Is Positivity a Choice?

P a s s i o n

S e l f - c o n f i d e n c e

Passion & self-confidence are almost necessary for leading when you're not in charge. It's definitely necessary to work on these things if you don't have them already and you're trying to lead from a position of 'not in charge'. 
The idea that 'if you're not passionate then you're wasting your time' is quite negative if you think it means: 'if you've not got a passion for what you do then just give up'. If you make this positive and realise that it means 'if you've not got a passion for what you do then search for a small amount and cling onto that to drive you further'. It's about choosing to look for passion where it's been lost. This is no mean feat. I'm currently in a position of serving someone else's vision and it's hard. In fact, it's almost impossible when you've got visions of your own that cannot be brought in to the equation. But I have to begin to own some of the passion that does match up. Ultimately, I have a passion for people finding Jesus and knowing Him, I have a passion for children being free to express the whole whack of Holy Spirit that's inside of them, and I have a passion to see the youth of my hometown come together as one body. The first two of these things I am able to witness and serve in my position. The last passion is a work in progress that I find easier to pursue in other local churches with larger youth groups.
Self-confidence is a   b i g   thing. I've grown up my entire life thinking that I've been dealt a pretty good amount of self-confidence. Last night, my perceptions changed. It's something I'm working on. The reason I'm telling you this is not to give you less confidence in me, but to acknowledge that everyone struggles with lacking in some areas of self-confidence. "Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings" can put pressure on ourselves to feel the need to be perfectly happy with who we are. I think self-confidence needs to come down to recognising what things you don't like about what you do and how you think and knowing that these things are not who God made you to be. You were not made to be anxious. You were not made to project your feelings. You were not made to lack in compassion. You were made perfect and God wants to work in and through you despite your imperfections. That's the self-confidence that is needed. A self-confidence that has little confidence in who you are but 100% confidence in who God made you to be and in God Himself.

The influencers lead!
1. Lead yourself. 
Learning to lead is learning to be a good follower.  A star follower says: "I want to help you achieve what you want to achieve".
Proving that you can lead yourself, arguably gives you more opportunities to lead others. If you can lead yourself, you will be top of the list when the organisation look to promote someone into a position of "higher" leadership.
2. Choose positivity. 
Make it a choice. The greatest thing you can bring to your team is the positive emotional energy. Keep moving forward. Think 'we' over 'me'.
More important than making the right decision is taking the decision and making it right. You can undermine the momentum around the decisions of an organisation, but you can also propel it! Get 100% behind it and make it work.
Here's a story from Andy Stanley's church... The church had expanded to the point where they needed a West and an East auditorium for the service. This meant a congregational split. Those sat in the East would get the live sermon, those sat in the West would get a live feed of the sermon on a big screen. It had been decided that people with surnames A-M would sit in the East and those with surnames N-Z would sit in the West. A girl, who was explaining the new system to a guy who had missed the meeting, saw his distaste and she said 'oh really, I thought it was a great idea!'. This took him aback and he began to think that he'd missed something and it would be a good idea after all. Then she began to snicker, and she broke and said 'Andy told us to tell anyone who thought it wasn't a good idea that we thought it was a great idea!' The positivity made it a great idea. If she had gone 'I know *whisper* I thought the same thing'. then she would have fed the negative energy surrounding the new idea. The idea was happening whether they liked it or not and she would've just made it a great idea for him.
This idea doesn't quite sit well with me. Which is ironic because I should have positive energy flowing out from me about this new way I need to lead when I'm not in charge. But I'm honestly not so positive about the idea. I'd be more comfortable with saying 'Ah I think it could work! It's not an awful idea after-all and we can see how it goes' because that's what I'm really thinking. Why lie and say that I think it's a great idea when I don't? There's positivity and then there's lacking genuinity (my new made up word for more impact in this sentence).
When we struggle with not being involved in a decision and then having to watch it happen even though we oppose the idea, we can think of choices that we don't get to be involved in as 'that's okay, they are taking that thing off of my plate so I can focus on what I'm doing'.
So there are my jumbled thoughts about some things surrounding leading from a position of not being in charge. I'm going to process this a little bit more today...
Podcast Information: Andy Stanley | How to Lead When You're Not Incharge
Amy xo