Urban Tidepool

Over the weekend, I read The Master Motivator by Hansen and Batten, mining for tips on improving my leadership abilities. While I am comfortable in the belief that I’m probably a very entertaining boss, I also would like to be good at what I do, and to keep getting better at it. About halfway through the book, there’s a list of sixteen dares that leaders should be committed to for self-change.

Dare #10—Dare to live with a sense of wonder…

This wasn’t the kind of self-help book that should stop me in my tracks, but it did.

Wonder doesn’t come easily to kids in homes with terminally ill parents, or family addiction problems and mental illnesses. It is easily replaced by fear and disappointment, followed by cynicism.  Wonder is both a gift (if you can hang onto it) and a goal (if you can’t).

Somewhere between gift and goal, I found it again. Or it found me. I’m not sure which.  Not the sarcastic wonder as in, “I wonder why I got out of bed this morning.” True wonder. The wonder of watching the changes that my job makes in the communities we serve every day. The wonder of watching the changes that the kids who participate in our programs experience, some of which I talk about in Urban Tidepool.  The wonder of having a job where I am surrounded by people who are looking to help, where I so often have the privilege of finding staff members doing something right (rather than creating settings where we’re looking for what they’re doing wrong, which I know many people endure daily). Remember waking up as a kid during summer break and thinking about all the things you were going to be able to do today? That’s what my job often feels like–more “What do I get to do today”, not “Oh brother, what do I have to do today?” And let’s not overlook the wonder of being surrounded at home and at work and in my social circles with kindness and generosity, which is maybe the result of being surrounded by people who are, themselves, filled with wonder.

Wherever you find it, gift or goal, it’s a game changer. Go ahead. I dare you.