I love Word Press, I just love it. I’m a big reader of — EVERYTHING.

It’s one way I satisfy my insatiable curiosity, by crawling into the minds of others via their discoveries. And I am not discriminatory, I will read whatever folks post. Even if they are writing, ‘My realizations about bunions (haha). ‘

I could sit on here clicking blog to blog, all day.

Anyway, I stumbled onto this post about leadership just now and read something I wanted to share.

“Ask people to do hard things.”

Sit with that one for a minute.

Now think about your most treasured friendship, greatest love, favorite parent, best teacher, all interactions with others where the exchange really left you with something magnificent. Did you find it to be with people who challenged you to expand yourself in some way?  ‘Asking you…. to do something HARD?’

If you ask my brothers, they will tell you my mother was this. Always stretching and challenging you in some way. And of course she wanted us to love her, but she didn’t care if we “liked” her. She just never wanted any of her children to be settling for their version of status quo when she knew we could do better (even if we didn’t know we could). So she would ask the deep, hard, challenging stuff you might not have been ready for.

All the time.

And ultimately you would find yourself figuring out how to up the ante she was upping on you, and would end up expanding. She wasn’t easy on your spirit, but I believe these kind of people call out the best in you.

And honestly we all want to be our best.

We feel the best about ourselves when we are and end up deeply respecting the people who may have acted as impetuous to that.

Right?

Honestly these days, if my relationships ask nothing of me? I become a little disappointed. Even in jobs if they fail to ask the proverbial hard question: “Where do you want to go in our organization?” Making you stretch beyond your comfort.