One of the most common things I see amongst people who are making a difference in the world is that they tend to get stuck at a certain point moving forward in their mission.
For me, I was stuck with looking for 400 hoodlums to commit to being an Average Advocate. And having started over a score of small things over the years, I’ve been stuck in my fair share of things, from small world changing projects, organizations, business, Church growth, etc… in fact, I am still stuck in some of these areas!
There are a lot of reasons ordinary organizations making a difference get stuck, and they can be very frustrating if you can’t seem to grow into the world changing vision you have. You might be stuck too–or you might not want to get stuck and would like to do everything you can to avoid this.
What Is Getting Stuck?
You’ll know if you’ve been stuck (or are stuck). Even if it is just you and your friends doing good together through a food program at a local school, that isn’t too small to get stuck. Maybe it is a fundraiser your run, a small non-profit or B-corp you started, or something else you volunteer for. Maybe it is a ministry at your church or even business.
It could just be reaching people with a message.
These aren’t things others might look at and call “big,” but for you, your invested in the vision. It is big to you.
Anything that is for good that you’ve invested in that has a purpose outside of yourself can get stuck. It’s time to get unstuck.
What is at Stake
If you don’t know how to set-up for growth, scale while growing, have the right teammates or investors–too often these things end in discouragement, burn-out and cynicism. They usually don’t finish strong. Or sometimes they trickle on forever, but never fulfill the vision they were started with.
What’s missing? How do you avoid that? What can we do to scale that growth? Maybe you are even okay with never getting bigger–maybe you don’t want to–but the maximizers around you are pointing out that the vision you are embracing is too limited–that the impact would be so much greater if you let others be part of your vision.
Whether you are pursuing greatness or running from it, the good you want to see in the world is or will be limited unless you prepare and plan for some of the common things most of us get stuck on.
We can’t be who we were born to be or make the difference we were meant to make if we are stuck.
How do you get unstuck?
This year, even beyond these monthly themes, we are focusing on getting unstuck.
Sure, I’ve learned a few things along the way that l plan on sharing with you. For starters, are are some areas I will be focusing on:
- Delegation
- Multiplying yourself
- Resilience
- Bringing out other’s strengths
- When to stop micromanaging
But I am still a learner in this too. I need your wisdom and experiential help, we all do, to help us move past the barriers that keep us from making the difference in the world we were meant to make.
In 2019 I want to challenge you to either prepare to not get stuck, or be intentional about become unstuck. That being said, this is what is next:
Your Next Steps
- First, commit to the above and write on a post-it-note or index card and put it on your dashboard or somewhere else you’ll see it: “This Year I Will Be Unstuck!”
- Think of areas you’ve gotten stuck in or are stuck in now. Tell me what they are.
- Think of anyone you know who is unstuck in the areas you are stuck in. If you know them personally, ask them how they got to where they are. (Better yet, interview them and share how they got unstuck!)
- Share with us things you’ve done to become unstuck that would be relevant to the majority of the Average Advocate tribe.
That being said, check out the Average Advocate posting guidelines as I greatly hope we will be hearing from you this year on this theme!
Here’s to a year of becoming UNSTUCK!
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