Thursday, March 01, 2018

Give Me A Chance: Follow Your Light

A friend sought a new opportunity to prove his skill and use his passion.

I honored his brave decision and ability to risk. I knew he had what it takes to do this new job well, and I also knew that it would not be easy.

Over years I have watched this friend grow. I have witnessed his strengths and challenges, and questioned many of his decisions too. I thought a lot about his decision to risk, try something new, and make change, and in the end, I believe he is ready.

How we push forward in life matters and won't be the same for any of us as we are all called in different directions. What means the most to us varies, and we must be attuned to our individual lights that lead us ahead.

In education and life, I have watched many travel their roads forward. I have thought deeply about their decisions and marveled at their choices to take one road or another. In general, most that I know have put family first when making these decisions. They have made decisions based, in part, on what will be meaningful and good for their family life.

Passion has been another big player in these decisions--people are pulled by what they love, and when they couple their passion with their endeavor, what's possible is incredible. Further, people use responsibility and need as compasses to lead their paths too. What responsibilities do they own and where are the needs in their own life as well as the life of their family members, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and community members.

We need to recognize personal paths when we make decisions about people and when we choose to support an individual's risk, choice, decision, and plan? We need to ask ourselves how does this individual's responsibility, needs, passion, experience, family, and overall sense of mission and ambition factor into their choice and direction. We need to ask this of ourselves too as we move along our own paths taking risks and making decisions along the way.

In general, it's good to give people a chance to be who they are, and to support those people if we feel they are worthy of the next step, and it's important that we all follow the lights that lead us, lights of passion, need, responsibility, family, and call.