We are one week away from our Catalyst West event. March 2-4 at Mariners Church. Over 3000 leaders together. Love to see you there. Our theme for Catalyst West is "TAKE COURAGE." Encouraging leaders to boldly step into all God has created them to be. I can't wait.
Reality us, we all need courage. Especially leaders. Courage to overcome. Courage to break through barriers. Courage to face fears. Courage to conquer and control fears. Fears. Yep.
Many times what holds us back is fear. Being scared. Living scared. Leading scared.
Today, what are you scared of? What is holding you back from all that God has created you to be?
For me, my biggest fear is failure. Occasionally it creates some very unhealthy leadership landmines and roadblocks that I have to work through. And is paralyzing, because when a leader is afraid to fail, taking risks then gets moved to the side, and maintaining status quo is the focus. Reality is, for many type A leaders, we are scared to death of failing. Afraid of what our friends will say, what our families will say, and how it will impact our next career season. And afraid of potentially losing what we "feel" like we've helped build or create.
And many of us incorrectly assume that in failure, the leader should take all the blame and is responsible no matter what. Not true, but something that still evokes fear.
Fear and failure don't have to go together. Failure is not something to be scared of. We should respect failure, but not fear it.
Bonus: here are some things I'm been scared of throughout my life:
1. Storms- up until I was 13 0r 14, I was absolutely petrified of storms. I mean scared out of my mind. If there were clouds in the sky in the morning with a chance of storms, I would get physically sick I was so scared. And have to stay home from school. Literally petrified. And in Oklahoma, storms are for real. Tornadoes all the time.
2. Certain Dogs. This one still haunts me because of being bit by a pit bull when I was 5 or 6 years old. Still have the scar on my shin to prove it.
3. Bugs and Snakes. Not a fan at all of spiders or snakes. Actually, pretty much all small bugs shake me up a bit. Bees and wasps as well. I'm sweating just thinking about it.....