“Leadership Is”

Leadership is humble service that stops at nothing and does whatever it takes!

Those are the words I shouted out on a summer night for all of the world to hear.

I remember the feeling in my body as my hoarse voice rang out to the crowd…

I’ve grown up knowing that I was a leader for as long as I can remember. I say that not to brag, but to make a point. Because often times when we are used to having, doing, or being something we take it for granted. Unless it’s challenged or taken away we forget to acknowledge and appreciate how beautiful it is and that it’s a gift.

So for me, leadership has always been that thing. I took on “important” tasks early in life. Then I took on “responsibility”. I even went a step further and took on “managing” the things and people around me. Because I am a leader. It’s inherent. Yet, I took it for granted. Like having ten fingers and ten toes.

Then came the questions…

What do leaders look like? How do they dress? How do they walk? What do they say? How do they show up in the space they’re in? Is it something I am because that’s what I was told? Is it expected of me? How old was I when I came to know myself as a leader? How do I know it to be true?

Sometimes I still question it. Sometimes I don’t feel it. Sometimes I don’t feel like doing it. How can this be that I am what I am?

The answers…

The answers actually came first, funnily enough. All this time I was being groomed to become something I already am. How could this be?!

The results…

I’ve been challenged in everything I know. I’ve been challenged in everything I am conditioned to do. I am always in the presence of leadership even outside of my own.

I know the answer when I close my eyes and breathe in. I know the answer when I look in the mirror. I know that I am a leader because nothing else will do.

I’ve been taught that there is no right or wrong. I don’t get to judge who I am. I don’t get to question it. I definitely don’t get to compare it. I don’t get to take it for granted or squander it away. I just get to be me.

When I am in service to others I am being me. When I am practicing the best version of myself I am being me. When I am present to my surroundings and how I show up in a space I am being me. When I am sharing my most precious gifts with the world I am being me.

Of all the lessons I have learned in this first year of transformation, being me is the most important. “Be yourself” sounds like an automatic cliché in a world that is consumed with self righteousness and selfies. But how many of us can honestly say we are being ourselves at all times? I am referring the you that you were before you judged yourself against anything else. The you that you were before life and circumstances got a hold on you. Still need convincing?… Try being yourself on a first date and you’ll see what I mean (single people only please).

I’m so grateful that I got this lesson. I am proud to be me. I am a leader. More specifically, I am a vulnerable, giving, and loving leader! I am a humble servant, full of grace. I am connected to a vision that drives me to a purpose on this earth.

A beautiful, life-long pursuit of happiness. A call to action.

The journey of transformation has been the greatest gift I’ve ever received. Someone turned on a light in a room where I didn’t even know darkness existed. Since then all I can see is that light. It’s been the warmth in my heart and the harvest I prayed to reap.

“Leadership Is” illuminating the path so that others can create their own, and so that I can find my way back home.