"A dream is a wish your heart makes"(Disney). Every dream starts with a thought, a longing, a desire to be something, somebody or somewhere.. Before we actually live our dream, we may experience frustration, impatience, the wish to be already there.
However, the realisation of our dreams never (or rarely) happens over night. In most cases its a gradual process. And when we have actually achieved our goal, it feels natural to be there, and our mind and heart are already making new plans for us..
This is true for your leadership, too.
We may feel intimidated by a task or responsibility that we feel at the same time attracted to. We would like to be a greater leader, take on greater responsibility - while having doubts about our capacity to succeed.
Ask yourself: "Am I running after a task/position/experience before I am actually ready for it?" Do I feel exhausted from making efforts without results or from waiting for something to happen?
But when am I ready?
Just as with your dreams, you may be the one producing them from a place of inner desire, and you may also take active steps towards them, but in my experience, we do not control when time has come for us. Life does.
There is an eastern saying "when the student is ready, the teacher appears". The student is you. The teacher is life. When we are truly ready inside to live our dreams, to take on greater responsibility, to do greater things - then life will bring us the challenge, the opportunity, the invitation. You may all of a sudden be asked to change position, be promoted, be invited to specific projects, be asked to cover a new client segment and so on.
Instead of asking yourself "What more can I do to be a greater leader?", I invite you to look at "What challenges does life currently bring to me?" and how are those an opportunity for me to grow?
Another wise Disney movie once said "You may know what you want. But what you want is not always what you need."
Today's reflection is an invitation for humility and gratefulness. An invitation to look at the challenges we are currently facing and to accept the potential of growth that lies in every challenge. It's an invitation to stop seeking more, better, greater - according to what we think we want. But to better read the language of life, talking to us through current offers, challenges, invitations, new projects, and sometimes through a path that seems blocked. Life is talking to us through what we truly need.
What if we trusted life, to take care of us and confront us with exactly what we need to achieve greater happiness and growth? Even if it doesn't make sense today.
I am wishing you a wonderful beginning of this new year - full of trust and openness towards what is to come.
Sabine