Planting a Flag for Someone Else

I was thinking about my camp recently. I was around 14, and we were playing this game called Swiss Navy. 🛶🛶 You’ve got teams in each canoe and you’ve got a ball - and that ball was a grenade. If someone throws the ball into your canoe, you all need to jump out of the canoe and into the water.

So I’m standing there with 3 other guys - a buddy of mine, Miles, and two younger kids. We’re trying to figure out who is going to steer the canoe. Now I’m pretty good at it. Have been for a long time. There was a long pause while I thought, ‘I want to do this, but I’m not going to step on someone else. I hope I’m picked.’

So one of the younger kids said “I’ll do it.”

‘Aww darn,’ I thought. “Okay,” I said.

“Absolutely not,” Miles barked. “Paul, you’re gonna do it.”

This moment has stuck with me. This is the moment my identity shifted. I wasn’t any better at sterning than I had been the day before, but there was something about my buddy standing up and saying, “Paul is good at this. Paul is better than me and the best option we have right now.”

I learned a few things that day, but the most important thing I learned was subconscious, and not until later in life did I fully realize what this moment meant to me.

I learned what it’s like to plant a flag in the ground, and what it feels like to have someone else plant a flag in the ground for you.

I bring up this story to invite you to think about the people in your life. Where they may actually be really good at something, but may be unwilling to claim it for themselves.

I remember that disappointment I felt when the other kid claimed the spot, and then the complete reversal I had when my friend stood up for me.

There may be someone in your life right now who’s not claiming the skills and the identity that they’ve earned for themselves, and you can make a huge difference in their life by believing in them.

So, where are you in that spot yourself? Where have you done the work, paid in sweat, blood, and tears for an ability - and you’re not fully claiming it?

Are there people in your life you could plant a flag for?

Join us this week as we discuss this and more.

And yes, I know I’m still talking about boats. But at least it’s canoes and not sailboats anymore. 😉

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