The quiet life is more practiced and developed than it is purchased or acquired. No easy steps, no copying off someone else’s paper, no borrowing. Only the way of daily, weekly, monthly practice. The lifestyle of a quiet life.
Silence & Solitude
Sabbath
Simplicity
Slowing
Kate Winslet is a leader on screen and in real life. Her acting career is a wonderful case study on the impact a lifestyle committed to the humble pursuit of mastery can have on the lives of leaders who long to last. Next we’ll dive deeper into ways we grow our leadership through learning on the job.
STEP 1: FIND AN EXPERT
STEP 2: LEARN THE TOOLS
STEP 3: PROTECT THE INNER LIFE
“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.” (Matthew 6:34)
A company was in the beginning phase of building a large structure on the coast of the ocean they would call their home office. The high profile company began accepting applications for a design contractor. They needed an excellent architect, and fielded applications from some of the best and brightest architects in the world.
As application materials and portfolios came flooding in, often many pages long showcasing extensive work, they noticed one application had just a single page cover-letter from one of the world’s most renowned architects.
A single page. All it said was…
“I sleep through the storms.”
They reached out to the elite architect assuming the rest of his application went missing in the mail or he forgot to send it.
“No, that’s all I wanted to send.”
The company was taken aback, a combination of intrigued and a little offended.
“I sleep through the storms. When I design a building and oversee its completion, I sleep well when the storms come in. While other architects & designers may sweat it out, pacing all night, wondering if their building will withstand the storms, I know that my buildings are designed to the fullest and I have no worries about their structural integrity. If you hire me, you’ll know that I put everything into thinking through the process, planning, and execution. You’ll rest easy knowing I’ve given my entire attention to it.
I sleep through the storms.”
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How often are you giving attention to multiple things at once? On-purpose living isn’t just a fairy tale ideal. It’s what happens when we begin to structure and orient ourselves around our major and minor purposes.
Major purpose: Lifetime of transformation (becoming who you were made to be)
Minor purpose: What you’re involved in right now (Jobs, responsibilities, season of career changing, transition, adversity, setbacks, delays, disappointment.)
What are you involved in right now? The season of life you’re in is begging you to live intentionally.
How you design your life around living intentionally in your minor purposes will have a significant impact on whether or not you live intentionally around your major purpose.
Design in a way that will increase intentional focus and decrease your chances of drifting.
Give your entire attention to living and leading on purpose.
In an industry typically marked by the pursuit of fame, fortune, ego, and all the trappings of success, it’s likely what has made Kate Winslet so successful, for going on 30 years is actually an authentic commitment to the pursuit of mastery. It’s a lifestyle she’s living and it’s evidence and fruit is visible to us all.
Let’s dive into the masterclass in mastery mindset from the career of Kate Winslet.
When you stop and think about it, does the world really need another, “anything?” The reasonable response to that question is always going to be no. Everything’s been done. Nothing’s new! Yet every year someone manages to push past all that reason and present us with a way better version of the same old thing. Something remarkable!
Everyday there is an assault on our ability to live on purpose and focus on becoming the type of leader we want to be. We’re bombarded with our own sense of drifting. Balancing too many things. Busy schedules. Weighing in on every hot topic. Distractions to do whatever it takes to keep us a little less focused on purpose.