Problem 1

Part 1 of 3

I have a problem.  Okay, it is a good problem, but it is a problem nonetheless.  Here it goes…

I know why I exist.

I know why God placed me here on this earth and what role He has created me to play.  Does that sound kind of arrogant?  Or maybe audacious?  It kind of did when I first started to say it, but it doesn’t any longer.  

If you sat in front of the massive pile of evidence that I did 7 years ago at the end of a LifePlan process, you would share my conviction.

If you saw how my passion, desire, gifting, ability, and a surprising number of life events and experiences all pointed in a similar direction, you would be saying the same.  

If you had walked closely with me over the last 7 years and watched the increasing experiential confirmation of that identity, you would know it was true.

But that’s not the problem.

It is actually my greatest privilege to know that, to operate with that sort of all-encompassing clarity.  It feels like a comforting beacon of light in a dark and often confusing world.

The problem comes with the knowledge that it is my treasure in the field that I’ve sold everything to find, but that I am called to offer freely to anyone else desiring the same clarity.

I exist to help others and the organizations they lead, find the unique role they were created to play in the larger story of God.

It is the intended path to clarity, peace, and prosperity in every form.  And it is the way that our God is best known and glorified.  It is the way it was always intended that He would be known.  And I am supposed to help others and the businesses, organizations, and families they lead, find it.

That happens in a lot of forms:

1. I do that with a growing list of corporate clients and their teams.
2. I do that with individual coaching clients.
3. I do that with pretty much anyone who will take the time to have a real conversation.

The first two items listed are sort of my job, vocationally.  The third is sort of my job also, but in more of a calling kind of way.  And it happens all the time and everywhere…

• With the waitress at dinner
• The chance meeting with a father of a friend
• The lady who owns the import shop in Colorado
• The girl a the AT&T store who hooked me up with a new phone
• The guy sharing the table with me at Starbucks
• My dentist working on replacing a lost filling last Friday
• The friends of my adult children when they sit around our kitchen island as we prepare a meal
• Etc, etc, etc

So how is all of this a problem?  Because I believe that walking that journey toward clarity and transformation will change an individual or organization's future, it feels kinda weighty to carry around.  Sort of a privileged burden.  That is what calling and purpose feels like… a great treasure that you have both the honor and responsibility to offer to the world.

Mine is very disruptive.  

Disruptive for good, but disruptive.  

Disruptive in a way that will make you realize that there isn’t any life worth living other than the one you were uniquely created to play.

• Why do you exist?
• What is the unique role you and your organization could play in changing the world and making Him known?
• Join us for our upcoming LifePlan retreat, contact me to set up a meeting, or just risk getting stuck next to me on a plane, in the grocery store line, at the DMV, etc.

Plan

“The mind of man plans his way, 
But the Lord directs his steps.”

- King Solomon

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Does this still come as a surprise that you were uniquely created and wonderfully made?  

That something was intended when He intended you?  

That the goal of your life is not to become something different, but to figure out who you already have in yourself to be, and become it?

The startling thing that people find when they wade into the idea of calling and purpose (when they do something like a LifePlan retreat), is that what God intends for them…

    …is often the opposite of what they believed.

    …is what they almost always secretly hoped.

    …is what they had largely forgotten.

    …is what they almost quit believing.

If the unique way you bear His image is the way He is best known; if His glory is most manifest in the unique way you share some aspect of His glory that no other creature can, like C.S. Lewis says...

"It should not surprise us that your unique purpose is opposed and hidden."

But it is the “treasure in the field” we should sell everything to purchase and unearth.

We all have that sense that there is something more. 

You know that feeling, right?  The one we anesthetize with all those less wild lovers than the Lover of our Soul.  That bit of unrest that leaves us feeling that there has to be more to this life.  More to us.

"If you do not cut the mooring, God will have to break them by a storm and send you out. Launch all on God, go out on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and you will get your eyes open."

