Personal Leadership: What Is Enough?
I work with some amazing leaders who, in their own unique ways, are quietly and diligently making a tremendous impact on the world. And almost all of them are exhausted. Why is that? We could certainly blame it on technology and how accessible we are to the demands of others. We could probably all benefit from a refresher course in time management. We could all get clearer about our priorities. Certainly a decrease in resources in the organizations we work in could be a contributing factor. Maybe we just live in a more demanding time.
What I submit is that one of the core reasons that people are so tired today is that we have lost connection with the experience of “enough.”
- How much is enough service?
- How much is enough accomplishment?
- How much is enough money?
- How much is enough security?
- How much is enough success?
- How much is enough exercise or rest or food?
- How much is enough of anything?
In a world that demands that more is better, I think it is imperative that we grapple with these questions because the world’s standards of enough are not working. If you don’t have an inner experience of being enough, no amount of offering, success, money, or stuff in your life will ever make you feel satisfied, filled, or large enough. What is enough? If you do not know, within yourself, that you are enough, you will die of weariness, because there will always be more to do, more to have, and more to be.
Alternatively, when you know you are enough, beyond what the world tells you, then your giving, your achieving, your expanding and creating, comes from overflow, not emptiness, and the world will nourish you as you, in turn, nourish others with your presence.
My personal leadership challenge for you is to ask:
- How do you come to know your worth away from your work?
- What does “enough” feel like to you?
- How do you know how much is enough?
- How do you know you are enough?
