Use restlessness to create opportunities to serve others. Make restlessness about the people you serve. Many established church pastors feel like planting a church every Monday morning. The anonymous notes in the offering plates can get to you. Many church planters feel like transitioning to an established church every Monday morning. The fact that the offering plates lack much of anything in them can get to you. If you have a pattern of restlessness, then fill your calendar at those times with ways to serve others.
Don’t use others to satisfy your restlessness. When I’m selfish in my restlessness, I tend to drag others through endless twists and turns of ideas. It’s one thing to brainstorm. It’s something else to satisfy restlessness by pulling people into the tornado of ideas blowing around in your head.
Start writing. Rather than using others to satisfy my restlessness, I channel the energy into a keyboard. Most of the time, this restless writing ends up as word flotsam—wrecked and floating ideas devoid of purpose. Even if you don’t like to write, restless writing may be of value to you. Sometimes it’s good to get it out of your system.
Don’t fear restlessness, but don’t embrace it either. Followers can think restless leaders are upset or unhappy. Those who work under you can be anxious. Restlessness is both a curse and a blessing. Here is how I lean towards the latter: I make every decision as if I’m leaving the church tomorrow. I also make every decision as if I’m never leaving the church. Thinking about those two extremes keeps me balanced in my restlessness. I don’t fear it, but I don’t fully embrace it either.
Push forward; don’t retreat. Any time restlessness causes you to retreat, from a decision or from others, then it’s not a positive influence on your leadership. Sometimes restlessness may cause you to pause, but it should never pull you backwards. When restless leaders retreat, they often start looking for a way out of their current situation. And you can’t lead others while you’re looking for a way out for yourself.