Leadership Matters

CHAPTER 9FIND CLARITY THROUGH ACTION

If we do nothing, then nothing will change. Beset by adversity and uncertainty, we may fear taking action. When what we know to be true no longer is, the paralysis of inaction can be more comfortable than the dread of action and uncertainty. But often the only way to get to the other side of our biggest challenges is to forge right through them, and that starts with action. When we are held back by uncertainly, action can lead us to a place of clarity. The more we do, the clearer things will become.

In less than three months, between the beginning of January and mid March 2020, I had led two bike rides for Hands and was feeling that the true joy of riding in Thailand had been lost somehow. Looking ahead in my diary I saw that we had another four corporate rides to lead. It was beginning to feel a bit like a job rather than the pleasure it had always been. When choice morphs into obligation, it's funny the feelings that can manifest.

Often the only way to get to the other side of our biggest challenges is to forge right through them, and that starts with action.

The year 2020 had started the way 2019 had ended, with flames and smoke and deep concern for our farm and our stock. Claire and I would spend day after 40°-plus day clearing anything combustible from around our farm in the Capertee Valley west of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. The years of drought had wiped out a lot of pasture and what remained was dry grass that crackled ...