 - Oswald Chambers

I am not telling you anything you don’t already know (in your heart of hearts at least).  God created us for a purpose and He is about the business of us finding the life He intends for us.  He wants us to go out on the great swelling tide of his purpose and tilt our bow toward unchartered waters.  

There really isn’t any life worth living outside of the one we were created to live.

• Do you know why you are here?  What you were created for?
• Are you ready to leave the uncertainty and chaos of the storm and sail into some clearer and smoother waters?
• Do you have a few quick minutes to dip a toe in the water and see what God stirs?  (Spend a little time on our LifePlan site)

Unique

“When you're introduced to a man, you are meeting the collective experience of every day he has lived from the first to the last.”

We are all a by-product of the lives we have lived up to this point.  I left a very dysfunctional home and decided to take a path 180 degrees from everything I had ever known up to the point of my salvation in college.  It wasn’t until I was married that I realized that the muscle memory of my life experiences would inexplicably and without intention, show up in my every day life.

One of the beautiful opportunities of our walk with God is that all of those experiences, even the worst ones, can be redeemed.  As redeemed, they are monetized into a currency that allows us to live more powerfully and have greater impact on others.

““Every past experience is preparation for some future opportunity. God doesn’t just redeem our souls. He also redeems our experiences. And not just the good ones. He redeems the bad ones too, especially the bad ones. How? By cultivating character, developing gifts, and teaching lessons that cannot be learned any other way.””

— Mark Batterson

All of those redeemed experiences are actually the most valuable assets you bring to the table.  It is what is of greatest value in all of your employees also.

I have a younger friend who was contemplating taking a project management job.  He was weighing the decision and rightly noted that there were things he like about the job and things he didn’t.  There were things about the guy who had the job previously and how he did the job, that he didn’t agree with.

I told him about the Position Agreements we work on with our clients and the Results Statements that shape each one of them.  What is most important is that a particular result is required from each position.  Ideally, if it is the right person, you want them bringing unique and inspired ideas to how they accomplish the task at hand from their vast and unique experience.

I told him that I don’t know anything about building multi-million dollar custom homes, but if I had that kind of job, I would accomplish the essential things associated with that task, but add in what was unique and powerful about my particular perspective and experience.  I would probably start with story and ask a lot of questions.

• I would want to create a timeline of every house they lived in.
• Did they have a fort or playhouse?  What was that like?
• What was their first home?  What do they remember fondly about it?
• Did you have any friends whose house you loved?  What did you love about it?
• Where did you live next?
• What was the first house you purchased?  What was it like?  What did you love most about it?  What made you decide to buy it?
• What do you want the culture of the house to be?
• When you dream of the future, who is gathered in the house, what room are you in and what are you doing?  Do you see everyone inside our outside the house?

I would understand that if the home is going to meet their expectations at the highest level.  If it is going to address the deep longing in their life, it will have to source the experience they have had in terms of homes and living and provide the hope of the life and experience with people they dream of finding.

But that’s just me.  Everyone one of us, everyone you employ, has something unique and valuable to offer in terms of how they would accomplish any task.  The necessary step is to agree with the fact that there is more than one way… my way… to do get something done well.  There is likely a much better way.

• Do you bring what is unique about your life and story to the tasks in front of you?
• Have you done any work in terms of finding the redemptive perspective on the experiences from your life?  We do that at Lifeplan. 
• Have you permissioned those you love and lead to bring their unique nature and perspective to the tasks in front of them?

Glorious

"What can be more a man’s own than this new name which even in eternity remains a secret between God and him?  And what shall we take this secrecy to mean? Surely, that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the divine beauty better than any other creature can. Why else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each differently?"     -C.S. Lewis

During a recent vacation to Colorado, I fulfilled a lifelong dream… crossed one of those things off my shrinking bucket list.  On the day that Young Life’s Trailwest Ranch was waiting to receive hundreds of visitors from dozens of families, they invited me to speak to their army of volunteers and staff. 

