As human beings, we are pretty good at anticipating storms that never come. Forecasted concerns that never make landfall. Those things that we think will happen, but never do.
Storms That Never Come
We are at the beach on Spring Break this week. Day one, the weather was good. Day two, the forecasted conditions didn’t look so good. Storms were scheduled to begin early in the morning.
Anytime my dad and my brother are with me, we fish. We drag our fishing gear out at daybreak and drag it back after sundown. It’s what we do.
I started writing this post towards the end of day two. I was the first one up this morning. While drinking my coffee I checked my Weather App. The forecast changed, it had moved the storm’s arrival back to early afternoon. So…I decided to fish!
With every passing hour of decent weather, we gained unexpected bonus beach time. With every passing hour, the forecasted storms pushed further and further back.
Around 3:00 p.m., I checked the forecast one last time. The storms were inevitable based on the latest prediction, so we packed up and headed inside. Late afternoon…no storms. Early evening…no storms.
How often do we do this in life and leadership? We wait and we wait for storms that never come. Here are the three things that can happen while we wait on the worst.
Wasted Worry
Time is our most precious, yet limited resource that we have. One of life’s greatest tragedies is the amount of time we waste worrying. Imagine if we could track those hours. All the times we worried about something bad happening that NEVER came to fruition. We would probably find a longer list of worries than we care to admit.
My pastor, Mike Linch, often says that, “Worry is saying prayers to ourselves.” Worry is one of the most unproductive emotions we possess. There is no value in wasted worry.
Frozen in Fear
Storms can be scary. They can leave a wake of destruction in their paths. Thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. The wind, thunder, and lightning associated with these storms can generate chaos, confusion, and disruption. Storms create fear of the possibilities of what could be.
Fear paralyzes us. It leaves us Stuck where we are. It’s the enemy that prevents us from moving forward. Storms leave us frozen in fear.
Missed Opportunities
My son Grant has always taken to fishing. It’s in his bloodline. As a little boy, I would remind him that you can’t catch fish without your line in the water. It was a subtle way to remind him to get the bait on the hook and get fishing!
Michael Jordan once said, “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.” When we continue to wait on storms that don’t come, we have the potential to miss out on a lot. Moments and memories can pass us by in the blink of an eye. The inevitable results are missed opportunities.
Conclusion
Granted, these are the negatives about storms that don’t come. On the flipside, I was able to take a long nap, cook dinner for everyone, and write this post. Plus, we weren’t catching a lot of fish anyways!
We may not always dodge the storms of life. They will find us at some point. In fact, as I am wrapping up, the rumbling of thunder has started! The storms have arrived.
Here are two great reminders when the storms of life and leadership do catch up to us. One, Every Storm Runs Out of Rain. That is a great promise to cling to in the midst of storms. We just need to get to the other side.
Two, Be the Buffalo, not the cow. See…buffalos and cows both instinctively detect impending storms. Their response to that instinct is not the same though. Cows run away from the storm, therefore spending more time in it. Buffalos, run into the storm, spending less time in it.
Whether we experience the storm or not, there can be value in both. Experiencing the storm makes us stronger for it when we get to blue skies. As for the storms that never come…worry less, fear less, and miss out on less.