, the choices combined with excellence that will shape your destiny.

Focus on being the best version of you. You can’t be anyone else. You can’t fix anyone else—so, stop trying! Just work on being a more generous you, a kinder you, a gentler you, a more loving you, a more giving you, a more encouraging you, a more hopeful you, a harder working you or a more excellent you. Excellence is attractive.

“Do you see a man skillful (excellent) in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.” Proverbs 22:29

Get to work being more skilled or excellent at is that you do. If you make fishhooks, be the best fishhook maker. If you are a parent, don’t be your parent, be the best parent for your child. If you sell coffee filters, sell them better than anyone else. If you change diapers, do it better than anyone else. If you scoop waffle fries, do it better than anyone else. If you say the same thing 500 times a day, make sure the 501st time is as good as the first.

You are significant. What you do is significant. You serve significant people. Now, go change your world.

“It’s never to late to set a new goal or dream a new dream”

~C.S. Lewis

Goals are the markers that help you accomplish your dream. A dream is filled with many goals to help you see the fulfillment of what fills your heart. A dream is a vision of future expectation or destination. 

Dreams that come from the head don’t often move past the hand. But, dreams that start in the heart can shape a destiny and impact eternity. Every great leader is a part-time dreamer, not a day-dreamer. There is a difference. A day-dreamer spends all their time going through the motions of life while their dreams flit and flutter in the alternate reality of their mind. If you want your dream to become a reality, then you must start with the correct reality.

There are four character qualities that are critical to anyone seeking to unlock their dream: passion, humility, courage & discipline.

Keys to unlocking your dream:

#1 – Discover it

Simon Sinek says, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” This statement applies to the leader dreamer because until you know why you are doing what you are doing, you are simply going through the motions. Leaders must seek to discover their own why. Discovering your why is like digging into your purpose, your meaning. Once you’ve arrived, then you know where you are heading. People don’t buy blank airline tickets and hop on the first plane hoping to get to Hawaii, but the pilot’s flight plan says Detroit. Discover the why in your dream and then set your destination.

This requires passion. Passion is the energy that will at first help you dig into your dream and later sustain your dream.

#2 – Set the Destination

Once you know the why behind your dream, then you can plot the course for your destination. You can actually begin to put the preparation for the dream in motion. This is when you should actually start the dreaming process: what could we accomplish, when could we do it, how would it begin, who can help me part.

This stage requires humility. If don’t approach this stage with a humble attitude, then you will get humble. There are only two approaches to humility in life, and both require pain: to humble yourself or to be humbled. Humbling yourself is far less painful than being humbled.

#3 – Departure

Nothing says “I’m really doing this” like actually doing it. The dream can’t stay inside your heart or your head. The dream must move to your feet, to your hands and to your resources. You actually have to get on the plane and take off. This is called a strategic bet. A strategic bet is where investment meets your idea. Ideas without investment are called wishes! And because there are no magic fairies or genies in lamps, wishes don’t come true without investment. What are you willing to invest to see your dream become your destiny?

This stage of the dream requires courage. You actually have to take a risk, pay a price and count the cost. Courage is not thinking you are brave, but actually going out and being brave.

#4 – Share it

Your dream will require help. Most dreams are built through others believing and buying into your vision of the future. A really exciting dream is on that engages others to see themselves in the dream that was born with you.

Truett Cathy had a dream to build a restaurant chain from a hand-fileted, hand-breaded, boneless breast of chicken served on a toasted, buttered bun with two pickles. But to build a chain, to go big in your dream, always requires the help of others. Enter a young, engineer named Jimmy Collins and a young, accountant named James “Buck” McCabe. Both of these young men, pursing dreams of their own came across this young entrepreneur, Truett Cathy and bought into his dream. But, they never could have bought into the dream if Truett had shared his dream with them. Both men were not only critical and instrumental to Truett, but absolutely vital in the building of Truett Cathy’s chicken-steak sandwich into the multi-billion dollar restaurant chain called Chick-fil-A. Both Jimmy and Buck served over 35 years as the CEO and CFO of Chick-fil-A, Inc, respectively.

This portion takes more humility. The leader must entrust his dream to capable and competent people who have greater vision and insight into how to make the dream a reality, perhaps even taking it beyond where it began.

#5 – Direct it

If your dream doesn’t have a director it will never happen. Movies without directors are simply writer’s scripts or producer’s hopes. Your dream must have you directing it. This is why leadership is critical to the fulfillment of your dream. The leader must see each twist and turn as a new chapter, each obstacle as a new opportunity and each hand of adversity as the basis for new initiatives and creativity. There will be challenges, but the untested dream is an un-trusted dream. Testing is good for your dream and your team. Adversity that leads to action serves to strengthen your dream.

This stage of the dream requires discipline. It’s easy to loose focus at this stage of the dream, because patience is required. You will never experience your dream if you are not disciplined. It’s like a flight that has a layover. Instead of getting on the next leg of the flight to reach your final destination, you stay at your lay-over stop. Many, many leaders have forfeited seeing the fulfillment of their dreams because they got comfortable or discouraged at a layover or delay. Remember, delays are not always denials. Discipline is the inner fortitude to stay the course no matter the cost, no matter the time and no matter the setbacks. Discipline makes dreams come true.

Final thought: Your dream will not occur because of chance, your dream will will come to pass because of the choices you make.

Truett Cathy said, “Each person’s destiny is not a matter of chance; it’s a matter of choice. It’s determined by what we say, what we do, and whom we trust.”

Wise words for a man who saw his dream of a chicken-steak sandwich transformed into the nearly $7 billion dollar a year restaurant chain called Chick-fil-A!