I spent some time in a coffee shop in Buena Vista trying to capture my thoughts and ideas.  Typically, my heart lands on reminding people, like C.S. does above, that they have something profound and amazing about them that uniquely reflects the Creator in a way that no one else can.

Understanding that has changed the way I view every other person:

• It is the perspective I have fought to keep with the people I have led.
• It is the treasure I mine for in even chance encounter with strangers.
• It is the deepest and truest understanding I have about each of my children.

Living into this idea even changed the way I tuck each of them in to bed.

We talk about the things they shouldn’t have done.

Talk about the unique way they reflect the glory of the divine.

Remind them that what they’ve done isn’t who they are.

There is so much I now understand in raising our second three of six, that I wished I had known with the first batch.  They weren’t tucked in this way.  They were mostly told that they were loved, but that they did bad and needed to do better.  

I wish I could have focused more on the joy Emily found in playing
in the mud than the mess that it made and the nightgown it ruined.

But I’m making up for lost time.

One of the most redemptive parts of getting to speak to Trailwest on this occasion was that five of my children, a son-in-law, and my precious wife were sitting in the crowd.  When I introduced them before the talk I gave, I told everyone what is truest about all of them.  I told everyone how I knew that each of them uniquely carried the glory of their Creator.  I told them how each of them changed my life by how I encounter the divine in them.

As I scratch out these thoughts and ideas in a coffee shop, I am surrounded by a dozen or so folks, I wonder which unique and glorious aspect of the Divine they each possess.  I wonder if they know what it is.

I wonder if someone regularly reminds them.

I wonder if they see it as the truest thing about them when they look in a mirror.

• How do you uniquely bear the image of the Divine?
• Do you know the same about those you love and lead?
• How much would your perception of them change if you knew?
• How much would their lives change if you told them?

Selfish

“Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action….
Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got.”

Steven Pressfield

It is around 5 AM on a Saturday morning.  When I first checked the clock it had a 4 handle.  Experience tells me that trying to find my way back into some state of slumber is futile.  My head is spinning. 

There was a season when my mind didn’t rest as a result of the usual things:

• Will my marriage make it?
• How badly have I screwed up the raising of my kids?
• Will I ever really be able to retire?  Am I really supposed to?
• Should I be doing something else with my life?

Those aren’t the things that tend to waken me anymore.  It is more about thoughts, ideas, concepts, hopes, and my deepest desires.  I check my Starbucks app to makes sure I can land somewhere that will actually receive me at this time of day and head out into the darkness.

There are explanations for all of this:

• I discovered life through thousands of books as a kid.
• I found dozens of vicarious family experiences from the folks on the TV that raised me.  (My first trip to Hawaii was as the 7th Brady kid.)
• My StrengthsFinder tells me that I possess “Ideation” (Fascinated by ideas and more able than most to connect disparate thoughts, ideas, and concepts to make them more easily understandable).
• My DISC says that I am a natural “I: Influential” - (Creative problem solver, great encourager and motivator of others.  Someone who doesn’t mind being the center of attention).
• But our enemy also whispers that I have too much to say and that I just need to shut up and keep my opinions to myself.

Several of my closest friends and I were enjoying some nachos and drinks during our weekly gathering when one of them asked me about what these posts meant to me.  I told them it was something that I couldn’t not do, that it gave me great joy, often felt effortless, sometimes produced really nice feedback, but often felt selfish or indulgent.

It is as if an amateur guitar player, who simply loves to play, set up stools twice a week in a public place and actually had people gather.  And they came and spent their precious time, actually seeming to enjoy themselves.  And they further stated that they felt more clear, focused, or inspired by the experience.

Despite all of that, it is the artist that would be most blessed… even honored and humbled by the process.

