Why Leaders Can’t Afford to Lose Heart (for too long)

Have you ever felt like giving up?

We all hit low points in life, but sometimes we feed instead of starve them. 

That quote above was a recent tweet by Lewis Hamilton. He’s a British Formula 1 driver and the tweet comes from a series of posts he made recently that I read about in an article which sounded so sad.

I don’t know ANYTHING about Formula 1 but it seems Hamilton, who drives for Mercedes, either wins every race or comes in second place every time I hear about him.  

Wikipedia says Hamilton is in 2nd place for most wins in Formula 1 but it’s a dated page so he’s probably #1 by now. 

Anyways, Hamilton is a really big deal in the world of Formula 1 racing so when someone so accomplished shares such depressing thoughts like this it makes me think.

Hamilton also tweeted,

“Why bother when the world is such a mess and people don’t seem to care.”

 

“Extinction of our race is becoming more and more likely as we overuse our resources.”

The tweets were later deleted, but Hamilton was expressing his concerns with environmental issues he deeply cares about. But to me, this is more about someone “losing heart” than about the environment. 

And this isn’t just about Hamilton; it’s about all of us. 

Losing heart happens to all of us at some point (or points) in our lives. No one is immune from life’s random suckyness.

Okay, now I have to get a little spiritual with this post.

For those of you who aren’t Christian, have another faith, or just don’t believe in anything that’s okay. I’m not here to judge or convince you to believe what I believe.

I might be wrong too, but it’s what I believe. 

And I love connecting two seperate things to paint a bigger picture. Sometimes I make those connections with stories from the Bible. 

Hamilton’s tweets remind me of one of Jesus’ parables which I was reading last Sunday when I was teaching my kids something.

In Matthew 18:1 it starts off with–

 “And he (Jesus) told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”   

Then Jesus proceeds to share the story of a widow who was seeking the help of an indifferent and corrupt judge who didn’t care about anything or anyone.

The judge refused to help the widow multiple times but she kept returning and pleading for him to do something to the person who wronged her. Finally, the judge relents just so that he doesn’t have to deal with this crazy persistent widow anymore.

Justice was served.

The main lesson of this short story is that we should never stop praying, asking and pursuing God’s righteousness.

And on another level this is connected to personal leadership too. 

There’s a lot we can pull from this story but I want to focus on the idea of being persistent and not losing heart as leaders.

It was her persistence in pursuing what she felt was right that made the difference.

In the Bible, “losing heart” is really code word for losing faith or hope (in God).

As leaders, we have a responsibility to keep our faith, hope, and even love up regardless of our circumstances or environment.  

But how?

You can’t expect other people to care about the same things as you. And we can’t lose heart when it seems everyone around us has given up because that’s exactly the time that leaders stand up and DECIDE to act.

If other people don’t care about the social causes you’re passionate about that has nothing to do with you. That’s your mission.

You’re the one who should do something about it; not them.

Maybe the world is waiting for YOU to act.

Waiting for others to care is just an excuse we use sometimes to make us feel better for not doing anything. It’s really up to you to keep your faith, stay motivated, and engaged with life.

Don’t leave that awesome responsibility to anyone else but you.

It’s true; there’s so much injustice, poverty, unfairness, and just plain old evil in this world. But that’s not where we should focus because it gets us nowhere.

As I wrote in my book, there’s never been a greater time in history to be a force for good. The world has never had such a shortage of positive leaders who do care.

Leaders are catalysts for taking positive action.

If you’re addicted to watching the news it might seem like the negativity is overwhelming. And that’s how the media want us to feel.

They want us to believe that in order for us to be safe we need their protection (content).

As leaders we have to protect our hearts (faith, hope, and love) more than anything else.

Why?

When the heart stops, everything else follows. And when leaders lose heart, no one is inspired to take action.

How can you lead others when you’ve lost all hope? It’s impossible. 

Even the most evil and destructive leaders in history galvanized their followers with the promise of some victory or positive change despite the destructiveness and evil attached to it.

I’m not saying to stop watching the news, but have you ever questioned how much is actually “news you can use”?

There’s so little about what we see and hear on mainstream media, especially social media, that is important, helpful, or even remotely useful.

Instead, how about consuming a steady diet of inspirational, motivational, or educational content you can use to make your life or someone else’s a little better daily?

As leaders, there’s a lot that goes into not losing heart. Like the widow, we have to remain persistent in pursuing those things that feed our faith, hope, and love.

Protecting our hearts from what we consume in media is a good start. There’s so much more to talk about with this subject…

So for now, what are you doing in your daily life to not lose heart?