One Life

So…welcome to the New Year! Sometimes the New Year feels like an anticlimax – to be honest 2010 doesn’t feel any different to 2009. It’s just as cold, anyway. But for me, 2009 already seems worlds away…I’ve just started here at Onelife, and suddenly I’m the new girl who asks the silly questions and doesn’t know how to work the printer!

There are seasons and situations where you simply know how stuff works and, even better, people come to you for the answers. But then there are times, (and apparently you don’t grow out of them) when you haven’t the foggiest. And as strange as it sounds, I am enjoying this ignorance. There is absolutely no pressure for me to know, and so there is no need to pretend.

I’m reading a book called ‘Next Generation Leader’ by Andy Stanley – which I highly recommend, by the way – and it says some remarkable things about knowing and pretending. As a leader there will be times when you don’t know the answers; if the way was always clear and easy everyone could swim along fine on their own with no need for leadership. But when there are uncertainties, leaders are the ones who are clear on their direction, if not the method, and have the courage to risk it. Pretending you know everything is fatal. Pretending means you can’t ask questions. Pretending means you will never know. It’s the whole thing with the mask – keeping up appearances is a joyless fight you won’t win. Here’s a quote to chew on: ‘Uncertainty exposes a lack of knowledge. Pretending exposes a lack of character.’ As leaders we cannot have all the answers. We don’t have to be all-knowing, (luckily). So when we don’t know, and honestly it’s guess work, lets keep the vision sharp and keep asking questions. Yes, even the silly ones.