This morning my eyes are blurry, but not with lack of sleep.  I am overwhelmed with a sense of humility, honor, and privilege.  Thanks for letting me share my thoughts with you.  It means more to me than you can know and I can’t imagine functioning without it.

• What is the thing that brings you the greatest joy?  The thing that you most feel God’s pleasure when you do it?
• What is the thing that other people note about you that is special or different?
• What can you uniquely offer that might enhance the quality of other’s lives?  (Our LifePlan process is where I powerfully started understanding that.)
• If you enjoy reading this blog, would you mind sharing it with a few folks?  (That would mean a great deal to me.)

Pioneers

“O you youths, Western youths,

So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,

Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,

Pioneers! O pioneers!

Have the elder races halted?

Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the seas?

We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson,

Pioneers! O pioneers!”

Walt Whitman

I was meeting with my son and his business partner for a strategic offsite.  (They run an extraordinary timber frame business called Oakwrites.  Check out this 360 degree picture of some of their work.)  I wanted to initiate our time together by reading Whitman’s “Pioneer O Pioneer” and talking about the pioneer spirit my son was birthed from.

I told him several key things about his pioneer heritage:

• His mom’s family was one of 23 families from he Canary Islands sent by the King of Spain to colonize San Antonio in the late 1600’s.]
• His great great grandparents on my side emigrated from Germany and helped settle Nordheim, TX in the 1800’s.
• His grandparents moved from there to Floresville, TX, purchased land and started a family grocery that existed for more than 50 years.
• His grandfather left a large company and secure position to start his own company.
• His father left a successful 25 year career in investment banking to coach businesses of all sizes.
• He left college and is part of a start-up business that has found their Blue Ocean strategy of reclaiming oak trees that have suffered oak wilt and turning them into beautiful things before they are harvested and burned.

Ironically, he was largely unaware of most of that history, but was pretty floored by what he heard.  For he had someone pray about a pioneer spirit in him while he was in Spain at an international mission’s academy and had largely forgotten it until this moment.

The reality is that none of us arrive at this place without intention or a journey.  When you excavate your own life as well as the prior generations, they carry powerful clues.  In our SummitTrek LifePlan process we help everyone see how God has been intending and speaking through your story, experiences, hopes and dreams.  The evidence is all there waiting to be unearthed and acknowledged.

A more clear, fulfilling, and powerful life awaits on the other side.  If you desire clarity and an understanding of the best way forward for your organization or your family, it must begin with first finding the same for your own life.

• Do you know who you are?
• Do you know why you are here?
• Do you know what God intended when He intended you?
• Are you ready to find out?  (Sign up for our next LifePlan retreat)

Architecture

ar·chi·tec·ture (ˈärkəˌtek(t)SHər/) noun

1. the art or practice of designing and constructing buildings.
2. the complex or carefully designed structure of something.

We’ve all heard the concept of the stage dad or mom.  That parent standing just off-stage, off the court, or even outside the classroom.  Their child’s success is somehow attributed to their success in life.  If the little “me” can somehow make it onto that team, make it into that college, or fit into that crowd, it somehow redeems the fact that I didn’t find the same success.

I think it can translate into repressed hopes, dreams, and desires of the heart as well.  For instance, I’ve always loved architecture.  Our favorite part of living in Chicago was the abundance of great architects and the things they created.  We took tours of their creations and tried to get our many visitors to do the same.

My boys slight interest in building prompted us to grow an almost unhealthy lego collection.  My daughter’s interest in architecture led to a professional drawing board, tools, and even software that would facilitate creating in that space.  No one made it into the architecture field (so far!), but the kids seem to have a strong sense of space, the eldest is involved in timber frame construction primarily with trees that have experienced oak wilt, and the three youngest are still working over the lego collection. 

My personal lone holdover is the exclusive use of a mechanical architecture pencils when I write.  I still carry Moleskine type journals and record almost every thing in .7mm pencil lead.  The heavy weight of the industrial feeling pencils and the need to periodically replace the lead and erasers, makes it feel almost holy to me.

