Lag is the difference between where you should be and where you actually are. 

Lag isn’t what makes us lazy, but it is the condition that perpetuates procrastination, sloth and habitual tardiness. Lag is the distance between what you are doing and what you should be doing. Very rarely, lag is intentional. Most often lag is unintentional and it is the reason that we don’t get more done, see more results and take more calculated risks. 

Principle: Until you get the lag out of your life, lag will lead your life. 

Lag is inefficiency. 

Your life, your leadership and your relationships don’t benefit from unintentional lag. You are living an inefficient life. You don’t have a fuller or a richer life when there is an abundance of lag in and around your day, your habits and your thoughts. Lag actually allows your life, your thoughts and your decisions to become more complicated and often confused. This is because lag creates unnecessary space between the thought & decision and the intention & the action. It is easy to believe we all need more space, but this is not true. Where there is unintentional lag, there is waste. A lagging life is often a wasted life.

Lag is not a reaction of rest, but a result of comfort.

The opposite of lag is margin. Margin is positive space that you create or generate because of your simplicity, efficiency and intentionality. Lag is negative space that is created and generated when you are unintentional, lackadaisical, and often too emotional. Efficient people create margin. Efficient parents create margin. Efficient students create margin. And efficient leaders create margin. Margin creates the opportunity for innovation, growth and development.

Margin is where we take new territory, innovate and expand our thinking. 

Lag doesn’t kill margin. Lag is the absence of margin. Lag is the presence of deficit in your life. Lag means you are behind. Many people don’t realize they are behind or rather, they don’t realize how far behind they are. When you allow lag to dominate your life, your thinking and your activities, then you will waste resources, energy and opportunity. Lag is an opportunity killer. The expression, “the early bird gets the worm” is true in this regard. Those who lag are those who lose out.

How to get rid of lag in your life:

• Meet with enthusiasm

• Take a risk

• Shun comfort 

• Stop dreaming and make a decision 
  

• Don’t look back 

Meet with Enthusiasm. This simply means you need to direct the level of energy straight into the lag: get up earlier, work longer, make a better list and attack with energy. Enthusiasm means all your energy. There are two reasons we have so much lag and so little enthusiasm: (1) we waste our energy on the wrong pursuits & (2) we are half-hearted in our attempts. Learn to say “no” more often. Every time you say yes, you are committing your energy. When you say yes to the wrong things you waste and misdirect your energy. Don’t go unless you can give all your heart. This means don’t show up with one foot in the door and one foot at. Be all in when you are present. 

Take a Risk. Value what you can gain over what you can lose. It’s better to have risked than lost, than sit and fade. Risk is what keeps us sharp. For a Christian, there is no faith without risk. Risk causes us to tighten up and reduce the lag. You face risks everyday wether you see or experience them. So be prepared and make a bold move. Sometimes all your life, your relationships and your organization needs one, little bold step. Sometimes this is the catalyst to kill lag and cause margin. 

Shun Comfort. Comfort is a lag reinforcer. Production doesn’t come through comfort. When you think, live and relate toward comfort you will never get to where you need to be. You will live in the land of lag. You will never quite understand why things don’t quite work like they should for you. So, you say “Why try?” “Why risk?” and you grab another doughnut and watch the world go by. 

Stop Dreaming and Make a Decision. Laggers are those that are characterized by indecision. No one follows an indecisive leader…for long. There is nothing good about being a dreamer who never sees a dream come true. Spend less time dreaming and more time making decisions. Dreams don’t take you places, decisions do. Dreams describe places. Decisions make places. Too much dreaming with too little doing reinforces lag in your living. 

Don’t look back. Looking back longingly is a trait of laggers. There is a difference between a glance and a stare. Staring at the past will never promote your future. We stare at the past and as if we could bring it closer to us. This increases the lag in your life. The world doesn’t stop moving. But when you do, you get left behind. This is one reason why we fail to innovate and create and take risks, we are stuck looking back pining for the good ole days. They may have been good, but they are gone. 

You cannot be an effective leader if you live and operate in lag. There is a season for slow, but slow is not lag. There will be times where you need to slow the ship down or dock into the harbor and wait. That is not lag. Lag is missing a turn, getting left behind and missing your port of call. Leaders must lead with enthusiasm not only being in front of their team, but with and behind. A leader must move through the organization to ensure that no one part is lagging behind. Laggers are losers. Get the lag out. Leaders get the lag out.

(c) Alex Vann, 2018