{"id":31,"date":"2005-06-09T16:07:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-09T16:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brianmashburn.net\/?p=31"},"modified":"2005-06-09T16:07:00","modified_gmt":"2005-06-09T16:07:00","slug":"the-realists-satisfaction-vs-the-idealists-amazement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=31","title":{"rendered":"The Realist’s Satisfaction vs. the Idealist’s Amazement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Real leadership is about responsibility.” — Tom Heuerman<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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“If a man‘<\/st1:PersonName>s gift is leadership, let him govern diligently.” — Paul<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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“In my role as a leader, I too often enjoy the benefits of what I don’t do.” – Yours Truly<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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As I hide out in my office, I often sit in confusion as to what to do next. It isn’t as if I don’t have ideas, I certainly do. When someone sees me excited, it is because an idea has settled in me, and for that moment, I believe that idea can come true. I love those moments, especially when those moments stretch into hours, days, and sometimes weeks. It is during those times that I feel fully alive, like I matter to Something<\/span> larger than life, and like I’m fighting for something Good that lasts. It is during those time<\/span>, looking back, that I have done anything that has mattered.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Remaining around people, work, and influences that keep me in that “<\/span>spot“<\/span> of ideas, or idealism, is the labor of my life, if I want a life of diligent, responsible leadership. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

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The people<\/em> that inspire me to stay there are best characterized with words like willing, real, honest, open, dreamer, learner, believer, faith-filled, risky, team-focused<\/span>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

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The work<\/em> that inspires me to stay there is best characterized with words like visionary<\/span>, promising, imposing, challenging, <\/span>creative, mobilizing, eternally significant, life on life, risky, costly<\/span>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

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The influences<\/em> that inspire me to stay there are the people, books, play, and work that characterize all of the above words.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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The death of idealism is the death of integrity. The separation between idealism and realism is what charts the hard <\/span>work of a leader. Lifting people’s eyes off of the realistic, which anyone can do, and putting them on the idealistic, which anyone can do with God’s help, is the uncommon leader’s charge. <\/span>Compromise this <\/span>idealism in your heart as a leader and you compromise your work, and your integrity. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Idealism requires faith and inspires it. Realism only requires work.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Idealism summons dreamers to work. Realism summons realists.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Idealism has the risk of really disappointing workers. Realism is completely safe from that.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Idealism has a Source that goes beyond logic and reason. Realism’s source is logic and reason.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Idealism sees something that can’t be done and pursues it. Realism sees something that can be done.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Idealism has the unlimited potential of amazing its workers. Realism has the limited potential of satisfying its workers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Lots of realists reading this might really be offended, thinking that I’m talking about different kinds of people, elevating one kind over the other. I guess I sort of am, but not in the way you might think. I think these two “people” are inside of me (and you), and each one is fighting for the right to drive my life and decisions. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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I’d love some feedback on this, because I’m not sure this is right. But to me, idealism feels like life. Realism feels like death. I know it’s an extreme, provocative statement, but it’s just how I feel (for today). A life of only accomplishing what is possible, safe from risk, doing only what makes logical & reasonable sense, with the ultimate promise of satisfaction in a job well done seems like it should<\/em> be enough for me. But instead, that feels like death to my spirit.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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But a life of being inspired to accomplish something I can’t do without supernatural help, risking my “life” for it in some way, having to believe in something that I can’t see, with the ultimate potential of experiencing amazement in a job that couldn’t be done is<\/em> enough for me. More than enough.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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“Real leadership is about responsibility.” — Tom Heuerman   “If a man‘s gift is leadership, let him govern diligently.” — Paul   “In my role as a leader, I too often enjoy the benefits of what I don’t do.” – Yours Truly   As I hide out in my office, I often sit in confusion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pO6nf-v","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}