1+1: Life can only be understood backwards + Beware the frivolous adjective

Here’s one leadership idea and one resource I’ve found beneficial this week:

1 idea: Life can only be understood backwards

Last Christmas when I was back at my parent’s house, my mother dragged out my long-forgotten boxes of high school and college memorabilia. (Apparently, now that I’m an adult, she doesn’t want to be my storage facility anymore.) As I flipped through bad pictures, cringy love letters, and faded newspaper clippings, I savored a few moments of sappy nostalgia. But what intrigued me the most was my old journals. As I peered through this window in time, I saw something that seemed so obvious in retrospect: I was always going to be a writer.

This box of memories reminded me how much I wrote in my adolescent years. When I was in eighth grade, I wrote 30 pages of a Star Wars novel just for fun. In high school, I wrote summer camp sketches, sermons, and even illustrated my own children’s book about an elf that repossesses toys from bad kids. Eventually, I even wrote a full rom-com movie script.

Two things stood out to me as I noticed this pattern. The first was that I obviously enjoyed writing for fun. The second was that at no point during this stretch would I have considered myself a writer.

Like most people I know, I never thought my writing was good enough. It would be years before I would gain confidence in my craft and start to see it as a viable part of my life and profession. Even though I was writing, I didn’t see myself as a writer. I didn’t notice the clues hiding in plain sight.

Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard says, “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” While most of our focus is aimed at our next goal or challenge, pausing to look back over our lives can reveal clues about who we were made to be. Had I stopped to notice this trend sooner, I could be even further along in my craft now.

The same is likely true for you. For years, you’ve been pursuing hobbies on the side, going the extra mile on projects, or honing skills that seem unremarkable to you. But if blessed with the gift of hindsight now, you might see that these quiet passions are restlessly itching to express themselves more fully. And if you’re a parent, teacher, or coach, you have been given the authority to call out the positive themes you see in the lives of the young people you lead. As you raise their awareness of these latent passions, you fan embers of passion that they may be too embarrassed to release. Your words could give them the confidence they need to pursue their truest calling.

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• As you look back over your life, where have you gone above and beyond the minimum just for fun?

• Where have you found great joy, ease, or success in your work?

• What might these examples say about your innate passions or gifts?

1 resource: Beware the frivolous adjective

If you are an aspiring writer, you might enjoy these writing tips from Sarah Chauncey. Sarah served as the editor of my first book and provided invaluable coaching for me. "Avoiding the ‘Road to Hell’ with Powerful Adjectives and Adverbs” captures some of the same insight and practicality that made her so crucial.

PS: If you give a mom a muffin…