Mining Your Foundation for Seeds
Mar 12, 2026
I can barely wait to push forward in sharing more about how impactful serving as bouncer for my friend’s sister was as well as how my working relationship developed with the maintenance supervisor who walked by my machine a few times each day. We’re not quite ready for that yet, though. First, we need to close the loop on some of our earliest bumps in the road. Make no mistake, I will never pretend that I’ve found all the possible seeds of greater benefit from even the adversities I fought through in my late teens or early twenties. And the ones I have found often took me years to uncover through very intentional reflection, but praise God I found them!
As I close this look at that “chapter” of my life, and how I hope it helps you make the best of YOUR bad situations, I’ll stress that actionable reflection on early bad situations cements their lessons, creating a personal chain of leadership preparation. To truly make the best of bad situations, we must start mining our foundational adversities for seeds - and that’s where targeted reflection comes in. If you’re willing to actively engage in the “homework” I assign, I believe from the bottom of my heart that you can turn some of your earliest setbacks into leadership gold for your journey ahead.
Right now, before doing anything else, I want you to write down specific responses to each of these questions:
- What one “mediocre” or rocky period from your past can you revisit?
- What specific “seed” was hidden there?
- How could nurturing it strengthen your resilience?
- How might it improve your leadership, regardless of your title or position?
- What’s one thing you can act on immediately to plant that seed?
Once you have solid answers for each, share them with someone you can be accountable to. This isn’t about airing your dirty laundry, it’s so you have a shot at sustaining any plan you put in place. The only reason I finally conceded after a few years of pushing back against Cindy about providing our now widespread Strategic Leadership Coaching service was based on realizing that was exactly how we could help leaders sustain their new behaviors long enough to form habits - and make a lasting impact. If you have someone close who will hold you accountable, awesome! If you don’t, hit me up…
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