Leading on Empty
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Leading on Empty is a great book I read last year by Pastor Wayne Cordeiro. He writes about refilling your tank and renewing your passion. We did a podcast recording on this topic which you can watch on YouTube. Pastor Wayne shares his experience of burnout with the hope that it will encourage others headed down the same path. He was able to get back in touch with his life, get back in proper balance, and allow God to reenergize his spirit in a way that propelled him forward to greater levels of service.
Wayne Cordeiro reminds us: “We don’t forget that we are Christians. We forget that we are human, and that one oversight alone can debilitate the potential of our future.” We tend to push ourselves too hard for too long, not realizing that little by little our spiritual and physical tank is running dry.
When we lead on empty rather than out of our excess, our physical bodies will begin to suffer before our job performance begins to suffer.
Below are some key takeaways from the book:
1) Your body needs to replenish as well as your soul
Serotonin is a ‘feel-good’ chemical in the body that makes us feel passion and drive. But when we use it up, our bodies begin burning adrenaline, which is used for emergencies. Our bodies were not designed to perpetually burn that fuel.
When serotonin is depleted, we get depressed. We may not be spiritually depressed, but your body may be depressed.
We must take time to renew both body and soul.
2) We are our own worst enemies
Most people in leadership are very driven people. They can focus on a goal and push hard to see it completed.
What you start you must maintain. Not only must we structure our lives with the proper cadence, but we also must not add too many things that need to be maintained.
Often times to succeed as a leader or go after that promotion, we try and take on too much which can lead to fatigue and burnout. Believe me, I still experience this. It is not terrible to try to stretch your capacity as a leader, but you also must ensure that you are looking after your own well-being.
3) Leave time for what only you can do
We usually fill our day with things that feel urgent but are unimportant. They are little things that could be delegated, automated or batched to be done once a day/week to save time and mental energy.
When we don't do this, the result is that we have little energy left for the things that only we can do.
We must learn to “STEWARD YOUR ENERGY: A leader’s greatest asset is not necessarily time. It is energy. A person with energy can accomplish more in four hours than another would in four days.” There is an excellent podcast from Craig Groeschel where he discussed the ways to manage your energy. Feel free to check it out here.
Reflection Questions:
· What are the things only YOU can do?
· How can you structure your day to invest your energy on these things?
4) Fill your tank
Schedule activities that recharge you. “Each of us has an internal emotional reservoir. On the topside, there’s an input, and on the bottom, a drain. Certain activities will drain you more than fill you, and others will fill you more than drain you. Some tasks will contribute to you and others will take from you. Do as many of the things that fill your tank as you can. That is how you recharge.”
You can’t get rid of everything that drains your tank because some things just need to be done. But by ensuring that you stay filled you will find the greatest fulfillment.
What fills your tank? What drains your tank?
Filling the tank for me means watching a sermon, reading a book about leadership, checking in with people with whom I have lost touch with.
5) Schedule your rest
We must learn to “schedule rests in before your calendar fills up. Rest is not an afterthought; it has to be a primary responsibility. It brings a rhythm back to life and a cadence that makes life sustainable.”
Rest for me means watching TV and thinking about nothing. When I am able to have my 2 days off from work, I usually schedule one day of errands and the other day of doing nothing. Doing nothing could mean doing absolutely nothing: watching TV, reading a book, watching YouTube to get recharged for the upcoming week.
6) Schedule time with God
Find time to regularly be with God and renew your soul. You cannot give what you do not have.
To be most effective, we must minister from a full cup!
This is something that is very difficult in our busy lives. Often times this can be viewed as a task. There are many people that have a routine where they do devotion in the morning before starting the day. Do whatever works for you in spending time with God. I am not consistent with this but I make sure to meet with God throughout the day to ensure my focus is on him and that I walk through my day with God.
To conclude, when a person reaches “burn-out” level they rarely, if ever, are able to return to the same level of ministry they had before the burn-out. But there is hope!
Set boundaries for yourself to help guard against burn-out.
Also if you want to check out the book Leading on Empty, you can purchase it on Amazon.
