ONE QUESTION

What are you more committed to - other people’s opinions or your self respect?

ONE THING TO PONDER

Our lifestyle inflation sabotages the very financial freedom we seek. Meaning, does your spending pace with your income? If so, wealth is not in your future.

ONE PERSPECTIVE

The confession that started it all….

A few years ago, I was looking out over the water at my lake place in northern MN. The question that popped into my head was only one word: Success???

I reached many titles I never thought possible, hit financial goals that decades ago I thought were unreasonable and that I didn’t deserve, and people that have admired my journey and growth….and what was it all for?

Am I the only one that has gotten to this place? I felt guilty..I had everything many dreamed of, and yet, here I was….miserable, tired and a bit lost. 

The Uncomfortable Truth About Success

External validation is addictive and feels terrific...yet it's temporary and shallow. 

It felt like I was chasing someone else’s definition of winning.

True significance comes from impact that outlasts us.  

I actually love the idea of being successful and working my ass off...I sincerely enjoy the drive and challenges that come along the way. 

We've been sold a lie that success equals happiness. That if we just climb high enough, achieve enough, accumulate enough... we'll finally feel "enough."

And I can only speak for myself, but real success comes through positively impacting others, which is hard work, takes emotional resilience, trust, and willingness to be judged.

Human beings are built for significance, not just success. Significance typically comes down to the service and support of others, success often is about ourselves. 

Success without significance is just sophisticated emptiness.

If we’re simply striving towards external validation and success, it doesn't always reverse engineer into significance, oftentimes leaves us feeling empty and confused. 

Yet you can reverse engineer true and authentic success through authentic service to others, which leads to significance.  

Here's the brutal reality:
- Our resume and accomplishments are forgotten in an instant.
- Our relationships allow us to be remembered.
- Our impact feeds a legacy. 

When we bring value to other people with proper intent, we get to experience great relationships and impact people. 

I tend to believe that when we truly lead with value, when we lead with lifting others up, when we strive to be the best version of ourselves and encourage others to do the same, all external success shows up. 

In either of these perspectives, one thing holds true - nothing truly shows up without taking on responsibility, working hard with a vision, and delivering value to others. 

The Significance Test

Ask yourself these three questions (and be brutally honest):

1. The Mirror Test: Do you respect the person you're becoming, even when nobody was watching?
2. The Deathbed Test: Will the thing you're chasing today matter when you're taking your last breath?
3. The Legacy Test: If you disappeared tomorrow, would the world miss what you contributed, or just what you accumulated?

Your intentions reveal your destination.

When you stop chasing success and start creating significance, success starts chasing you.

Onward and upward!

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