From One Degree to Another

I know I’ve been on a managing self kick in recent emails, but I thought it was good to come back to the idea of taking care of yourselftoday.  One reason is that I’m rather drained after the amazing month I’ve been privileged to live recently.  Another is that as I visit with others, I get inspired by those who have the wherewithal and insight to pull back.

In 2012, the KLC did a conference call “On the Balcony” and thought about what it means to take care of yourself that I highlighted in some emails.  The big point: “Leadership is risky.  You stand a better chance of succeeding when you’re at your best.”  Caring for yourself means recognizing when you need to take care of yourself, finding what balances you, and having kindness and compassion for yourself and the work you’re doing.  Some warning signs that you need to take care of yourself were: you become restless, irritable, and discontent, you can no longer meet people where they are, you start forgetting things, you become physically sick and/or you take things personally that were meant as constructive criticism.  The remedy came in three ways: 1) Take quiet time for yourself: prayer, reflection, meditation.  2) Care for your physical needs: get enough sleep and exercise regularly. 3) Ask for what you want or need.

So, today, this is as much for me as anyone, but if I know anything about hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone Kansans, it’s that we easily forget to manage ourselves by taking care of ourselves.  So, today, I free you take care of yourself, so that you can engage in more effective acts of leadership, helping our community make progress on the issues we care about deeply.

With you in this… 

I was thinking this morning about using words and the inherent power they have.  A popular workout regimen was claimed to have “terrorist” tendencies, people that disagree with us are labeled as “intolerant” and there’s a host of other uses of language that come out in print or from our mouths that may or may not be helpful.  There’s a tension here, isn’t there?  On the one hand, at times we’re compelled to raise the heat through our words.  On the other hand, we can manage ourselves to such a degree that we would never use our words to raise heat (although there’s quite a good bit of talking happening between our ears which may or may not raise the heat internally for us).  And, both of these tensions intersect in managing self.  So, for those who tend to be heat-raisers with words, is there a degree of intentionality in what you write or say?  Or do you tend to fly off the handle?  Maybe you need to manage self for more effective interventions.  And, if you tend to be one who talks more to yourself rather than others, maybe you need to manage self by intentionally intervening and asking that conflictual question or pushing back on that prevalent interpretation.

Today, let managing self be seen in the words you use and see if that doesn’t help us make progress toward the things we really care about…