It’s hard to miss reading or hearing about Margot Robbie right now. She is probably the “hottest” actress in Hollywood right now…both literally and figuratively.
“Hold on Tom. I thought this was a youth ministry blog? What the heck are you doing fawning over an actress for?”
Relax, relax. I’m getting to it. Whether you saw her in “The Wolf of Wall Street” or at the Golden Globes, she is making headlines all over the place. But, as I read from an article in the L.A. Times the other day, her rise to stardom was not by accident at all. Originally from Australia, her move to America and stardom was very well planned out.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Guess I’ll go to America!’ For two years while I was finishing my contract on ‘Neighbours,’ I was carefully setting things up,” the actress said. “Two years of doing acting courses, dialect coaching so that I could have my American accent perfect. I didn’t spend any money so if I didn’t get a job, I wouldn’t have to move back. Getting a team in place so I could get straight in the room with the best casting agents and not waste any time.”
She worked her tail off and was very well prepared to make the transition to America and getting acting jobs. So how does this apply to Youth and Family Ministry? Simply, we have to always work our tails off. Things don’t just “happen”. We have to work hard to make them happen. And, if they don’t happen, we have only ourselves to blame. Margot could have come over to America and survived on her good looks, but she didn’t. She trained and prepared for her next step so she could be the best. And, if you have ever seen her in movies or TV shows, you will see that her success is not and accident. So right now, TAKE A MINUTE and think through, what do you need to work on? What are some weak links in your professional life as a youth or family minister that you need to improve on? Then, what action steps do you need to do to get where you need to be? For me, one of my weak links is Management of other staff and volunteers. I’m not as strong as I need to be. So one of my goals this year is to read 2 Management books. They are, “The Advantage” and “Principle Centered Leadership”. My goal is to be reading them and applying what I need to so that I can become a better manager of people. Thoughts? Experiences? Post your comments below so we can all learn and benefit. ]]>