Week 58- Sometimes you just need to take a step back

 Aloha 皆さん、

Lowkey it's long (sorry not sorry). Also I'm not too sure this makes sense either 

I guess something that's cool is that since coming to Japan I've never been comfortable. I always find myself seemingly having no idea what I'm doing. And honestly it's been great.

I was listening to a BYU Devotional on the way to an exchange searching for some enigma of advice to figure out this whole mission thing. And I came across “The Power Of Not Knowing” by Liz Wiseman. I was looking in the Leadership section under Topics and it caught my eye. Purely because i was like:

“Well that's stupid, I'm looking for BYU devotionals to study so I DO know” 

Anyways the synopsis had me hooked. 

“I think we need to recognize that we tend to do our best work when we are on the outer edges of what we know, when we are doing something hard and new, and when we are growing through challenge.”

It was an awesome talk. It talks about the different types of leaders. How we can push ourselves when we are uncomfortable and in the unknown, and how when we start to “know” we become complacent and build habits and mental shortcuts. 

I recommend that you read it. 

But we are gonna talk about what Liz Wiseman says about Leaders:

Inside the talk were two different types of leaders. We have diminishers and multipliers. The difference between the two is that diminishers got less than half of the brain power from those around them than multipliers did. Okay then what are diminisher leaders? 

“~these leaders never look beyond their own genius to see the full genius and capability of people around them. They are smart, but they tend to shut down the smarts of others. They are idea killers and energy zappers inside of an organization.”

Which when you read seems so obvious. Obviously if a leader shuts down other people's ideas really nothing productive will come out of it. That's just a dictatorship. You read this explanation and think diminisher leaders are just rude, mean people. But she goes on to explain that sometimes diminishers can sometimes be the nicest, most genuine people ever. People who thought they were doing a good job with the best intentions ever. I'll quote some of these accidental diminishers otherwise you might be reading for a while (which is why I recommend you listen/read this talk). 

“~the “rescuer”? These are the leaders who don’t like to see people suffer, struggle, make mistakes, or fail, so they extend a hand of help. But they end up leaving people rather helpless.

~

Or the “rapid responder” or the “optimist”—the can-do leader who sees nothing but possibilities but also overlooks problems.”

These leaders all have the best intentions and think they are leading well but growth is best found in trials. Think back to when you grew the most as a person. I don't know about any of you guys but for me it was probably college. College was a nightmare for me. In the year I was at BYU Provo. I hurt people, got hurt, made friends, lost friends, cried, laughed, and did things I wish I could take back. But I grew. Before I left on my mission my sister expressed to me that when I was in high school I was a bully, mean, and self-absorbed. But after going to college it was like I took a “chill pill”. I seriously debated paying for her food after that (I did lol see growth). But anyways there's a reason why God gives us hard things, there's a reason he doesn't save us immediately when we are enduring our trials. 

D&C 121:7-8

7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; 

8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.

I don't know anyone who is a better leader than the all-omnipotent Heavenly Father so maybe we should follow his example as leaders and disciples. Do not come immediately to someone's aid (in a Leadership scenario, obviously please help da old tutu if can bruh). We thrive as humans in trials. Allow those around you and yourself to be in uncomfortable situations that force you to grow. 

If you wanna learn about multiplier leaders go read the talk cause I'm focusing on trials and uncomfortable things now. 

In her talk Liz Wiseman shares about how she had gotten a role for something she wasn't necessarily qualified for. She was catching slack one day for being particularly young for the role she had one has responded in turn with:

“Hey, Bob, who wants a job they are qualified for? There would be nothing to learn.”

Pause. Can we take a second to recognize that God calls imperfect people to do his work. Let's just take the mission for example. You have 18-26 year old males running around doing God's work with other 18-26 year old males. All while some of the 18-26 year old males are leading each other, training each other and solving problems together. With only one REAL adult at the top. If you look at it with a world view and as a company it would be one that would for sure crash and burn. And yet we have missionaries all over the world. That's nuts. 

But what she says is so true. 

She goes on and expounds and talks about a “rookie mode” when we do something new for the first time we lack knowledge compared to when we are more experienced. So we are more creative, we ask questions, we seek feedback and listen, we consult with others, we explore. But when we are experienced we bring in assets, knowledge and know how. But that also brings negatives. We have blind spots, we recognize patterns and create developmental shortcuts. In this mode we become more innovative and resourceful, in this mode we grow and improve and are challenged.

There's so much More I really wanna say but I'm actually running out if time😭 This whole topic sounded so much better in my head and if I had more time UGH Bro anyways yeah had a crazy experience this week with some other Elders and this Devotional was so clutch. Maybe another day.

But anyways this Devotional has helped me so much this past week. It was a good reminder and lesson that sometimes all you need is to take a step back. Show love, and continue to challenge yourself with new things. 

(Someone let me know if this email made sense pls😓)

Highlights:

Exchanges!

Pday!

Sports!

Exchanges:

I've actually gone on so many Exchanges (I'm currently on my fourth right now) the past 3 I've been in my area which has been nice but today I'm going to Nakatsu. I was with Taggart, Armstrong and Maretarangi 長老 and each exchange was honestly SO much fun. Me and Taggart 長老 got along really well and talked a lot about balance as a missionary and a TON about scriptures and reassignment (we both had some interesting reassignments). Armstrong 長老 is a dog who has been with some ones my favorite missionaries ever, and I got to do some one piece finding with him ( I haven't done any since fukuoka). It was such a blast. And finally braddah man Maretarangi 長老.  Honestly learned so much about different ways to do missionary work. We also reminisced about home and it was such a breath of fresh air. I Really hope either him or Medeiros 長老 comes to Kitakyushu Elders 2 frfr. We also just had a fire talk about scriptures and our testimonies. Exchanges are just so much fun bro.

Pday:

You already know I be hitting one piece with the boys every week now. We figured out how to play on video call so I be running some cross mission games no cap. But today we went to round 1 with the district and played a ton of sports and it was SOOOOO much fun. Ugh bro if there's one thing I miss from America reassignment was pday fr. 

Sports: 

Including pday we also have had a futsal activity at The church which was also a blast. I'm so rusty Fr it was lowkey sad but it's okay I was running some nice footwork and combos at round 1 futsal.

Kay den Das all 

Shoots!

愛してるよ~

エリス長老

TheRisingSon