The Leadership Pilgrimage - Time Killed Has No Resurrection!
The Leadership Pilgrimage: Time Killed Has No Resurrection!
A. W. Tozer, an American Christian pastor, author, magazine editor, and spiritual mentor, said, “When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection!”
It seems as if people are busier than ever! Too often, they are “killing” time running from meeting to meeting or deadline to deadline; they are consumed with putting out fires, reading and writing emails or texts, and more! There just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day!
To use a biblical example, Amos described people as staggering and wandering from sea to sea, unable to find “the word of the LORD.” In terms of individual and leadership development, it seems that leaders are busy doing things but are unable to anchor themselves to core values or work with focus, truth, purpose, and meaning.
Perhaps you have felt like me during challenging times when I felt as though I was “staggering” or “wandering from sea to sea,” searching for real purpose and success without really knowing where I was going or how to get there.
Yet, we feel productive when we are busy. After all, when we are busy, we feel like we are accomplishing something — we feel important! But, are we doing the right things, the things that lead to a purposeful end? Or are we “killing” time? Could we spend our time doing more productive, impactful things?
I’ve heard many workshop participants talk about how many emails they must answer every day, or how many meetings they must attend, or how many “fires” they must put out — as if doing these things were a badge of honor that somehow demonstrates their importance! It seems sort of comical listening to them compete in a type of bartering, but in reverse: “I have 50 emails a day!” “I have 100!” “Well, when I got back from my son’s ball game, I had 300!” “That’s nothing, I had to work during my kid’s concert to answer all my emails!” Ouch! Who wins this contest?!
Inevitably, some of these activities are necessary. However, too often they distract us from doing things that really are important, such as finding solutions to problems facing our teams, organizations, families, groups, communities, and society. Or they divert us from building knowledge, inner strength, and wisdom.
Leadership is a learning journey, even a pilgrimage like the dictionary defines as “a journey in search of significance driven by core values.” Effective leadership pilgrims learn to focus on developing a meaningful legacy and filter their daily activities in ways that help them focus on achieving that end goal. They understand that wasted, lost, or killed time can never be resurrected!