I think if you asked people who know me, they would say that I’ve always been an independent thinker.  My sister used to tell me that I never seemed to have any issue with expressing my opinion, even to our Grandparents.  I told her that at some point I just realized that instead of seeking their approval (especially my Grandmother’s) I had to start being okay with thinking or doing things that she may not have agreed with at the time.  I had always prayed for God to help me keep a good moral center and as long as my conscience didn’t start screaming at me whenever I did something, I knew I was probably on the right path.  Many years ago, I even had an owner I worked for ask me if there was anything out there that I didn’t have an opinion on.  I told him that I didn’t think so which made him bust out laughing.  He knew that if he asked me how I felt about something, I was probably going to tell him what I thought.  What I have gotten better at is hopefully framing up what I’m saying so it doesn’t sound quite so shocking sometimes.

Over ten years ago, while working for Carlson Managed Hotels, they held a GM Conference and a portion of that meeting was allocated to a book called Now, Discover Your Strengths written by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton.  This was a revolutionary book for me and has been a significant part of the tools I use when building teams within any management role I have served in.  It focuses on identifying a person’s top 5 strengths and basically says that we are all hard-wired a certain way and that we should spend our time increasing our aptitudes in those areas instead of trying to work on things we are never going to be good at.  When sharing these with the team I work with at Branson Tourism Center, I told them that taking the time to understand how people communicate and process information is well worth it when you are trying to connect their efforts towards a common goal.  My profile includes Strength themes such as Arranger, Individualization, Relator, Maximizer and Responsibility.  What this means in a nutshell is that I thrive in chaos, love every quirky aspect of each person I come in contact with, will talk your leg off if you’ll let me (because it’s important to me that you understand all the various components!), will work until I drop and have no more to give and I take ownership of all of that without batting an eye.  The first time I took the StrengthsFinder survey, I was amazed at how accurately some of these themes described me.  As I have watched roughly 70-80 people go through this survey, I can honestly say that there have been as many lessons for me as for them in watching them grow as leaders.  The moment that these things finally click and they realize that they really do “own” their own success is life-changing!  And it’s so funny because it is never the things they think it’s going to be that distinguishes them from everybody else.  Being willing to serve others is truly the key to great leadership.

I found myself sharing the following sentiment with our Manager team:  “I openly admit that I have control issues.  Because I am determined that no one is going to steal my joy!”  You could see the words almost hang in the air as the Managers tried to decide if they really had control over that.  I assured them that they most certainly do.  I was talking to my sister a few weeks ago and she always has such wise words for me that oftentimes apply to whatever is going on.  She commented that we cannot allow our circumstances to influence the joy that we find in life.  We are in charge of our own joy.  Finding joy even in the midst of chaos is where our own emotions leave off and our love for Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father picks up.  And that is a discipline that we can only fine-tune if we remain focused on Him.

I had a conversation with someone this past week that included dialogue about spending time with things that influence us.  I interact with alot of people on a daily and weekly basis and it never ceases to amaze me that people who spend time focused on things that are such a negative influence in their life (gossip/drama, partying, etc.) allow those very things to steer them away from the things that they always said they wanted.  Then they wake up one day and wonder how they got to the spot where nothing in life seems to be enough to fill the void that they feel every day.  You have to wonder if their life has a motive?  Do they recognize their own lack of purpose?

Even when things are at their craziest, all I have to do is reach a little deeper inside myself and find the joy that resides in my heart.  I am so grateful that it never leaves me and I cherish it and know where it comes from.  As it is written in Romans 5:1-5, we have been justified by faith, and our peace is provided through our Lord Jesus Christ and we should rejoice in our difficult times since those produce perseverance; perseverance produces character and character produces hope.  And as stated in Romans 15:13, God’s desire is to fill us with the joy and peace of believing and that through the power of the Holy Spirit we can have an abundance of hope.  His desire is for us to have a better life than we could have ever dreamed of.  John 10:10 refers to Jesus being the shepherd to the sheep and that his desire is for us to have an abundant life.  So I pray for an abundance of joy, discernment, health, wisdom, and of course, patience and kindness.