Tag Archives: comfort

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Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Avatar: The Way Of Water

A Reel Leadership Article

My latest book, Reel Leadership, is now available on Amazon. If you love movies and leadership, you will love this book.

It’s hard to believe James Cameron’s Avatar movie was released 13 years ago. There have been plans for multiple sequels ever since. This past weekend saw the first sequel realized.

Avatar: The Way Of Water splashed into theaters around the world. It’s well on its way to making more fans. And I’m one of those.

The movie takes us back to the world of Pandora. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is now living with his family on the alien planet. He’s taken a Na’vi partner, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and spawned many children. Their world is looking great.

That is, until the humans return.

Jake Sully helping his child bowhunt fish

This time, they’ve come with a vendetta. They’re back to take out Sully and those who stand in their way.  Read more...

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Belaying Leadership

Whenever I think of winters in Michigan, I think of the great times I’ve had ice climbing. From the guys to the weather to the climbing, everything falls into place perfectly.

We leave early in the morning and drive for hours. We arrive at our cabin and unpack. Then we decide whether or not to hit a climb the first day.

Leadership is a lot like belaying an ice climber

Image by Freddy Bahena

Most days we choose to get in at least a couple of hours of climbing. One person is climbing, another person is belaying the climber.

What Is Belaying?

Belaying is a term often used in ice climbing or rock climbing. When someone is belaying another climber, they’re the one holding another person’s life in their hands.

The climber has a rope attached to their harness. This is usually done through a figure 8 knot. The person belaying the climber has a belay device attached to their harness and the climbing rope runs through the belay device.  Read more...

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3 Things To Check When You Get The Gut Rumbles

Your gut rumbles. Deep down you feel something is off.

But you brush off the feeling.

The blame is placed on the bad Chinese food you had last night or the spicy chili you had for breakfast. The gut rumblings are more physical than intellectual. Or so you tell yourself.

Listen To Your Gut

God has given us an incredible intuition. Even without knowing all of the facts, we can often tell when there’s danger or something isn’t right.

You know what I’m talking about…

The scared feeling you have walking down a darkened alley

The inability to breath as you jump out of a perfectly good airplane

The small voice in the back of your head telling you you’re about to make a bad decision

Your intuition is trying to tell you something. That’s the gut rumblings I’m talking about.  Read more...

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Comfort Is The Enemy

The American dream was what most of America wanted at one point. The dream to have the white picket fence, the 3 bedroom home with lots of room to spare, the luxury car that had every amenity known to man.

That was the American dream. And it should be considered our enemy.

The American dream became about comfort and living a life that was easy.

That’s not what I want and I hope it’s not what you want. That’s why comfort is the enemy.

Comfort begins to change us. When we live in comfort, our desires begin to change. We begin to think we have it made and we’re on the road to success.

Not only that, we tend to become lazy. Our guard begins to soften and we fall into bad habits.  Read more...

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The Enemy Of Leadership

Great stories require 5 elements. An inciting incident. Conflict. Resolution. Protagonist. And an Antagonist.

The antagonist is usually an enemy. The Joker to Batman. The Taliban to the US army. The resistance to your creativity.

Escalator

Image by Niles Geylen

As you lead, you tell a story.

You face an unseen enemy in your leadership. It raises it’s ugly head and tries to tell you it’s okay.

That things shouldn’t be this hard. You should have it easy.

One of the enemies of leadership is convenience.

Why It’s An Enemy

Convenience becomes an enemy because it creeps in and tells you the lies you want to hear. How your job should be easier. How you’ve arrived and others should serve you. That you don’t need to work as hard.  Read more...