January 20, 2021

1 Leadership Thought

It's about that time of year when New Year resolutions start to fade away.

That's okay. That's not what you really need anyway. Avoid ending the year being described by "busy" by cultivating what is actually healthy for you: a habit of solitude.

Solitude helps you connect with your soul.

You can't connect with a date at a loud concert.

You can't connect with your child with screens on.

You can't connect with a friend if you're both scrolling through online voices.

Quiet gives space for connection. (Share this on Twitter)

Here are two keys to start cultivating a habit of solitude:

• Find a consistent time block: Different stages of life mean different time blocks, but they're always available. Ask your spouse for permission for a part of the evening to yourself. Or start getting up earlier–there's rarely ever an interruption in the morning hours of 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock.
  Remember, you're building a habit, not achieving a goal, so take your time to build towards where you want to go.

• Take time to slow your mind: You'll always be reminded of things to do. A cacophony of thoughts always tries to win attention.
  Write them down. Pray them out. Speak them out loud. Take time to think them through. Or just ignore them.
  Whatever it looks like, take the time you need for your mind to slow down. Sometimes that means working through those thoughts for 30 minutes or even longer. It's okay.
  What you need is to get to a place where you've "detoxed" from those thoughts. And like any detox, it's harder at first.

1 Resource

Ruth Haley Barton on the soul and solitude:

"The soul is like a wild animal–tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy. It knows how to survive in hard places. But it is also shy. Just like a wild animal, it seeks safety in the dense underbrush. If we want to see a wild animal, we know that the last thing we should do is go crashing through the woods yelling for it to come out.

The settings in which many of us are trying to provide leadership are places where everyone is crashing through the woods together, harried and breathless, staying on the surface of the intellect and the ego while all things soulful flee deeper into the woods...If we stay in solitude long enough, we became safe enough with ourselves and with God to say, Yes, this is who I am."

Source: Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership

1 Question

How well do you really know who you are?