Through our LifePlan process, we spend a lot of time excavating the story of people’s lives.  We monetize the clues found in the good times and fight to find the redemptive perspective from the bad.  Mining those fertile fields, mixing in the essential ingredients of passion, desire, gifting, ability, allows one to start conceiving a different picture of the future.  Often a more inspired future than ever thought possible.

The thing we’ve realized through our corporate coaching as well as our LifePlan work is that writing a more impactful and fulfilling future is a choice.  In both, it is the architecture behind everything that determines the future outcome.

• Is the foundation of the purpose statement clearly set?
• Are the guiding walls of core values solidly in place?
• Is an inspired and motivating future clearly seen by all?
• Does everyone see themselves in the blueprints, understand their roles, and know what part they play?

Writing a different narrative for your business, organization, or family is really that simple… but it is not easy.  Finding a life worth living is about the same.  If you want the next 10 years to look inspiringly different than the last, simply architect a different future and you will find it.  Let us know, we can help.

• How is continuing to do things the way you’ve always done them going to produce the life you always hoped for?
• How is the way you are currently leading your business, organization, or family, going to find the more inspired future you have always hoped for?
• Are you really ready to do something about it?  It really is simple, it is just not easy.

IKIGAI

Ikigai (生き甲斐, pronounced [ikiɡai])

A Japanese concept meaning "a reason for being."  Everyone, according to the Japanese, has an ikigai.  Finding it requires a deep and often lengthy search of self.  Such a search is regarded as being very important, since it is believed that discovery of one's ikigai brings satisfaction and meaning to life. 

Your ikigai is found at the intersection of…

• The things you love
• The things you are good at
• The things others will pay you to do
• What the world needs

It is at the crossroads of…

• Passion
• Profession
• Vocation
• Mission

In the simplest terms, it is your reason for being; the thing that gets you up in the morning.  There might be other nuances to this expression that don’t line up with my Christian ideology, but it seems to point toward the answer to the fundamental question that haunts all of us:

Why do I exist?

Scripture tells how we are uniquely created and wonderfully made.  C.S. Lewis points out that each one of us uniquely offers one particular aspect of the Divine that no one else can.  We are told that we are the crown of His creation and were placed here specifically to rule and subdue all that exists.  Clearly we are here for a particular reason.

“Don’t ask what the world needs, rather, ask what makes your heart come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is men whose hearts have come alive.”

— William H. Macy

If it is the “beautiful collision” of the world’s great need, your passion and desire, and the unique purpose of our creation (the way God’s glory will be most powerfully proclaimed), we shouldn’t be surprised by how opposed it seems:

• It is exhausting, exhilarating, draining, and invigorating, all at the same time.
• It sometimes seems incredibly difficult and yet you can’t imagine doing anything else with your life.
• It paradoxically is both the hardest and easiest thing to do.

We’ve also learned that clarity about your life leads to clarity for your families, organizations, and companies.  And elusive as it might seem, we know hundreds of people who are experiencing the clarity, momentum, and freedom of knowing who they are and why they exist.  

It doesn’t always work out this way, but we would always prefer that a business owner or senior leader go through the LifePlan process and be really clear about the purpose for their lives, before we start working with their teams.  

The organizations you lead and the roles you play there, should support and fulfill the purpose for your life, not the other way around.  More often than not, we see leaders completely unaware of their calling or purpose other than what their vocational role might dictate.

It is our contention that you are not only created for a particular purpose, but that your Creator desperately wants you to know what it is.  The clues are written on your heart, have been evident throughout your life, and are fully embodied in the things that bring you greatest joy, deepest pain, and get you out of bed in the morning.

• Are you ready to live with more momentum, power, and clarity?
• Are you ready to understand more about the role you were created to play?
• Spend some time looking into our LifePlan experience and follow the stirring of your heart about whether or not to attend.