In the preface of his book, A Leap in the Dark, John Ferling wrote,

“The title of this book was taken from a line in a newspaper essay written in 1776 by a Pennsylvanian who opposed American independence. To separate from the mother country, he cautioned, was to make ‘a leap in the dark,’ to jump into an uncertain future.

There were those who were ready to take the chance and those who resisted approaching the abyss that would be ushered in by breaking with the past. It was a leap into an unpredictable place to resist British policies, go to war, declare independence, embrace republicanism, ratify the Constitution, enfranchise additional citizens, permit those who had never been trusted with public office to be elected as public officials, and to cast aside the habits of the colonial past.

“Each step was uncertain and chancy. The success of the American Revolution was far from inevitable.”

It all looks so inevitable from where we sit now, but just imagine how risky this massive change must have seemed to people living in the American colonies back then.

What change are you considering right now that you really want to do in your organization or in your career? Does it seem overly risky? Is it a leap in the dark? Imagine going out fifty years into the future and seeing this move as an inevitable success. It’s happened before.

I’m just saying.

Kill the Company is actually a provocative book title by Lisa Bodell.

Her exercise called, Kill the Company, is very thought-provoking. The idea is for you and your team to come up with ways for a competitor to kill your company. What would the competitor have to do to steal your customers and ruin your business?

This exercise forces you to think of ways to come up with something significantly better than what your organization is doing right now.

And then, of course, the idea is to implement these better ways of doing things. It’s much better for you to kill your old ways of doing things with better ways than for your competition to do that to your business.

In the past few months I’ve read biographies on Robin Williams, Bill Belichick, and Fred Rogers, of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood fame.

These three couldn’t be more different from each other, and yet each was remarkably successful in his own way. Why?

I believe the key is that each of them stayed true to himself. None of them tried to be anything other than himself.

Describe yourself. Your values, your standards, your areas of focus, your style, your way of doing things, your passions, your talents, and your character strengths. Write those down. And then as you go about doing whatever you do stay true to yourself. Just try to be a better you. Don’t waste trying to be a better somebody else.

Last year an Apple employee encouraged me to turn off my cell phone every day for at least ten minutes. She said, “Go brush your teeth, use the restroom, maybe take a shower, and then you can turn back on your phone. It will last much longer that way.”

That’s such good advice for how to do significant work.

You can’t work all the time. You need to shut yourself off every day. I recommend several times a day just shut your brain down. Go for a walk. Take a nap. Watch a mindless television show. Allow your brain time to completely ramp down.

Then when you come back do so with much better energy.

My daughter, Sarah, is a double major in Theater Arts and TV Arts. I think of it as a Massive Major in Creativity. She’s learning how to help create meaningful stories. I’m excited about her journey.

She’s learning all of the details (scripts, plot, characters, acting, actors, directors, producers, scene design, etc. of making a story come to life.) Over the course of a period of time, the story is created piece by piece. When it’s all done, it’s shown to whoever wants to see it. And that story impacts other people.

Many of my biggest decisions were impacted by watching a story. To Sir, With Love; Dead Poet’s Society, Awakenings; Good Will Hunting, and Field of Dreams all had a profound effect on my career decisions.

A great story engages the viewer. You’re not watching a film or show. You are actually in the story. You feel pain or sadness or happiness or worry or joy because of what is happening by the actors and to the actors.

In your own life you are making a story right now. At the end of the year, the story will be called, Write in your name)’s 2019, or maybe something a little more intriguing than that. Take time now while the story is in its early stages to really think through what you want the final film to be about. What will be the main message of the film, what’s the aspiration of the main characters, what’s the primary conflict, what will be resolved, and how will it end?

Picture your film in your mind, and then make it a reality. The story is intentionally created one day at a time.

My good friend, Pastor Kelly Archer, recently gave a sermon where she had a line I’ll never forget. She said, “Live lives worthy of the gift you have been given.”

That struck me as tremendously powerful.

We all have a gift. Your gift is the intersection of your character strengths, passions, talents, values, and purpose. Each person has something remarkable at that intersection. My gift is to champion ideas and to champion people.

What is your gift?

Take some time to figure out the answer to that question.

And then live a life worthy of the gift you have been given.

Every day no matter what our job is we have the capacity to choose what to do and how to do it.

Of course, there are consequences to our choices. If we choose to do exactly what other people tell us to do every day in the way they tell us to do it, then there are consequences. If we choose to do things we believe we should do in the way we choose to do them, there are consequences.

Since there are good and bad consequences both ways, then why not put ourselves in charge of our present and future.

Today decide what you will do and how you will do it. You can choose to do better things and in better ways than you did yesterday. If you do that every day, I believe you will create a better future for yourself and for other people.