What is destiny anyway? What are your thoughts? Are they truly your own thoughts or reactions that may be unintentional? There are linkages worth considering…
Destiny – how do you arrive upon your destiny as you contemplate your legacy? Your destiny is directly linked to a number of forces within your control, and among the most important is your character. You as a human being have a makeup that determines your ultimate destination. The good news is that your character can be something that you develop and ultimately become.
Character – How do you develop your character? This is a fantastic question unto itself, and definitely a topic worth a few posts – particularly if you are a man in age from 30-50 years of age in the Western culture. Among the chief sources of ‘character fuel’ is your rituals and habits – underpinning these is your level/lack of discipline. Are you habitually late to an appointment or maybe you recycle gym commitments every few months? You ever wonder why that is? Is it something you could fix if you had a bit more discipline along with a slightly modified habit to ensure you hit your commitments? How do you build character over time?
Rituals / Habits and Discipline – You can readily determine your level of success, happiness, and peace in life by evaluating your ability to apply the ‘right amount’ of discipline to your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual routines spanning the various domains that you have in your life. There are many that have a disciplined approach to one to three primary roles or domains that they have in their lives – while much of the remaining roles/domains flounder without the same level of discipline and attention. This is typical of average performance, as many do not apply a mindful plan to all elements of their lives. How many guys out there have a fantastic career, but they lost their kids’ hearts even before they turned 10? Are you spending more money than you take in even as you pull in $300,000 per year? What if I told you there are 13 domains that you need to be intentional about in your life? How many are you actually clued into? What fuels your daily habits and level of discipline?
Actions – Do you have a set of actions that will further your dreams, goals, and move you forward in whatever direction you are choosing? You are choosing a direction, right? Are you doing at least one thing a day that you promised yourself you would? What if you could do just one thing a day, and you believed in the promise you made to yourself to knock it out? You would find that you will develop an increased capacity for more discipline and greater follow through on your routines and rituals. Where do your actions actually originate from?
Words – Talk is cheap, words are the preparation for action. Without concrete plans and without the written word – your ability to drive coherence into your actions throughout all areas of your life that you intend to focus on will be weak. Get your words on paper – they serve as the fuel for your actions. Where do these words that fuel everything else come from?
Thoughts – All things man made in this world started as a thought. The creation process flows from a thought that has a heavy dose of emotional energy tied into it. Thoughts are gifts and they manifest themselves to you based upon your level of openness and consciousness. So keep watch of your thoughts – both positive and negative — as these thoughts will become reality for you.
The thoughts you have directly inform the words you are using, which flows into your actions, your habits/discipline, your character development, and ultimately your legacy.
I’ll continue to publish posts that have helped others to establish a greater level of clarity across all elements of your journey towards legacy, and the posts will be practical approaches that will have have meaningful changes for you.