CONSTANTS

There are certain constants in life.  One of those constants is time.  We are all bound to a 24 hour day and a 7 day week.  No matter your vocation, passion, and effort, you have limits.  Steve Jobs was bound to these limits.  President Obama is bound to these limits.  Every single person, regardless of how productive or unproductive they may be, is bound to these constants.

So as you dream big and work towards creating more beauty, shalom, and justice in the world, consider the following:

What can you (and only you) do?
What were you created to do?
What are your passions?

Do that!

But what about all of the other random tasks that are required to pull off said passion, job, project, and dream(s)?

That's where being a leader comes into play.

Good leaders surround themselves with other individuals that resonate with your dreams and momentum.  Good leaders never hoard vision and work.  Good leaders delegate, empower, and turn loose the passions and dreams of other people.

So the next time you find yourself against a time-crunch, ask yourself what can you (and only you) do.  Ask yourself what you were created to do.  And finally ask yourself if you have appropriately surrounded yourself with individuals that you trust to carry the torch of your passion.

The world may be full of constants, but you don't have to be bound by them.  

Peace,
Ross

Pan De Libros

Kate spent the weekend in Baltimore, MD with our best friends, the Schultz'.  There, she and Katie brainstormed and wrote a children's book that will be available in the coming months (much more info about that later). But more importantly, they dreamed and created a vision for changing a community in Anapra, Mexico.

{this is from Katie's blog, Schultz Party of Four}

 Though the front porches of Anapra look out over the Mexico - U.S. border onto the verdant lawns of the United States, many of the luxuries we take for granted are not readily available to their community. Paved streets, potable water, steady employment, safety, even education - none are guaranteed to our neighbors to the south - and neither are books.

Perhaps we can change that...

However, the vision is growing, taking root in the hearts of many in the U.S. and Anapra to provide more literature, a place for community, and HOPE. The next step in the good work being done in Anapra is taking shape, the shape of a library... and I couldn't be more excited!!! A location has been identified, supply costs are being assessed, and a plan is developing!

And in order to coordinate the efforts that will surely require the compassionate and generous contributions of numerous partners in the U.S. to empower these impacts, the Pan de Libros (Bread of Books) collaboration group has been formed. Our goal: to promote education, community, and hope by providing books to families across the border.

As we develop this initiative you can follow our progress:
twitter
facebook

{READ THE ENTIRE PIECE HERE}

There's a WHOLE LOT MORE that I'll be rolling out in the coming weeks and months, but for now, keep up-to-date via twitter and facebook.

Paz,
Ross

VISION & FUTURE

If you've been a reader of the blog for a while, you'll know I frequently discuss leadership, vision, creativity, etc.  Today I felt it necessary to discuss 2 vital leadership components: VISION & FUTURE.

Future and vision, I believe, are the 2 most important factors in leadership.  Understanding these and making them the drivers of everything else deemed "leadership," will create an organization, business, etc that is vision focused, rather than management focused.

When a group or organization is driven by vision, it affects everything and is usually looking to create something for the future.  Vision is seldom worried about what happened yesterday, or how your past failures are affecting you today. 

From personal experience, I build vision that attempts to create culture.  By that, I mean if I see something lacking in a given community, I want to create something to fill the void.  When I dream something beautiful, I want to make it an experience for culture, so that the future is brighter by it.  But whatever that "something" is, that is my vision, it's partnered with a future thought of how its moving people, the organization, and/or culture.

Conversely, if you run your business or organization by pure management, you'll find yourself managing a response (both positive and negative).  You'll manage opinions until you're riddled with ulcers, trying to please people.  And being a purely response-driven group or organization doesn't create vision.  It manages expectations, and executes based on the feelings of any given day, survey, or angry/pleased email(s) that hits the in box.  It does get things accomplished - sometimes with laser like precision.  But I'm always more interested in vision.  The future is most interested in vision.

Vision will always drive management.
Management will never drive vision.

So make sure that the vision you're creating is future-thinking, and don't fall into the easy trap of simply managing people, tasks, and ideas.

Peace,
Ross