How to Rebound When You're Fatigued, Frustrated or Unfocused

THE NEW NORMAL

Fatigued. Frustrated. Unfocused.

That’s where the majority of leaders are right now.

The post-pandemic world is here and masks are coming off.

As everyone slowly emerges from our social hibernation, we’re all trying to pick up the pieces of the aftermath.

ADRENAL EXHAUSTION

If you’re like me, the past 14 months have been a crash course on crisis management.

Living on adrenaline and swift pivots take a toll on your psyche and emotional health.

You may be feeling fatigued, frustrated or unfocused.

I should know because I’ve experienced all three!

Take a deep breath. You’re going to be okay.

You Did A Great Job. Really.

If nobody else has said these words to you, allow me the honor:

You did a great job.

There was no one you could call.

We had nothing to measure our progress against as leaders.

This summer is a season to tap the brakes, catch your breath, and learn from this experience.

Now is the time to rethink, retain, and retire so that you and your organization can experience a fearless rebound in the Fall.

THE FEARLESS LEADERSHIP PODCAST #55

In the latest episode of my podcast, I tackle how to rebound.

For what it’s worth, here are some shareable key quotes from Episode 55:

Navy Seals 101:
You don’t RISE to the level of your competition… You SINK to the level of your training.

When you’re SQUEEZED, what’s IN you COMES OUT!

Under pressure, do you devolve into UNITY or SELF-PROTECTION?

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SUBSCRIBE NOW &
NEVER MISS AN EPISODE

Crockpots, Not Microwaves

“Empower us, as Your servants, to speak the word of God freely and courageously.  Stretch out Your Hand of Power through us…”

As they prayed the earth shook beneath them, causing the building they were in to tremble. Each one of them was filled with the Holy Spirit, and they proclaimed the word of God with unrestrained boldness.

All the believers were one in mind and heart. Selfishness was not a part of their community, for they shared everything they had with one another.

- the Early Church’s prayer in Acts 4:29-32

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Online Worship Experience

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BONUS Edition

Below is the BONUS Edition of this week's message, #CrockpotsNotMicrowaves!

Why a Bonus Edition?

Basically a lot of crazy stuff went down in-the-moment thanks to Mother Nature during the 11:15am Outdoor Worship Experience at Saginaw Campus — the first part of the video is me explaining what all happened.

Following my video explanation is the pixelated, sometimes-hard-to-see cameraphone footage of what became my impromptu message that goes in a bunch of new and wild directions!

Photo Essay: One Church in Two Locations

Connect Through Comedy: Think Ensemble

Post-Pandemic Blues?

Now is the perfect time to make a Holy Shift!

Revealing the secrets of popular comedians, I’m providing your team a fresh approach to life and leadership in my weekly podcast:

- Unleash contagious enthusiasm

- Equip leaders to leverage laughter and passion

- Create sustainable momentum in your life and leadership

WATCH NOW

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Spotify: http://bit.ly/HolyShiftPodcast​​

Apple: http://bit.ly/HolyShiftNow​

Billy Graham's Urgent Passion

 "They had no Bibles, no cemeteries, no Bible schools.

No radios or telephones.

No printing presses.

No churches.

Nothing!

However, they turned the world upside down in one generation.

What did they have?

They had an experience with the living Christ.

They had the filling of the Holy Spirit."

"And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness." 

-  the early church in Acts 4.31 (ESV)

Photo Essay: 707 Returns After One Year of COVID

AWKWARD PHONE CALLS & GOD'S LOVE

‘And God has made all things new, and reconciled us to Himself...'

(2 Corinthians 5:18-20)

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I love people.

I believe every person matters.

That's why I do what I do.

And I wish I was a perfect pastor and leader.

But I'm not.

I continually fail.

Expectations sometimes aren't met.

I drop the ball.

Miscommunications happen.

And I always feel horrible when I screw up.

If I had a time machine, there are so many do-overs I'd love to change.

Rewinding my mistakes haunts me sometimes.

