Saturday, May 23, 2009

What Pressure do You Live By?

An airplane has to build the pressure on the inside to equal the pressure on the inside or it will implode. As leaders we are the same way. We have two pressures always hitting us. My question is, "What pressure do you live by?"

Many young leaders do not have a true "drive" to their life. They are lazy and lethargic. Whenever you look back in history and see leaders who started movements, you see that they were uncommon in all they set out to do. For instance, John Wesley would wake at 4:30am in the mornings to study the Bible and prepare. In his later years, when he was 83, he wrote in his journal, "I have become lazy now. I find myself sleeping in until 5:30am these days." Another famous quote by Wesley was, "I want to set myself on fire (passion for what he does) and let the world watch me burn."

I am not a Methodist and am not idolizing John Wesley, but he is one among many who shaped the destiny of a country. My point is this. Leaders live by two pressures and two motivators. Do you need a college, or military institution to set your goals for you? Do you need someone outside of you always motivating you to push harder and go farther? Or let me say it this way, "Do you need external pressure to motivate you to increase your internal pressure?"

Leaders who start movements are not laid back people who sit around and play video games and are consumed with Family Guy (tv show). The history books will not remember those people. However it will remember those people who had an uncommon drive and determination that pushed them to get up early and stay up late making a difference.

Simply put: Leaders who start movements live by an internal drive that keeps them from being dependent upon external pressure to get results.

Which camp are you in?

1 comment:

  1. It is so true. There are some other "pressures" that airplanes live by. The pressure of gravity to fall out of the sky versus the pressure generated by the engines to soar high. Many of life's experiences try to make us crash, but when our engines are tuned and fueled we can rise above the pressure to stay on the ground.

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