#Beingaleader means you don’t freak. You don’t panic. You try to be proactive instead of reactive. You don’t let your emotions get the better of you. Even in a crisis or unexpected situation or moment.
In teaching each of my kids to drive, I have one rule: don’t freak. This means you don’t overreact. You hold things steady when the unexpected happens. You can’t always predict what will happen. Don’t make it worse by your reaction.
I was driving home late one night. It was really dark. I was on the interstate when all of a sudden “bam”. No warning. No way to see what happened. Just “bam” and my face and mouth were covered with shards of glass. I kept my lane and slowly moved off to the shoulder to investigate. My dad and a couple of my boys were also in the car and they were fortunately not hurt. But, what in the world?
Turns out it was a u-shaped piece of iron, similar to a hitch on the back of a truck. Solid iron that punctured my windshield and gotten half way through to the inside. No warning. No ability to see it coming. Just ‘bam’. The purpose of ‘don’t freak’ is to drill it into our heads that we can easily make things worse by how we react. I could have easily left my lane and caused an accident. I could have totally lost control of the vehicle. I had no idea what had happened. But I had previously told myself I would not freak if something unexpected happened. And, fortunately, in that situation, I didn’t.
#Beingaleader means you don’t freak. Don’t let your reaction make a situation worse.
Being A Leader 