I have been thinking about this post for a long time because I want to learn and “get it right” so I can put out into the world something I feel is meaningful.
This is not the “right” version but a first draft. I hope if you read this you are willing to reach out and help me to be better in my thinking.
As I shared in my post on opposition there are fundamental truths that shape our reality. There are laws that govern all things, and it is our duty to explore, learn, and understand them so we can live our fullest life. I call these eternal or natural laws.
On example of a natural law is the law of gravity. This law is simple to understand because the feedback loop is immediate. When you hold a ball in your hand and drop the ball, it falls to the earth because of gravity. This is a self-evident truth whether you understand the physics behind it or not. One could argue the usefulness of gravity, but it does not change the fact that gravity exists and applies to all things on earth. This is a natural law that you can always rely upon.
Another example is the law of the harvest. This one differs from gravity because of the time element. To illustrate, let us talk about corn. Corn should be planted after the last frost of the season. This is typically early spring in the northern hemisphere. You place the corn seeds in the ground and you water and nurture the seeds and it will grow. The growth of the corn is not immediate, meaning you cannot harvest the corn the day after you plant it. In fact, the day after you plant it and water it you still may not know if your seed was a good seed. It could be a bad seed and not yield any corn. This will not be discovered until weeks later after continued nourishment. Eventually the corn grows (with the proper care) and can be harvested in the fall. This is a natural law you can always rely upon. When you plant corn seeds in the spring and nurture them in the right environment, you can expect to harvest the corn in the fall. Our food supply chain across the world relies upon the law of the harvest.
There are eternal or natural laws that also govern human behavior. Like the law of the harvest, there is a time element that make them more difficult to isolate and discover. This is one of the things that gets me excited about the field of leadership development. There must be laws that govern good leadership that are unchanging and could be leveraged to build a strong “supply chain” across the world of great leaders in organizations, communities, and families.
My invitation to you is to take 3 minutes today to examine your own life. Are there patterns of successful leadership you can identify? Write them down.
If you feel you have found a durable pattern of successful leadership, please share with me. I would love to experiment with your pattern and write about it.