Yet the past is the past -- I can't change it.

All I can do is move forward and make changes.

One change I'm trying to grow in is apologizing when I mess up.

I made this change 8 months ago.

It's not fun.

Never easy.

And yet forgiveness releases pain and opens the door to reconciliation.

So last Fall I started doing something new.

Anytime I hear of someone from the past who posts online about maybe feeling a little hurt or experiencing a twinge of pain caused by me... I pick up the phone and call them.

If they won’t answer, I try texting and emailing them.

It's awkward, I won't lie.

Asking for forgiveness is extremely humbling and I feel like I'm fumbling forward through these phone conversations and voice mails.

But here's what I'm learning: grace is messy.

Love requires action.

And not long ago, I got to have an AMAZING conversation with someone from the past... and see how God is restoring things for a new future!

Paul writes that 'God has entrusted to us the ministry of opening the door of reconciliation.'

So that's what I'm trying to do in my own life and leadership.

I may not always be successful and the conversations may feel awkward, but they are always honest and sincere.

Opening doors.

That's what I'm gonna keep trying to do.

And maybe, in the days ahead, we can all experience a little bit more of God's love.

Fail Harder

Who would have guessed 12 months ago that our lives would look so different today?

As we all begin rebuilding our lives and organizations post-pandemic, it might encourage you to allow two simple words to help guide creating your new normal: ​

Fail Harder.

As Facebook exploded, founder Mark Zuckerberg realized he had to release more and more of the work to web programmers and developers. He couldn't do it all by himself.

Sometimes details fell through the cracks.

Mistakes happened.

And that's okay.

Zuckerberg knew that effective leaders cannot micro-manage people. You must give them freedom and margin to hit the wall and learn.

Fail Harder. T​hat's his mantra at Facebook. ​

Move fast and break things.​

The same is true for you: your effectiveness at rebuilding your organization post-pandemic will INCREASE as the load on your plate DECREASES.

For leaders, this means enabling more and more people.

The start-from-scratch labor of love that my wife and I began a few years ago, Life Church, has grown to be one of the fastest-growing churches in Michigan.

As the founding pastor, my temptation is to try doing everything in the church. This would only lead to a bottleneck and stunt our organization’s growth.

What I have been learning as we bust through growth barriers is that as the leader ​I can have either control or growth, but I can’t have both.​

When I let go of control, our church experiences more growth!

I believe that this post-pandemic season will lead us all into a stronger future. ​

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.​

As you release things in your organization that you’ve held onto tightly, you also unleash mistakes.

And that's okay.

Comedians get better and better every time they bomb on stage. There is no better teacher than making a mistake.

Wisdom is simply knowledge plus scars.​

We cannot microwave leaders.

You have to give your team time to make mistakes.

Crock-pots cook s-l-o-w-l-y.

Thomas Edison famously said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Failure is the incubator of leadership.

Failure says that we get to try another direction in solving this problem.

Leadership is formed when we choose to fail harder.

Whatever happened before is now in the past.

Following Christ is like an improv scene: you always get to start fresh.

Dream big. ​

Stand back up and stretch your faith further.​

That’s the beauty of following Christ. Your vision is never too big for God. He forgives, He authors second acts, and He releases you from your past (see Romans 8:1).

Now be careful; ​don’t waste this fresh page.​

Don’t be obligated to ordinary.

No one will ever follow you down the street if you’re carrying a banner that says, ​“Onward toward mediocrity.”

Instead, take risks.

Paint a big picture of what could be and should be.

And then do it.

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Jonathan Herron is a former comedian-turned-author and the founding pastor of Life Church, the fastest-growing church in Michigan and 11th fastest-growing church in America according to LifeWay Research and Outreach Magazine.

His unique ministry approach has been featured online in Time Magazine, USA Today, The Detroit News, MLive and The Washington Times.

Married twenty-two years to his high school sweetheart, Herron has five adopted children plus a wiener dog with a nervous bladder.