A few months ago, I listened to a great sermon by Ben Stuart. He pastors a church in Washington DC, and his message was about anxiety. He said:

“for many of us, our problems aren’t the problem. It’s our anxiety about our problems that’s the problem.” 

Anxiety and I have definitely had a bumpy relationship and not really ever gotten along, so it’s with the utmost humility that I shared with you in episode 24 some lessons I’ve learned to help us stop allowing anxiety to get in the way of our capacity to lead other people and our potential to make a difference.

I believe you have all the potential you already need. We just need to work together to take an inventory of all the different puzzle pieces at play. What that means is putting in the effort and doing the dirty work to be honest with ourselves and see our weaknesses in broad daylight so that we have some things to work on and be aware of. That also means intentionally putting ourselves in environments and seizing opportunities that let our strengths shine and run free and do their thing. It also means developing some good habits and developing the discipline to not let things get in our way of leading others to reach their potential.

We all have a network of friends, family, coworkers, peers, and everything in between that we have been gifted the opportunity to pour into. But what about when things get in the way? What about when things negatively impact our personal or professional lives so much so that it just makes us too overwhelmed to reach out to others?

For many of us (and I definitely include myself in this!), that feeling of paralyzing overwhelm or crippling anxiety is all too familiar.

Here’s the good news: If you want to grow in your leadership, your anxiety doesn’t need to continue playing an active role. It will, however, probably pop up at some point in your leadership development journey if it hasn’t already. 

I was actually reading an article by the American Association for Physician Leadership that said: “Ultimately, anxiety comes with the job of being a leader. The process of managing it can make you stronger, more empathetic and more effective.” 

If we are the ones trying to push past our comfort zones, learning to lead by example, reaching out to serve others and take initiative in things, then it’s normal for our brains to occasionally have a moment of “Woah! Hold your horses here!”

I think it’s also important to note some of what we learned from Dr. Cook a few episodes back. Dr. Cook encouraged us all to view stress as (sometimes) a good thing. If a tree doesn’t experience the stress of wind trying to blow it this way or that while it’s trying to grow tall and strong, it won’t grow tall and strong. It will be weak, flimsy, and die early without the stress of the wind on it. Humans are similar in my view.

Some of my most stressful seasons have taught me invaluable lessons, forced me to confront and address some weaknesses of mine, and ultimately made me more resilient. I’m sure some of your experiences have been similar! 

But anxiety is one step further: Anxiety is that reaction to the stress and a fear of what could happen. Sometimes that fear is perfectly justified, and sometimes it is pretty out there.

We all express our anxiety differently, but it’s when it passes a certain point that it begins to run your life and rob you of your ability to lead, interact, show up like your normal self. In my view, anxiety having more free reign in your life than you’re willing to give it directly impacts your leadership.

Going back to Ben Stuart’s sermon, he shared an exercise that I have personally walked myself through and want to share with you. Every morning, he opens up to a new page in his journal and asks himself, “How am I feeling today?” I really encourage you to give the episode a listen if you’d like to walk through the exercise.

After enough “why” iterations, you’re at the point where this exercise is maybe showing you just how irrational our fears can sometimes be.

I share more exercises and tips in the full episode, but I just want to encourage you that if you struggle with anxiety AND you want to be a leader, you can do both.

The anxiety you’re walking through right now will only help you encourage other people down the road and better understand what they’re going through. If you let it, your difficulties with anxiety can even teach you valuable lessons about yourself that you might not learn otherwise. 

Even on the hardest days sometimes the best, most amazing thing we can do is just put one foot in front of the other, surrender the outcome, and be grateful for this journey we are all on.

I’m so thankful that you’re diving deeper into all aspects of your leadership, because our world needs more leadership and we need yours.