women in business

The greatest need of human beings is for a sense of meaning and purpose in life.

Victor Frankel

One of the most valuable lessons I am learning in my life is that I don’t need to do it alone. ‘It’ can be defined as almost anything I do, including developing a new program for one of my clients, running my business, needing help in repairing something and even walking my dog. What’s freeing about this is it saves me time and energy, I get to a better end result because of the shared ideas and, most important, I get to have great fun working with others!

One of my mentors, Laura Whitworth, co-founder of The Bigger Game Company, always says (paraphrasing), people are hungry to make a difference in the world, they just don’t know how. We can show them how.

I am finding this to be true. No matter where my clients are in their personal or professional lives, they come to me to reconnect with their vision. We loose sight of our vision when the daily activities, routines, responsibilities and obligations begin to take over. We can no longer see what drives us. We begin to feel we have no choice and are being driven instead of driving.

A life lived by choice is a life of conscious action. A life lived by chance is a life of unconscious reaction.

Neale Donald Walsch

The one important thing about having a vision is to get into action and take the steps to make your vision become a reality. The first major step in doing this is to begin talking about your vision and enroll and engage others in it. By doing this, you become more committed to your vision. There is power in speaking about it because you get more clarity and that makes it easier to become a reality.

How scary is that?

And how exhilarating?

As leaders, it is our responsibility to show others the ‘how’. In speaking about your vision, you will find others who will think you’re crazy and others who will think you’re not. So what? Those that think you may be crazy will help you become more convicted in your vision and those that think you’re not will become great allies for you.

I am participating in a Leadership book club and our current book is “The Art of Possibility” by Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Stone Zander. Our current practice is “Being a Contribution”. The basis for this is practicing a game they call “I am a contribution.” The practice is inventing oneself as a “contribution”, and others as well. Replace the fearful question “Am I loved for who I am, or for what I have accomplished?” with the joyful questions, “How will I be a contribution today?”

Two simple steps to make this happen:

  • Declare yourself to be a contribution
  • Throw yourself into life as someone who makes a difference, accepting that you may not understand how or why.

Watch what happens. Enroll and engage by example.

Remember…you may be the ‘how’ to someone who has the vision and just doesn’t know how to make it real. Don’t be the one to cheat others out of the opportunity to make their visions become realities.

Step into leading and enroll others in your vision…don’t wait…model leadership…the World needs us to do this.

Written by Pat Obuchowski