On Thursday, October 27 we will be conducting our first live event for the Take Time for Your Life experience. Excited to say the least.
Take a look at the video (which contains the wrong date) below to learn more. Hope you can make it!
A Glimpse Of A 2011 Growth Plan
As we've crossed over into a new year, and decade for that matter, I thought I would share some of what I'm planning for 2011.
The importance of having a growth plan is nothing new to you if you've read my work before. It truly is the fuel behind any vision. If you haven't embarked on this type of journey, I highly recommend you do and we can help. Click here to learn more.
The following is my vision and some bullets from my 2011 growth plan supporting it:
God’s destiny for me is to have and live an Epic Life. This life will address multiple facets of living. My life will be a motion picture that births joy and changes lives. My legacy will be built accordingly.
I see myself as an excellent husband and father. Eileen, Lauren and Grant are my most important priority. Their lives will be wonderfully impacted by my love, time and influence.
As it relates to Influence, God intends for me to lead on a large scale and stage. I will communicate encouragement, development and opportunity to people of diverse backgrounds. The marketplace is the arena in which He intends for me to have impact. I see myself expanding that influence through speaking, writing, teaching and one-to-one mentoring. I also see Epic Living as the organization focused on developing and reproducing people of influence within the public and private sector.
My physical and mental health will be strong due to the conscious choices I will make. I see a long an vibrant life ahead as God allows.
I see my finances reflecting strength, knowledge and wisdom. I will make decisions that are investor-minded versus consumer-minded.
In His church and community, I will minister to individuals and groups by the same methods above. My key focus areas are influence development and personal growth. God will also use me as source of encouragement to all I encounter.
- 30 minutes of silence to listen to God
- Two dates per month with Eileen
- Incorporate Yoga into my exercise plan
- Network on behalf of job seekers in my community
- Execute on a “stop doing list”
- Look into natural resources investments
- Complete second book
My vision and growth plan have more elements than what I've listed, but I wanted to give this to you as source of "example." I hope it will stir you.
Your Life The Symphony
Please view the above video, it provides a necessary context for this post. You may not be a fan of Peter Cetera or Chicago, but hopefully you can appreciate what goes into the making of art and craft.
I love this song and have for many years. The version in the video clip captures an artist who owns the work. Unmistakable, how Mr. Cetera delivers something he birthed in 1976. I imagine he had some say in how the song would be arranged and performed. I imagine he had some say in who would perform the work of art as well. You have a lot of power when a gift is in your hands.
After I found this clip, and listened to it a number of times, I couldn't help but see the similarities in the form of a life living and lived. It gave me urgency around living out my Epic Life. It made me stand back in awe of what the gift of life means…what it implies for all of us. Do you know that your life is unfolding before your very eyes? Do you understand that this is happening whether you choose to participate or not?
I want my life to be as beautiful and brilliant (like the sun) as the sound of a symphony. Every instrument coming together to be somehting that could never be accomplished alone. To be a voice that, if even faint, would be missed inside of something so beautiful.
I want the above for you as well. My mission, my movement is to help you craft an Epic Life.
Discovery During A Time Of Rest
Just returned from a great time away on the East Coast of the United States. It was the longest holiday my family and I have ever taken and it is the main reason I've been silent from blogging.
I've been reading Simon Sinek's book, Start with Why and I took it along with me on my sabbatical. The book is great, but more importantly it has ignited some discoveries that before were question marks in my Epic Living journey.
When I started Epic Living, when I wrote the book, when I truly committed to entrepreneurship as the portal for my mission, I couldn't (still can't) explain my motivations for doing my work other than; "I have to do this" or "God placed this in my heart to come out." Crazy or not, that's pretty much how things unfolded-still do.
In Sinek's book, the essential question is "why?" I have answered that question in head, but more importantly in my heart. Maybe you already know this.
Epic Living is about helping people find and keep breakthroughs in the following facets:
- The Spiritual
- The Mental and Emotional
- The Physical
- The Financial
The activities that are impacted range from career, physical health, personal finances, leadership/personal development, and more. To be sure, this story has not been fully unfolded. In the coming days and months this will happen.
Here are some things to look forward to:
- The Virtual Coaching Cafe– An online place where you can get guidance and social community.
- Online Idea Share – An online place where you can house and organize your ideas, thoughts and dreams.
- Seminar Series – An in-person event series designed to put flesh on helping you.
More to come…
Updates and Such
Thought I would inform you all of my wanderings:
- Been working on a new model (for me anyway) to venture into. Totally unrelated to Epic Living, except it has the "help" element. Been a struggle and has taken longer than I expected. I undertook this new venture to help stop the financial bleeding that Epic Living has been experiencing since the beginning of 2009. Yes, I am not immune to the perfect storms of the American economy.
- Been grieving more deeply about my dad and his absence. This one is ongoing. Can't deny the void, and I don't quite see what will grow from that right now.
- Trying to re-learn some of my family leadership roles.
- Learning the heart of being-leadership versus doing-leadership. A contrarian art if there ever was one.
- Learning every day not to take anything for granted. Seems that God really wants me to understand this. My dealings with living and dying have awakened this sleeping giant. I'm waking up every day looking for the gifts given from above, and then act upon them, even when they break my heart, don't make sense or cause me to be afraid.
- Learning more about the honesty of wine-really.
More to come…
A Gift
One of the things I've noticed lately is how often we don't recognize the gifts given that are right in front of our faces.
Yesterday I'm walking in my garden and looking at our set of roses (the Knock Out variety) and I was struck by the design, color, and the strength of the plant.
I just stopped…
The main point of this post is to remind you that gifts are given daily. You have the choice as to what you will do with them.