2 Small things
I’m reading Barack Obama’s A Promised Land.
I can’t get Common’s Courageous out of my head.
1 Uncommon Thing
January feels like the longest month ever and the shortest to me. Like me, you may have felt the anxiety of trying to find that new 2021 rhythm. You may have felt the anxiousness of embodying a new year within that new you. You may have felt the uneasiness of shedding 2020 and looking ahead to the new year. No? Just me?
One of my most common refrains this month has been, I can't seem to find my pacing. My schedule has been off -- not overwhelming per se but not flowing either. My sleep has fluctuated between restful nights and nights where I couldn't shut my brain off. Not to mention, Simone and I traveled to Portland, OR, this month to celebrate her 30th birthday. Jet lag is real and hasn't helped!
There was so much I had planned on doing this month. So much I wanted to debut and share. I just never got there. What I found was the last two weeks of December where things were winding down, meetings were being postponed for the holidays, everyone taking breaks -- it all led to a tsunami of January kickoff meetings to help everyone get back in the swing of things. I hadn't done a good job anticipating that.
So what do you do when it just hasn't gone the way you planned it? What do you do when you can't catch up? What do you do when you've lost control of the calendar?
You shrug your shoulders. You evaluate. You dust it all off. And you try once more.
One thing that is difficult for my personality type is to say I just need to start over and try again. I struggle with perfectionism. I struggle with how you see me. I struggle with ...well, I have a lot of struggles. So it is challenging for me to make space to give myself grace. It's hard to say, "you couldn't control those external circumstances". My inner me says in retort, "You should have anticipated them." (I'm certainly not the only one who talks to himself, right?) However, during this final week of January. I am saying to myself, "You may not have won January, but you had some excellent moments"!
This month, I was sworn in as one of the nine members of the St. Petersburg Charter Review Commission. I led a successful Senior Leader (COVID-safe) retreat. Planned and executed a five day west coast trip for my bride that included hikes, sightseeing, rest, and visiting with friends. I read a lot. Listened to new music. And I had some phenomenal conversations with friends. I'm sure the list could go on, but even as I typed that out, I began to feel encouraged. No longer beat up by what didn't happen.
So here's to you and I shrugging off whatever goals we didn't achieve and pressing on and setting our sights on what is ahead of us. Let's do so with a spirit of grace for ourselves. We aren't perfect, and we don't have to try to live that way either.
1 Exclusive Thing
As a subscriber, I will always share exciting news with you first!
This February, I am finally launching Uncommon City. On my first trip out west last October, I really felt God drop into me several ideas related to the word “uncommon”. As I have worked with a brand agency out of Seattle called Zion Bloom, this idea has germinated into a full fledge grouping of projects, state of being and more.
I'm all about thinking and doing things uncommonly. Over years of ministry, business, communications, and civic roles, I have seen the devastating consequences of being similar; being average; being the same. It all leads to the same kind of results — results that perpetuate problems and do not fix them. I've been at tables and in meetings where the same people who have had seats and invitations before come back only to share the same ideas they shared last year. Or the year before. Even maybe a decade earlier.
I've always been bullish on going against the flow of the tide. I'm creative. Slow to speak. A processor of words. Intentional activator of space, place, and people. You see, the thing that sets me apart from the common are the things that drive me. Loving people in uncommon ways. Listening to lived experiences and finding uncommon intersections where we can agree and forge relationships. Making room for the most unlikely, the most uncommon person to have a voice and a place of influence. Seeing the world as it can be and not as it is. These are maxims that make me different.
Out of this new branding, I plan on releasing a new exclusive patreon only podcast, writings — including a new book called “How To Grow A Beard During A Pandemic”, and more. You’re hearing about it first. Stay tuned to my instagram for more updates.
