A few weeks ago I had dinner with a friend of mine named Brad Lomenick. He’s the Catalyst Conference guru and has been incredibly kind to me. Basically, every few months we get together and I ask him questions about leadership and changing culture and how not to completely fail at whatever it is God has going on with Stuff Christians Like.
Last time we met, he told me that one of the things I need to actively work on is “celebrating my rivals.” He said there are going to be people I’m jealous of and that jealousy is poison. He said a great way to work on that is to ask yourself, “How can I help this person win?”
I thought that was really good advice and I want to live that out today.
So below are four of the people I find myself jealous of. I want to tell you about them because they’re actually great people and hopefully you’ll go check out what they do. And then, I’d love to hear who you’re jealous of and if they’ve got a link or a blog or anything, tell us all about it. Help that person win.
Here is my list of people I sometimes get jealous of: (because I can be shallow, insecure and sinful not because of anything they’ve done.)
1. Carlos Whittaker
Carlos or “Los” is one of the kindest, most open hearted people I’ve ever met in my life. He pours out grace on people like few others I’ve ever known. And he’s been a great friend to me. But if I’m being honest, sometimes I go to his site, ragamuffinsoul.com and instantly get really jealous. He’s just so great at community building and technology and video and a million other things that I suck at. When I see all the cool things he’s doing and places he’s going I get jealous and that’s not what I want and it’s definitely not what God wants. So go check out Carlos. His site is fantastic and so is he.
2. Tony Morgan
I’ve never even met Tony Morgan, but this is another guru that I get jealous of. His site is great, he’s brilliant at figuring out all the ins and outs on how to run a successful blog and he’s a leadership expert. From all accounts he’s a really nice guy to boot. (Anne Jackson, who I am also jealous of, speaks highly of him and I tend to trust her assessments of folks.) Check out his site, tonymorganlive.com and his book, “Killing Cockroaches” if you get a chance. He’s also a consultant with a ton of strategic church experience and is available for awesomeness should you require any.
3. Ben Arment
I’m starting to see a theme develop here, I’m apparently jealous of warm hearted geniuses. Ben Arment is the mastermind behind the upcoming Story Conference in Chicago. (That’s the genius part, the warm hearted part is that he put together the original “Off the Blogs” event that I got to speak at and reached out to me in such an awesome way.) He’s hard to capture in words but he’s kind of like the Christian Seth Godin. He’s living a big, crazy God-centered adventure right now and sometimes when I get jealous of other people’s adventures I take my eyes off my own and in doing so, take my eyes off of God. Please check Ben out and please go to Story, it’s going to be ridiculous.
4. Donald Miller
If you’re a first time author you have to be jealous of Donald Miller. It’s an official Christian publishing rule. Actually, first you have to be jealous, temporarily suspend your jealousy when there’s a glimmer he might quote on the back cover of your book and then ramp it back up when that doesn’t happen. Regardless, there’s no denying that for a ton of people, Donald Miller started a fresh, honest conversation about faith and his willingness to go first with honesty and humor made it possible for people like me to do so as well. (And a few years ago he encouraged me to write at a time when I really needed some encouragement. As a thank you for that brief phone call I made it seem like he and I were incredibly tight when I would talk with other Christians and I had perhaps saved his life in Nam. I am a lunatic.) Check out his new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and his website http://www.donaldmillerwords.com/.
There’s my four.
How about you?
Ready to celebrate your rivals?
Want to say goodbye to some jealousy with me?
