Tag: meaning

Succeeding in What Matters

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” – Francis Chan

The above quote came from a friend of mine. It is sobering and provoking.

Here’s what I did with it:

  • I looked back and reflected on my pursuits
  • I made a list of my successes and lined them up in two different categories (what matters and what doesn’t). I have changed a lot
  • I was impacted by the second chances given
  • When I considered the quote, I could make sense of my journey over a good ten years of living
  • Life is a story, I’m leaning into it. Happy or sad, I’m leaning in

You should make discovering what maters your greatest priority. Please know too, many will not encourage you to succeed in what matters. It’s a crazy irony that often we’re encouraged to pursue what ends in the meaningless.

The Longing for More

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I wrote a post a few weeks back and it reflects a significant shift for me. I have a clarity that, quite frankly, has eluded me for some time. Much that hasn’t made sense, does in the current frame. I feel an elation and clarity  that’s pitch perfect.

Take a look at the following lyrics to a familiar song:

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high there’s a land I heard of once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

Someday I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then oh why can’t I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow why oh why can’t I?

Those lyrics used to confound me. I now get what the lyricist was trying to communicate. Obviously, I can’t know for sure, so leave me a little latitude. The lyrics communicate the longing, found in most people I know and have met. Some would say it’s a longing felt by the majority of people around the globe. A longing to know and believe that there is something more to life than what we find in the daily living under the sun.

There was a time many years ago where I was arrogant enough to believe that I could speak to certain areas of life without having the experience. I relied on my head and book knowledge to make my conclusions. I discovered the heart doesn’t really make a true appearance until it is broken. My broken heart, in the area of meaning, loss, empathy, and much more, brought a level of understanding that only those experiences could produce. Now I know about the longing.

I am humbled.

I see modern men and women pursuing much on this planet and inside of them is eternity. Some are drawn and some feel driven mad. Either way, there is something more, there is epic living. I’ve spent more than 7 years living what was appointed for me. My appointments were out in front. for a purpose. Maybe not unlike Lewis and Clark, who prepared a way.

I expect in the coming days, weeks and months to introduce tangible experiences for you and I to engage in a deeper way. We’ll start slow, experiment a little and find some openings to live over the sun.

What Entrepreneur Means

I have written many times that everyone is an entrepreneur (risk taker).  The size and scope varies from person to person.  The place where it happens can be different too.

I was in a conversation with a CEO yesterday about how we've moved to a place where if you don't see yourself as an entrepreneur, you'll be left behind.  This is tough work. Many, I know, haven't accepted that we no longer live in an industrial age.  Accept is the right word to look at here.

I've been an entrepreneur for 6 years.  And as I think about that conversation yesterday, I realize that entrepreneurism did something I didn't expect when I started the conscious journey.

Entrepreneurism reintroduced Eric Pennington to Eric Pennington. Regardless of how much money I make, how many people experience what I offer or whether applause comes in waves, the reintroduction is a difference-maker.

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Entrepreneur vs. Employee

Length and Width

It's pretty clear that you're going to live the length part of life, but the biggest question is whether you will live it's width.

Here's how you can tell the difference:

  • Length-livers focus on what they think they can get their hands on.  This would include things like benefits, salary and job security.
  • Width-livers believe that the unknown is where opportunity can be found.
  • Length-livers desire fame and fortune because they believe their self-worth is attached to it.
  • Width-livers believe they should leave the graveyard poor.
  • Length-livers don't believe in the impossible.
  • Width-livers accept that many will consider them nuts.
  • Length-livers are controlled by fear.
  • Width-livers know that life is beautiful because it is a gift.
  • Length-livers come to the end regretting much.
  • Width-livers see people as infinitely valuable.

If you're a length-liver and want to change, get in touch with me, I want to help you in a practical way.

Related articles
Calling All 21st Centruy Pioneers
The Legacy Cliff: A Guest Post by Dr. Andrew Thorn

The Choices We Make

The choices we make, make us. Ah, we've heard that before.

Seems to me, there is a great gap between what we understand about choices and what they result in. We should be more reflective. Think it through and weigh the options. I'm sure wise men and scholars from long ago would be laughing at me writing that, but alas here we are.

Let's face it, we live in a very arrogant age, while many long for humility. I don't know if there's a way back. Well, I do, but I'm not sure if the vast are willing to make the trip. They're like the gambler who says to himself the next wager is worth losing it all.

Do you need to turn around?

The choices we make do matter.

The Collision of Profit Motive and Meaningful Work

I'm all for profit, wished I had more.  And I'm very into meaningful work. The problem is found in the collision of profit motive and meaningful work.

The problem rears its ugly head when the profit motive starts taking greed steroids.  Meaningful work exits when this happens.  I wish this scenario was rare, but you and I know it's not.  The crazy part is profit and meaningful work can coexist and thrive.

In many ways we live in a tale of two cities.  One city is a place where management (entry to executive) is focused on profit, expenses, quarterly news, and the like.  The other city is a place where the employee is looking and longing for meaningful work.  They're not immature children or idealistic dreamers, just people who understand that life is a limited time offer and they desire to make the most of the time given.  This is the reality and the reason we're in such a mess, relating to how we do and live out our work.

So why are the two at odds?

  1. At some point we put a higher value on things (money, possessions, titles) versus people and the lives they lead.  And what is valued most, is what will get the lion-share of attention.
  2. Greed and power can be just as addicting as any drug.  The person is overtaken and refuses to give it up.
  3. We started telling our children to fit in a box.  See standardized testing as a measure of intelligence, for example.  We've all but poisoned their ability to recognize meaningful work.
  4. Wall Street (for those entities in the publically traded realm).
  5. The absence of courageous leadership inside the halls of management.

I've always been about people-for better or worse, so I'm not writing to offer solutions on how to fix corporate America.  In the spirit of giving you a place to start, a place to begin discovering where meaningful work may be found, I want you to take a look at the following video clip:

 

 

 

Before You Utter a Word

Before you utter a word, think about where it will take you. I'm speaking of further up the road. This is a piece of real estate known as intent.

And even though we find ourselves in a culture that gives you room to be mostly honest, don't buy it. This is important.

Our words always reveal something deeper.  Don't think you can utter any word you like and not have it be a part of who you are.

See the opportunity?

How Meaningful Work Can Create Havoc

Havoc

Some would say that meaningful work stands in direct opposition to the structure of many organizations-specifically large organizations.  I would say it can create havoc.  And that might be a good thing.

I know you might be thinking havoc brings destruction and loss.  Correct. But the main point is found in how humans are wired versus the often insane motivations of the organization or business model.  It seems to me we're seeing the unraveling that is inevitable when the goals of the company run counter to basic human wiring. 

We're talking the desire for meaning and meaningful work. Not dreaming with no action, but the core of who we are.

I've talked to many a pragmatists who've told me to be realistic and not get lost in all of the soft stuff.  Most of the time these folks are just not willing to see what is very difficult to face. In other words, the train wreck we're grappling with in so many parts of the world.  The damage is so evident and many are not quite sure what to do. 

I saw this coming over ten years ago, some of you even further back.  Now we have a hunger to get life right.  In many ways, we want a place where well-being is balanced and intact.  Though we're struggling with the aftermath of years of neglect-individually and corporately.  It's as if we got drunk on profit, competition and the desire to succeed.  And in-turn, we wounded (sometimes mortally) the very group that makes all of the right form of the latter possible.

People.