What are you willing to make 25 year promises to?
Since our legacies are built day-by-day, you’re creating yours today. You’re building right now whether you realize it or not. Think about your actions yesterday. Are you proud of them? Do they make you want to write them down and share them with others? Or, are you embarrassed by something you said or did that you wouldn’t want others to know? Which is it? Which do you want? What version of yourself do you now want to put forward for all to see?
When we think legacy, we think long-term, 25 years down the road. Only what we’re doing right now affects this thinking and being. What we’re thinking and doing right now creates our future. What we learn today affects how we behave tomorrow. What we’re thinking and doing today can make tomorrow brighter or darker. Today matters — a lot.
SEAL Teams have a saying, “Do today what others won’t so that you can do tomorrow what others can’t.” It’s a great statement of working hard today, making sacrifices today, working-out today, learning today, outworking the other guy today, so that you can do more things others can’t tomorrow. Basically, it means get after it today while you can. Get after those goals today. Get after the work today. Get after the coaching today. Get after the work-out today. Get after the discipline today. What matters most to you today? Concentrate your focus on those things. And know that your time is limited to get after the things you want. Keen focus is key.
What would you think about making 25 year promises to people? Would you make 25 year promise to your company? Would you make a 25 year promise to your boss? Would you make a 25 year promise to your spouse? Would you make a 25 year promise to your coach? Would you make a 25 year promise to yourself? These are all scary ideas. Most people would say no, they wouldn’t. They can’t commit. They don’t know what they’ll be doing in 3 years, let alone 25 years. How can they commit that long? Why would they commit that long?
You would make that 25 year promise when you’re focused, dedicated and driven by what you’re doing professionally. You make that promise when you’re fiercely independent and fueled by helping others attain their goals. You make that promise when you’ve discovered what drives you. You make that 25 year promise when you are 100% in it to win it and dedicated to the people in your industry and its growth. See, this isn’t for most people because most people lack this level of dedication and drive and fire for what they’re doing. They just haven’t found it or backed into it yet. They’re still searching. Still searching. Still searching. Some lost, adrift…
Only it doesn’t have to be that way. You need to get clear about what it is you want, and then get after it. The key is to get clear. So many people lack clarity in their lives. They have no idea what it is they want. They’re completely unsure. If you point blank ask them, “What do you want?” They may stare at you blankly. They haven’t really thought about it lately because they’ve been too busy trying to live life and to work and to raise kids and to somehow enjoy the few hours to themselves they have left in the week. They haven’t taken the time or invested in the work to discover what it is they really want. It’s almost tragic because it doesn’t take that long to find it. It is out there, for each one of us to discover.
You know when you’ve found it when you get after every day with enthusiasm, drive, fire, fierceness, and focus.
