I started blogging again recently in conjunction with the Lenten season. Rather than refrain from something, I decided to re-purpose some of my time for writing. For the most part, I’ve consistently published something every day, usually in the morning. I have covered leadership, faith, service, and coping with challenges. My mom told me that I sound like I’m trying to convince myself of something. A CEO coach asked me if I was working through whether I have what it takes to be an effective leader. Another friend just wanted to know the point.
When I started keevakase.com there wasn’t much of a plan. The idea was to use the blog as a place where I could express ideas on a variety of topics, with a focus on the aforementioned topics. That was three or more years ago. I gave it a try, publishing infrequently but enough. Once I earned the role of President & CEO of Buckhead Christian Ministry, however, my entire focus went toward that. My voice was and continues to be all about the vision of the ministry, namely, a community free of hunger and homelessness. For those who have known me for years, this role seems tailored made for me. But, the writing dried up for the love of the work.
Indeed, I love it. As I have grown into it, however, I am realizing that my ability to effectively fill this role, requires that I think through matters that involve my day-to-day experience. How should I respond to rude community members? What’s the best way to approach executive decision making? Or, just responding to current affairs. A big part of being an executive is being able to quickly and deeply process a lot of information, distill what is important without ignoring blind spots, and making live-by-it and die-by-it decisions that affect everything associated with your business. So, writing vignettes about my daily is training my mind to work like it needs to in order to succeed. If I can’t come up with one good idea based on all the information and experience I’ve had in the course of a day and articulate it in a few short paragraphs, I need to rethink the significance of how I’m spending my time.
The point of the Lenten season exercise of writing was to do just that – to re-purpose some of my time for writing. More broadly, however, it’s to re-prioritize how I go about investing the precious time God gifts me every day.
That’s the point. That’s what I’m trying to convince myself of – that my time is worth spending well. That I can achieve the work at hand is tested every time I sit down at the keyboard and create something of value.
It's All Fired Up 