Get the LID out!

John Maxwell in one of his many books speaks to an issue he

calls, “The Law of The Lid.” In it he tells a story of fleas living in a jar

with a lid on it. Over time, the owner of the jar could remove the lid, and

the fleas will only jump to the restrictive level of the lid even though it

wasn’t there. The point of the story is for leaders not to limit their

possibilities with small thinking. Luckily, leaders are smart, and they can

choose to lay the jar on its side without the lid and continue moving

laterally to find the opening so that once again they can dream big about

the possibilities before them. Great story, but it left me with a question,

“who or what is the unseen figure or unnoticed culprit that caught the

fleas and bound them in a jar in the first place? I would submit that it is

the menace of disappointment seeking out and binding unsuspecting

leaders. It is a LID  life choice that many struggle with which is “living in

disappointment.”

To live “with” disappointment is a rare occurrence where life offers

us experiences from which we learn and grow and move beyond with

greater wisdom, knowledge, and experience. To live “in” disappointment

is to resign oneself to living within detrimental boundaries predicated on

the expectancy of daily disappointments. Statements like, “That’s just the

way it is” or “you can’t expect any different” or “life is disappointing and

then you die” are born from people choosing to live in disappointment.

They tend to start each day with the same question,  “what

disappointment will I have the opportunity to face today.” Talk about self-

defeat or success limiting behavior! Living in disappointment is really

pessimism on steroids, and nothing is more detrimental to inspirational

and successful leadership. One cannot help but ask, “why choose to live

that way?” 

Now I know that there are many excuses for a LID lifestyle and just

as many reasons involving proactive or protective measures one may

employ to guard against the pain of possible disappointments, but why

live that way? The wise authentic leader will never waste time looking for

or living in disappointment, they choose to leave that up to “LAME”

leaders. To be lame is to “Live A Miserable Existence” allowing expectant

disappointments to rule one’s life and leadership. So, for the love of

leadership, STOP!