Your Personal Hedgehog
The Hedgehog Concept
Jim Collins – Good to Great (Chapter Five)
The Personal Analogy
Suppose you were able to construct a work life match that meets the following three tests.
You are doing work for which you have a genetic or God-given talent, and perhaps you could become one of the best in the world in applying that talent.
I feel that I was born to be doing this!
You are paid for what you do…playing to your strengths more than 75% of the time.
I get paid to do this!
You are doing work you are passionate about and that aligns with your purpose and values, enjoying the actual process for its own sake.
I look forward to getting up and throwing myself into my daily work, and really believe in what I’m doing!
If you could drive toward the intersection of these three circles and translate that intersection into a simple, crystalline concept that guided your life choices, then you’d have your personal Hedgehog.
Dynamics of a Transformational Person (1of4)
If you type in “Transformational Leadership” into Wikipedia you’ll find four distinct elements described as action steps of someone desiring to be an agent of change, with individuals or a social system. While I believe there is merit in learning about “how” and “what” to do as a transformational leader it misses the basic foundational principles of transformation.
I’m dedicating four blog posts that will reflect more of the “why” of being a transformational person.
My premise is that if someone understands the “why” being of transformational person it will sustain them, inspire them, and give them sustainability. “What” and “how” – the method – may vary, but “why” is the fuel for the jet engine.
Transformational people know their purpose!
The antitheses of people who are purpose-centered are people who are comfort-centered. Their “normal” is the path of least resistance. Comfort and ease are the default. For instance, when someone cuts you off in traffic what’s your initial reaction? Just last week I must have given someone the impression I was cutting them off and I got “the finger” for over a mile. I challenged his perception of normal. (He challenged mine. I noticed a small part of me wanted to ram him.) Apparently he and I both felt as if we owned the road and his path was not going to be deterred by anyone. Sound familiar?
It’s sounds so trite but that often happens when protecting our path of comfort. When our comfort is challenged, we react.
Transformational people - who are pursuing inner transformation and a new normal – choose a different perspective. They intentionally put rhythms in their life to support the “why”: they know their purpose.
- They have a clear definition of life that gives them meaning and directs their actions. They know where they are going. It doesn’t mean they are pushovers. It means they can embrace a detour or a challenge (yes, even on the road) because it doesn’t affect their purpose.
- They have a personal mission that not only provides direction but also gives them focus and consistency.
- They have a “due north” by which they can set positive, challenging, and self-chosen goals.
If you want to take some steps on becoming a transformational person, step one is to know your purpose; be clear about your mission in life. When you know the “why” your “how” and “what” will have the right inspiration and direction.
What if… you knew your purpose?
Leave…and Don’t Come Back Until You Get a Name
In many cases the quest into our interior world for meaning, purpose, and clarity is a choice we make. However, history tells us this has not always been the case.
Native American young men had their own vision quest. Boys were forced to head out to the wilderness, find a solitary place, and then wait. On his own in this challenging environment each boy had to find his vision of an animal spirit that would guide him into adulthood. The intention was that he would gain insight, wisdom, advice, and protection from a supernatural source. It was marked by receiving clarity of his destiny as the Great Spirit gave him his true name, affirming who he was and what his life’s purpose would be.
While this rite of passage may sound harsh to us poste-modern Westerners, there was a grand tradition behind it meant to give inner clarity and purpose.
Rites of passage today are more often sterilized and concentrate on information-sharing instead of experience-gaining. The Bar or Bat Mitzvah may be arduous and beneficial but in many instances it does not provide deep clarity for life’s purpose; neither does the rite of “Confirmation” in the Christian religion (been there, done that…it’s cerebral!).
What the point? By abandoning such traditions or gutting the them of their experiential power, what are we left with today? Instead of people willing to take a journey “into the wilderness” and their face the highest challenge of solitude, we live in the Information Age inundated with people telling us what to do: wear this…buy that…achieve this…etc.
Noise! Noise! Noise!
The results are generations who are on-the-outside striving and on-the-inside stymied.
No matter your age or background, it is worth going on a vision quest. Take the challenge of entering your interior world.
Have the courage to block out a time of solitude (even if for ten minutes) into a weekly schedule.
Dare to give yourself the gift of silence and face the onslaught of messages you may get initially to find clarity over time.
Sit long enough so that you can gain insight into what you offer to the world.
What if…we did?
The Quest for Your Holy Grail
At the risk of offending my high school history teachers, I don’t remember anything about studying the Holy Grail. My first recollection was the humorous rendering of Monty Python and the Holy Grail; crusaders singing of spam and bridge keepers who held the key to passage (“the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow”). History tells us that quest of the Grail was fraught with danger and bloodshed. Somehow the singing Minstrels had a way of taking the edge off the violence, “He was not in the least bit scared to be mashed into a pulp, or to have his eyes gouged out, and his elbows broken. To have his kneecaps split, and his body burned away, and his limbs all hacked and mangled…” Okay! Okay!
Maybe I could glean insight from the Indian Jones series. Did the biblical artifact of the cup used to celebrate the Lord’s Supper really have supernatural powers? Indiana would confront his dad, “This is an obsession, Dad. I’ve never understood it. Never. Neither did Mom.” How true! The quest of the Holy Grail began as an obsession and was portrayed as such throughout history.
The Holy Grail is rift with legends which first appeared in Europe around 1180 and flourished until the mid-Fourteenth Century. The Grail stories emerged in German, French, and English versions were often central to the story of men who somehow wanted to connect to their spiritual path as Richard Rohr says, “in a nonacademic way.”
Legend records stories of journey turned quest; genuine myth anchored in men’s reality. Myths of the Holy Grail were reflected raw determination and focus; men would stake their life on finding it.
We face a temptation today, an apathetic shrug to great quests. Although we have a world of possibilities at our finger-tips so many people have difficulty reading meaningful patterns of our existence. Too many wander without much purpose; unsure of where to apply their talents.
When I ask people today if they could clearly articulate their purpose I often get an uncomfortable mumble in response. If given the opportunity to articulate a personal mission statement many people look at me like I’ve just asked them to describe life on Mars.
It may be difficult to express and even more challenging to face, but what may be needed is that we embark on a vision quest. To face an oft-buried desire to enter the “grail” of our interior world to find out why we are here and what we are to do.
Have you taken such a journey? Can you lean on the stories of others who have made such a quest and now live with a clarity you desire? Are there people who could challenge you to make the quest, encourage you along the way, and cheer you on when you return?
What if…you chose the quest to find your “Holy Grail?”
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