One Life

I picked up this article yesterday in a slow moment; I am no sportsman by any stretch of the imagination, but it fascinated me. The author was a professional cricketer, and a good one too – don’t ask me his name. He was musing over the dangers of being too professional; he described the first time he played as a pro…he said it was the first time playing cricket wasn’t fun!

Being ‘professional’ has become very much an in-thing at the moment. We want techniques, in depth action plans, strategic planning, values, objectives; the cricketer talks about how his first two weeks as a pro were spent not with the ball and bat, but with the board room and the ‘big picture.’

And I totally understood where he was coming from! Of course there is nothing wrong with the professional approach to work – there is no denying it works, and works well! But there is a danger that all the fun, creativity and spontaneity of human beings is lost. Sometimes the way to bring the best out of people is to get out of their way! But it’s something I’ve found in the last month working here at Onelife – its odd to have it be my JOB. I find my work slips easily into just what must be done, in the way it must be done, when it must be done. It’s so easy to lose sight of the ‘why’ – that I do this because seeing young leaders lead gives me goose bumps; because it makes me feel like myself; because Jesus loves it.

A seasoned cricket coach put it this way – he wants his professionals to feel like amateurs. I guess that’s it: the best way is to work it like a pro and love it like an amateur.