“Lead a More Daring Life” ~David Berry
It has been an amazing year for my learning blog, Lead.From.Within. The three-year journey has been chocked full of amazing learning experiences, networking opportunities and the chance to teach and write about Servant Leadership. This year, my message has spanned across 69 countries, the top five including the United States, Brazil, Canada, Philippines, and Russia! That is 31 more countries than last year! I am truly grateful for the opportunity to share in this journey with you.
In bringing 2016 to an end, I want to share seven contemplation questions that Cynthia James challenged us to sit with and to journal the answers for the new year. However, first let’s take a quick glance back at what we have learned and the tools we have gained for our Servant Leadership tool box in 2016;
2 Books
- A Force for Good: The Dalai Lama’s Vision for Our World by Daniel Goleman.
- Practicing Servant-Leadership: Succeeding Through Trust, Bravery, and Forgiveness by Larry C. Spears and Michelle Lawrence
Themes
The themes from a force 4 good book included the key concepts below. For the fuller explanation, click here.
1. Free the Mind and Heart
2. Embody Compassion
3. Educate the Heart
4. Oppose Injustice
5. Choose Humane Economics
6. Help Those in Need
7. Heal the Earth
8. Connect Across Divides
The themes from the Practicing Servant Leadership book were varied including servant leadership and boards of directors, servant leadership and organizations, and the use of positive language as Servant Leaders.
Bloggers
Four bloggers/teachers that have challenged me to greater depths of service and spirituality are David Berry, Marcel Schwantes, Cynthia James, and Rosetta Thurman. If you have a chance, you should check them out in 2017.
Cynthia James, a poet, novelist, and independent scholar recently posted a challenge for us on Facebook. She presented seven contemplation questions for us to consider for our lives in 2017. When you have a chance, take some time to get quiet and jot your answers down. She says that if we get quiet and listen for 30 days (at least 10 minutes a day), we shall see amazing results in our lives! Here they are;
1. What is the highest vision for my life?
2. What must be released to fulfill this vision?
3. What makes my heart sing?
4. Where can I be of service that makes a difference?
5. Who are the people that inspire me and why? How am I like those people?
6. Where are the places I made a difference this year?
7. If there were no obstacles. What would I be doing?
In the coming year, I will continue to ask myself the following questions (last year’s contemplation questions) and I challenge you to do the same to stay present with Servant Leadership and its message;
- How can I serve?
- How can you serve?
- How can we serve together?
- Under what context am I serving?
- What do I want the end result of my service to look like?
I thank each of you wholeheartedly for your support of my blog! I am indeed in a debt of gratitude to you. I look forward to 2017 with great joy and anticipation for our work together. All is well. We are complete. And so it is. Namaste.
“Something extraordinary is waiting for you.”
To Our Journey,
Dr. Crystal
