I’ve Been Waiting To Share This For Quite A While

[SUMMARY: I was a subject in a documentary about social entrepreneurship and it will be streaming for FREE for one week starting May 1. Check out the trailer above. Watch it at newbreed.tv]

Sometime in 2016 a filmmaker reached out to me and asked if I’d be willing to be a subject in a documentary about social entrepreneurship. I would be one of a few stories highlighted throughout a feature length film.

I honestly didn’t know what to think initially. I knew to a certain extent that I wouldn’t have complete say in how my story was depicted and the commitment seemed like quite a lot for my family, my team at work, and me personally. Was I willing to bring other people along in this decision with me?

Skateparks, Coffee & Deep Thoughts

I’ve been interested in learning more about video and editing. I’m constantly documenting life — especially with my two boys — but have predominantly done that through instagram stories.

One Saturday I grabbed my camera and decided to make a slightly longer form video. This is that video.

I learned so much about filming and editing, and made so many mistakes. Haha. I shot it in a weird aspect ratio to start, so the video is kind of square, but I just rolled with it.

Not sure how consistently I’ll make these videos, but I figured they will be great to have and to look back on no matter what.

Enjoy!

There’s Only One Way

… to succeed at anything in your life — keep showing up and looking to improve.

Apply this principle broadly and generously to the relationships you care about in your life, your vocation, and the things you enjoy doing and want to get better at.

In our culture we want to ascribe success to nearly everything else other than the hard work of consistency. We want to believe people are talented or were lucky to experience some big break. And we want to believe this about others, because we want to believe this could be our experience as well.

Unlearning Traditional Leadership

The word “leader” carries a with it a lot of baggage for me. The majority of my childhood I was told I was a leader, which meant (by those who were telling me) that my actions weren’t my own because they influenced how others would act on the playground as well!! *Yes, I was a rabble rouser.

I carried this “leader” burden throughout different stages of my life. I studied it, read all the books. I wanted to master it. I remember reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers — the one that popularized the concept of “10,000 hours”, that the people who were the best in class weren’t any more talented, they just had more time spent with their craft — and straining to figure out what I had been putting my hours into. I decided that leadership was something I had a lot of practice in, so I would double down on that to become really great at it. I think this was a mistake.

First, leadership is something very difficult to quantify. It’s subjective, as with any business principle, and yet it is rife with people narrowly defining what it is.

Secondly, our traditional understanding of the term leadership seems to be way too black and white. As in, there are leaders and there are followers. Pick a side, or even worse, it’s going to be chosen for you so just deal with it.

So when I was posed with this question of how I define leadership, this is what I had to say…

A leader is someone who lives with conviction and a belief that the world is made better by their actions.

As I’ve learned to shed the stereotypical frameworks that envelope the concept of leadership, I’ve come to believe it’s truly as simple and profound as this. (Wait… and aren’t the simplest things often the most profound anyway?)

So what’s needed?

Conviction. You need to stand for something. You need to have a point of view, a way of showing up in the world, that you care deeply about.

Action. You act as if what you do matters, because it truly does. This spans the gamut from the work of your actual vocation, to the way you treat people closest to you.

What do you think? How would you define a leader?

Finding Ways To Feel Small

Have you ever had the opportunity to go on a big hike, or even better a backpacking trip, in the wilderness and found yourself in awe of how small you are in comparison to the solitary landscape?

Have you traveled to a foreign country and learned of new customs and ways of life that you didn’t know existed, only to question the traditions of your own culture?

Have you ever stepped foot in the ocean and stared across the vastness toward an indeterminable horizon and maybe China, or would it be Australia? (Note: west coast kid right here)

It is so important to find places and opportunities that make us — and our personal experiences — feel small. Here’s why… we’re really great at self-aggrandizing and believing everything we think. 😉 We get caught up in our own thoughts and often become crippled with the anxiety of believing our challenges are unique to us.