Change

Recent experience shows that it is better to lead individually than to lead a group.  Even if you lead a group, in the end, you must lead individually.  If you do otherwise, you will be in for a harsh surprise.  The point is that in order to make a difference and move forward, you must do it at the individual level.  If there is even another person present with the person you are trying to lead, then that variable may help or hurt.  But if the other person is an important part of someone's life, you must always include that other person whenever it is practical to do so.  In teaching, it means including a student's friend(s).  In running a business, it means having a balance between work and family life.  No one is a machine, and it is difficult to get anything done if everyone is thought of as a machine.  It is worth adding that if there is no other person in an individual's life to influence that person, that could be good or bad.  It can be good because then you can develop a more concrete friendship with that person.  It can be bad because no one is perfect.  And the fact that there is no one else in the person's life may mean that this person will start looking to you alone for every decision in his/her life for fear of making the wrong decision -- and this mentality will impair the person's ability to think for him/herself.  Think about that very carefully.  The day that everyone is thought of as a number will be the day that the group stutters and fails -- even if only for a brief amount of time.  In every disciple, there must be discipline.  But in order for there to be discipline, we must be willing to allow disciples to discipline their teachers.  Confused? Good.  The only way to proceed in our separate lives is for each and everyone of us to be open to change.  We may not welcome every change all the time, but we must always be open to testing out each facet of it.  Some changes will pleasantly surprise us while other changes will not bode well for us but still we must remain open to it.  Every change is a risk we may have to take.  I may be in a place where elders cannot be challenged but I must be willing to do exactly that.  People here will not like it at all but if I don't do it, who will?  Even if I do it, the change I wish to see will not propagate itself on a large scale, but so what?  Someone has to start.