Stop drifting without purpose.
Gunshot wounds. Overdoses. Hangings. When they survived, my job began.
As a licensed psychotherapist, I treated a thousand cases of suicidal depression. Many clients were driven over straight from the hospital after medical personnel rescued them from suicide attempts. It was my job to help them avoid a second attempt.
Most of them grappled with addiction, insomnia, or crushing depression. Sometimes all three.
The common factor between these issues? Living without purpose. People trapped in lives devoid of meaning. They didn’t really want to die. They wanted the pain to stop, and they had no reason to endure it any longer.
I worked with people fresh out of the hospital with self-inflicted gunshot wounds still healing. And addicts who just recovered from an overdose already itching for another one. People heading straight into their next suicide attempt.
They needed meaning in their life and they needed it fast, delivered in one hour or less, because many wouldn’t return for a second therapy session. They might be dead by then. And their solution needed to start working right there in my office before they even got off the couch. If they had to go home and start step one, that might be too much effort and come too late.
Immediate buy-in, with one hour or less.
Over the years I developed the system to do this. I make that system free for every person who signs up on my email list because I want people stronger, healthier, and living with purpose. Every person who signs up to my email list gets a free code to take the course. And if you haven’t signed up and used that code yet, you can sign up right here and get that free code. You can take the course free today.
I want every person living a life of meaning, purpose, and intention. That’s what makes the world a better place.
Where does meaning come from?
When you die, and you rot, and your bones crumble to dust, when all your wealth and possessions are divvied up into clutching hands, and when all your life is gone, what will remain?
The answer is relationships. People remain. People endure. The people you’ve impacted in your life through first, second, and third degree ripples.
This is called Legacy. A living legacy of human beings that spreads like wildfire in a network of impacts, better decisions, and deeper connections.
What does living a life focused on legacy look like?
I wake up each day thinking about how much I love my kids and wondering what I can do to enhance their mental, spiritual, and financial inheritance. Then I go out and do those things. And I go to sleep each night with no regrets.
Legacy is all. It’s every moment, every decision, every dollar spent.
Helping families build a legacy is part of my professional job. I’ve taught everyone from millionaire business owners to heroin addicts and homeless parents.
But how do we create legacy? By embracing our guiding principles. Our principles endure beyond our life. These are what people remember about us, what set us apart in their memories, and what they try to emulate after we’re gone.
We used to have fancy words like merit, and value, and honor, and integrity, and all the classic words our grandfathers knew but modern institutions have worked so hard to scrub out of our brains.
But the muscle and the bone and the meat remember these words. You remember. We use these words during funeral services when we talk about the deceased and what they meant to us. When we talk about what we remember from those we’ve lost. When we figure out how to carry on their mission.
We remember these principles because they form our legacy after we die. That legacy transforms those around us. It makes children into heroes. It makes organizations into forces for good. And it makes the world a better place as we fill it with people living to principles instead of fear, selfishness, and greed.
The people who see men and women living to their principles, working for their principles, suffering for their principles, and even dying for their principles are forever changed. They value what they see, a life built on purpose, and seek to embrace those same principles.
In this way, even strangers may become our living legacy. The childless man can create an enduring legacy which shapes the world and lives far beyond even the memory of his name.
We hold to our principles when it costs us something. Money, power, or even the esteem of our own family.
But the opposite is also true. Failing to uphold our principles establishes a different legacy. A fractured one based on misery and despair.
We do this when we say things like, “Yeah that person’s sick and nasty to other people, but they’ve always been nice to me so I refuse to draw a line”. This is just a fancy way of saying, “I’m okay with evil as long as I benefit”. The person saying this is really telling you they’ve sold their honor. They live without principles.
Believe them. Learn from them. Doesn’t their weakness sicken you? Set your sights higher. Use their bad example as a compelling reason to live to your purpose.
Hold to your principles. This is what people will remember about you when your money and possessions are gone.
Those who cry and rage and gnash their teeth at you for holding to your principles are your enemy. They’re a threat to your legacy. Your legacy is all. Do not worry about what these honorless people claim about you. Hold to your principles and your legacy will remain intact.
And remember: This is not about perfection. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. If you’re struggling today, sometimes victory means holding the line. Sometimes that is your progress, to hold the line where you’ve never held it before. You don’t need to earn 6-figures in sales to be a stronger person. You just need to hold a new line.
Hold your line. Hold to your principles.
Do that, and you’ll sleep better than any king.
If you want to learn more about how to establish your legacy and live with purpose, I offer a free copy of my Living With Purpose video course to everyone who signs up on this email list. Sign up, get your free code, and take that video course to start living your life with purpose.
