For fathers or older brothers, I’m going to guess you’ll resonate with what a good friend challenged me with last week. He said, “you just never know who is watching and waiting for you to show them what a better life looks like.”
He wasn’t noting we all have stalkers lurking in the shadows of our neighborhoods. He was talking about the way young kids look up to their dad. They watch every move, not to ridicule, but to emulate. They are trying to figure out who they are in the world and how to act in accordance with that identity. The people who surround them are the first source of that information and they are just waiting to see what dad does so they can copy it, for better or worse (hence why the lack of fathers in our country is a way bigger problem than COVID or politics).
Even with all the negatives of social media, the vacuum of Instagram and Facebook gives us access to innumerable people who can help us figure out how to act. You can follow the lives of people you look up to, see what they do, and note how they think. Whether you had a great dad or not, you can watch people through social media to glimpse what a better life is.
On the flip side, there are likely people looking at you the same way.
Well, there’s a burden. People are watching me to figure out how they should act? Yup. Damn.
A burden in ways sure, but perhaps your most incredible opportunity to spread good in the world too. The LIFE Council is a guide to be the kind of man you would want your son or the millions of people on Instagram, to look up to. Living with love, integrity, fellowship, and excellence is a great way to build yourself into someone to be admired.
Living with love, integrity, fellowship, and excellence is a great way to build yourself into someone to be admired.
When you take it one step further, you realize that people are waiting for you to show them something different than what they currently know to be a good life. They follow celebrities and become a victim of materialism or they link arms with people in business who are more than willing to have zero integrity in the name of making money. Or, they find you and they wait to see what you and LIFE are all about.
Someone, at this moment, even if they don’t know it, is waiting for you to show them a better LIFE. They are waiting for you to lead them by example to a grounded, humble yet incredible story.
So, are you ready when they come looking? Is your LIFE in order? Would you be proud of the man someone became if they credited you for the change?
Here are a couple ways you can get there:
- Live a principled LIFE
- Of course, I’ll promote the principles we live by in the LIFE Council because I believe in them to make us better men. But if they don’t do it for you, that’s ok. What isn’t ok is living moment to moment, emotion by emotion, without a foundation to stand on. Set your principles for how you want to live your life and begin to operationalize them through your decisions and actions. If someone asked you what you stand for, how would you answer? Make sure you have an answer and show it to the world through any outlets you have.
- Check your presence
- Go to your social media posts from the past year and see if you’d be proud to show them to someone trying to make a better life. Would they find meaningful inspiration and education through your presence? Or would they find a hypocrite who says one thing but does another? Delete anything you need to and plan for the kind of things you’ll give the world going forward. For me, anything I put out must fit at least two of the following three categories: educational, inspirational, and engaging.
- Ask a friend
- Find a close friend you can trust and ask them, “If you had a kid and you hoped they got one thing from me, what would it be?” or “If you were going to be like me in one way, what would that way be?” Both questions will show what others see in you that is amicable and you can start to build on that more and more.
- Don’t waste a chance
- Working hard to get your LIFE where you want it to be can be a tricky thing in our world of immediate gratification. A lot of times, the hard work won’t show immediate return. The 10-year rule says that you might not know your influence on others for 10 years. That means you could be influencing people every day without knowing it. Don’t waste today. Don’t waste the chance to make a positive difference.
Never forget that you are not living on an island. People are with you and people are waiting for you to inspire them toward a better LIFE. Will you step up to give them what they need?
Weekend Challenge
You can choose from any of the four ideas here to execute on this weekend. But if I could give a recommendation, I’d challenge you to take on a two-part exercise this weekend:
- Give yourself a single 3×5 notecard to write your principles on. This will force you to narrow in on the most essential aspects of who you want to be.
- Go to your social media posts and think about your interactions with your family from the last month and evaluate them against the principles you wrote down. You are trying to determine if you live the way you want to live.
Share this on any outlet you want to and share with us what your principles are and how you hope to live them out this weekend!
That’s it, now go out and execute. Best today, better tomorrow.