Step Out To Stand Out

Savvy Saturdays - 10/31/20

Oct 31, 2020

Hello friends,

Greetings from Austin!👋

At work, I started to turn my camera on at big company calls 📷 (as in 100+ or all-company gatherings).

It was quite intimidating to do, as most of the people with their cameras on were either managers, super senior engineers, or the main speakers for the call. 😳

The reason I started to do it was because I listened to a podcast that mentioned a perspective to take in order to achieve success. 👀

The statement was:

“To achieve what nobody has, you must do what nobody else does.”

(Side note: I was curious about where this quote came from and looked it up. I couldn’t find a quote, but found this medium article that covers it well - 10/10 would recommend)

When I reflected on that quote at work, I started to notice things people wouldn’t do (including me). Things like:

Not willing to turn on the zoom video in group calls.
Not willing to speak up and share personal stories to connect with coworkers.
Not willing to ask for help when a problem arises, and instead, trying to solve issues oneself.

As I looked at these different obstacles, I noticed the fears related to each one:

What if I turn on my video and people see something wrong with me?
What if I speak up and people reject me?
What if I ask for help and look stupid?

What was revealed were many insecurities - a sense of not belonging, rejection, and incompetence. 😫

But as I dug deeper, I started to see opportunities amidst fears:

Turning on video allowed people to connect faces to names.
Sharing about personal life allowed for deeper conversation & connection.
Asking for help guaranteed a quicker solution - 15 seconds rather than 15 hours.

And with any opportunity, there is potential to grow. 🧐

Gaining confidence, building up courage, and learning to lead amidst discomfort.

“To achieve what nobody has” requires being willing to step out of our comfort zone and stand out.

To trade safety for risk.

To embrace being different.

The benefits long term vastly outweigh the losses short term.

And so, I wanted to go in that direction of being set apart.

Rather than making big leaps, I’m taking it small - little things like turning on my video in zoom calls, saying a greeting when people join so they feel welcomed, or sharing about my all-nighter moving experience in happy hours. 🚚

I do it because I want to steward well the little I have, in preparation for much that may be brought in the future. Whether it’s for my future family, for others I care for, or myself.

By stepping up and standing out, my hope is that by doing what no one does, I can achieve what no one has achieved, beyond what I can imagine, for those in my life.

Weekly Update

Thanks for checking in on this week’s update, and happy Halloween! 🎃 🦇 🧙‍♀️ 👻

I won’t be doing anything Halloween night, personally, but if y’all do plan to celebrate the spooky season, please be safe! 🙏

With that, I made some subtle changes to the format of the newsletter (wording, buttons, call to actions, content). Leave a comment if you have thoughts, as I always appreciate your feedback! 💪 And if you have any prayer requests, I’d love to pray for you! 🙏

Weekly Collections

A collection of articles I enjoyed…

Faith

“When our faith begins to falter, or our spiritual disciplines wane, or our joy fades to a dim flicker, or our love grows cold, we need to be reminded to run. Even when it hurts, even when we want to give up, even when we’d rather do anything else.

Any race with Jesus will be hard (Luke 9:23).

Faith, hope, love, and joy may come freely by grace, but that does not mean they are always easy. The apostle Paul, knowing the costs and rigors of following Christ, reaches for this kind of rugged and strenuous imagery again and again (Philippians 3:12–14; 2 Timothy 4:7–8).

What might surprise us — even those of us who have been running with Christ for decades now — is what race Paul really had in mind, at least in 1 Corinthians 9:24. When he held out that wreath of all wreaths, he had more in mind than our clinging to faith and persisting in private prayer.

“I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.”
(1 Corinthians 9:22–24)

The race Paul was running (and calling us to run) was not merely about guarding the faith in our own hearts, but about pursuing that faith and joy in others. The race may look (very) different for us than it did for an unmarried apostle, but the race is still our race.

Paul was running to win the lost, despite how much effort it required and how much it cost him. He was talking about aggressive mission, not merely secret devotion. And that race — becoming all things to all people that we might save some — can be even more demanding, confusing, and discouraging than nurturing our own relationship with God. Many more give up trying to win the lost than give up going to church or reading the Bible.

Paul knew that winning the lost often feels like the back half of a marathon in the heat of August. So, he reminded the church to keep running — not to lose heart or slow down, but to press through to the end. Keep taking risks and making sacrifices to share, keep enduring the inevitable rejection and hostility, and, above all, keep praying for the lost. Keep running.”

—Souls Are Our Reward | Marshall Segal

Leadership

3. Set Artificial Deadlines

The deadline is not real to anyone, but very real to me.

Learn to make decisions faster. Delegate what others can do. This trains you to eliminate what you shouldn't be doing.

4. Empower others as if our future depends on it, because it does

If someone can do something 80%, give it to them

Do not be afraid to delegate

If you delegate tasks, you will build followers.
If you delegate authority, you will build leaders.

You will never attract, build, and retain great leaders unless you empower them to lead.

You don't find great leaders, you build great leaders.

You keep great leaders by letting them lead. Give authority and let them have power to create on their own to let them lead.

You do less as a leader. Delegate, empower, give it away.

The less that you do has a bigger impact on the organization.

The best organizations don't do it all.

The best organizations do a few things and they do it really really well.

Practical questions to act on:

What is an artificial deadline that you can impose to improve productivity and efficiency?
What are three things you can delegate? Who will you give them to, and by when?
Organizationally, what are you still doing that lost effectiveness, and needs to be dramatically changed or eliminated?

—Notes taken from It’s About Time Part 2 | Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast

Productivity

—Shane Parrish

Weekly Tidbits

Learnings, verses, & quotes to chew on…

Just because you're struggling doesn't mean you're failing. Fail forward, fall forward.

Struggling means you're still in the game.

We're either giving up, or getting up.

—John Maxwell

Verse of the Week

“And he said to him,

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’”

—Matthew 22:37-40

Challenging Quote

"A calling is a who before a do."

—Craig Groeschel

Savvy Saturdays