Great Leaders Do What Drug Addicts Do | Michael Brody-Waite | TEDxNashville

This story is phenomenal.

 

Here is what I learned:

1. Be authentic.  This really hit me hard, I thought I was being authentic in my life but after reflecting on this talk I realized I am not truly authentic.  He states he wore masks and then peeled the many layers of masks off.  I think I do this, I have a mask as the perfect wife, ahhahahahahahaha.  I have a mask of the all together woman, superwoman, supermom, perfect grieving parent, perfect, perfect, etc hahahahhahahahahahaha.  I don't like weakness but I think that is because I don't like to exhibit it in my own life.  I don't give myself permission to be weak, my life hasn't ever given me the choice to be weak.  When having to be strong is all you have then you can either be strong or weak and I have always chosen the strong.  Everyone has their stories, everyone has their stuff so I'm not going to list off mine BUT I need to be more authentic.   I see peers and others that I look up to, that have that extra thing, call it charisma, call it charm but that is not what it is.  It is authenticity, it is the ability they have to be real or at least an appearance of authenticity, they show their true selves to others. 



2. Be willing to surrender to the outcome.  Well, if you are authentic you can do this, but if you like to be the strong one in the room that is difficult to do.   I have a saying "When man makes plans, God laughs"  I have given much to God, I have given Him so many of my hopes and dreams and let Him do with it want He wants.  I have surrendered my life to Christ and I have followed him for longer than I have not.  BUT it is easy to take control over life and not surrender the outcomes.  Challenging statement.



3. Be willing to do the difficult stuff as if your life depends on it.  Wow, what a statement.  I do feel I do the difficult stuff.  Maybe I need to do it 110% and not just do it, but again, this is a challenging statement.



I think when speakers challenge you, I don't just like getting a message and the speaker finishes.  I like when the speaker challenges you, asks you how you are going to take what they say and be a better person or make a better world with the information, so....



How are you going to be authentic?

What is it you want to surrender?

What difficult stuff are you not doing?



I have a list of my own, but I hope you all listen to this and challenge yourselves to be authentic, surrender and do the tough stuff too.



Lisa