4. we never stop learning

A great use of your time. National Youth Workers Convention.

This past weekend, I had the honor of attending the National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC). The amount of information I gained was and still is overwhelming. I took at least 25 pages of notes which is more information than I am able to process... hmm probably in this lifetime. I am looking through my notes, trying to recap the highlights because I wanted to share with you four simple truths. They can change your life right now if you believe them. You wanna learn with me? Okay, here we go.

1. Bob Goff said this on day two of the convention, 
"Quit doing stuff you're able to do, and do stuff you were MADE to do."
My takeaway: Do we really want to be ordinary in this life? Do we want to live, with our "occupation" that we're trained for, but that we don't really love? Do we want to leave life saying "Yeah, I had a good life, but did I make a difference?" I hope your answer is no. I hope that you can let God use you in the dream that He gave you. He doesn't want us to be bored, as Bob said well, we shouldn't just dive into life, we should cannonball. Which one makes the bigger splash?

2. Tic Long gave a session named "Leadership Essentials" that both encouraged me and changed the way I viewed leadership. Something interesting that he said is this as one essential task of leadership: "Deflect praise, accept blame." 
My takeaway: Deflecting the praise acknowledges the people around you that helped you accomplish your task. Chances are you probably didn't accomplish it all yourself, so make sure you honor them by deflecting praise. Accepting blame lets people know that as the leader, you are ready to accept blame for the project that was in your care. If you accept blame for something that one of your teammates did but wasn't necessarily your fault, they will want to follow you forever because they'll know you are willing to own your leadership team, even in the mistakes. They will be loyal to you forever. Fair? No. Speaking life into others? Yes. 
Deflect Praise, Accept blame. 

3. Woody Allen once said, "80% of life is showing up." My friend Susan reminds me as need be (which is often). There was a great concept at the NYWC called "Family room." It was basically a gigantic room with lots of people broken up into groups of 8-10 for a small group. Well, the first day I was in a deep place of contemplation from the previous session and didn't exactly feel like discussing anything at all. Our leader was kind of pushy and insistent in me answering the questions. I got all flustered and started to tear up. I said I didn't know the answer to the question he was asking and he said to me, "Well then why are you here?" It was an interesting question. I didn't know the answer. Why was I there? I decided I wasn't going to go back to family room again. But Susan, being a good friend and mentor said to me, "You're going." So, I drug myself back the next day completely against my will, and started to call it our "dysfunctional family room." The next time I went, the evil leader, as I began to call him, wasn't there. We had someone else leading our group. This leader was a total gem and a great leader. Family room was completely different from the day before and ended up as life changing. I was forced to go against my will, but like Woody Allen said.. we just gotta show up. We have to show up to claim the benefits from the opportunities.  

4. Irish bands are awesome. Rend Collective Experiement. They use instruments I don't even know how to describe. 

Is there something you're longing to do? Find it.
Something you're CALLED to do? Go do it. 
Are you a leader who loves praise? Start deflecting it. 
Do you have trouble accepting blame? Start accepting it. 
Are you afraid to show up? Just go. 
Rend Collective Experiment? Buy it.

Chasing my calling, 

Emmy.