(This post is part 3 of 3 posts on waiting for permission. You can read Running A Red Light here, or check out Green Lighting Others here .)

I remember the day was really hot. I was first in a long line of cars waiting for a worker holding a stop sign to flip it and let us through the road construction. It was so cozy warm in my (non-air-conditioned) Jetta, and the wait so long, that I fell asleep! Soon I awoke to a chorus of honking and the guy with the sign yelling, and with a quick shift into drive (and a little embarrassment), I was off.

But nobody is going to honk for you. I mean, they might. But really, if you are waiting for someone to kick you into gear, it might never come. And then what? The light is green – the only person with their foot on the brake is you.

What keeps you back?

• Waiting for a perfect life? Right now my wife goes to work five days a week while working on her teaching degree – with four kids at home plus involvement in ministry. We knew that there was not going to be a perfect time to do this. It would involve a season of sacrifice, hard work, and flexibility. It’s good to be wise about when and how you approach your dreams, passions, and goals – but if you’re waiting for everything to be perfect before you begin you will be sitting at a green light for years.

• Paralyzed by the unknown? It blows me away how many worst-case scenarios we can create in our heads. “What-if _________________” (fill in the blank with whatever is paralyzing you). So think it through. Make a plan. Get advice from people you trust. Do research. And after all of that, there might still be unknowns! That is why so many great things have not been done – they remain in the safe place of the cerebellum.

• Afraid of failure? Are you going to be okay with failure? It’s not fatal. It can be a great teacher. And it’s going to happen at some point. For those that are unwilling to let go of their dreams, they are inevitable.

• Afraid of success? What if you take off? What if you succeed? Can you handle that? Mediocrity is a safe place; actually doing something and succeeding makes you a target of critics. But don’t worry; They will usually shoot at you from the land of mediocrity. Just get out there.

So go for it. Life will never perfectly line up, you won’t know everything there is to know, you might fail, scarier still, you might succeed. But nobody is going to honk for you. The light is green; just go.

(This post is part 2 of 3 posts on waiting for permission. Stay tuned for Nobody’s Going To Honk For You!. You can read Running A Red Light here.)

For those who are at a red light, waiting. Yep, run it. We talked about that.

But this post is for those of you who have access to the traffic light. Leaders. It’s time to green light some people.

One of the first leaders I ever worked with was a green-lighter. Doug Creasey was the first pastor I had the privilege of working alongside on projects and events. I was eighteen. I would come in his office with idea after idea after idea. And trust me, I was no prodigy. This wasn’t Good Will Hunting or anything. I was just excited about potential ways we could do things, and he happened to listen to young people with crazy ideas.

And he often wrapped up these idea sessions with three words to me: “Go for it.”

Doug understood the power of a person in his organization with a solution, with a passion. And he didn’t need to take my idea, rework it, make it his, and take the credit. He just gave me a green light.

Leaders, in a perfect world people would not be held back by fear, distrust, or potential “what ifs”. We would like to think that we all work in organizations full of fearless, innovative people. The truth is: Innovative? Yes. Fearless? No. And so we get the privilege of green-lighting.

Some ways to green-light:

• Describe the current realities and problems that exist in your organization or community. Some people are extremely creative and innovative once they have a problem to work on. Many great entrepreneurs have found success simply by seeing a problem, finding a solution, and acting. Except that Snuggie guy. I have no idea what that was about.

• Create a culture that is comfortable with failure. How do you handle failure? Are you okay with it, personally and organizationally? The lament of many great leaders is that they did not help their teams to fail fast enough. As the saying goes, “If we’re not failing, we’re not trying.”

• Resource passionate people. This can be hard, depending on budgets and personnel. But again, passionate people with ideas are difference makers.

• Create systems for evaluation and feedback. If you are ready to green-light someone, stay in it with them. Find a way to evaluate their idea, product, or event. Create a feedback loop so that you can refine and course correct along the way.

• Get out of the way. This should give us a sense of freedom, but it can give many of us a sense of turmoil, because we’re not in control. But the truth is that lots of great things can happen without you! Of course, you have to be mindful, create systems, work as a team, and think things through. But you have got to hand over the wheel at some point.

Who are you going to green-light today? Go for it!

(This post is part 1 of 3 posts on waiting for permission. Stay tuned for Green-Lighting Others and Nobody’s Going To Honk For You!)

To my friends in law enforcement, I have to apologize in advance for the analogy.

Sometimes you’ve got to run a red light.

I remember driving with my wife through a very small town late at night. We got to a traffic light (correction: the traffic light), and it was red. Forever. It never changed. No one came from the other direction. Ever. It was ghost town and it was Twilight Zone and we just sat there.

We came to the conclusion that the light wasn’t going to change. Not for us at least. If we wanted to get anywhere, we were going to have to go through the red light. We were waiting for permission that wasn’t coming.

So what are you waiting for? You have a dream – you have work to do. You have a solution to the roadblock at work. You have a breakthrough idea for your leadership team. You have a passion.

The light might always be red. You might never have permission. But you are driving somewhere, right? So waiting for permission might be like waiting at a red light in a small town.

You could blame others for not being given permission. But hey… you’ve got the steering wheel in your hands.

Run the red light.