If you and I are honest, right now deep inside, we'd both admit that the person we've robbed the most in living our lives - is us. As the title and subtitle suggest, to truly reclaim your life, you must begin by repaying the debt you owe yourself by finally living the life you were born for ...and there is absolutely no way that we can lead wealthy lives, if we steal from ourselves.
Isn't it time that you repaid the outstanding debt you owed to you? If you've lost 5, 10, or 30 years not truly living the life you always knew you deserved and were born to live, then you have a debt to pay to yourself.
This simple, easy-to-read book, takes you on a journey that is divided into four (4) segments which I like to call "adventures", designed specifically to help you reclaim your life.
These four (4) adventures are:
Reclaim Your Wisdom
Reclaim Your Time
Reclaim Your Passion/Purpose
Reclaim Your Happiness
If you and I are honest, right now deep inside, we'd both admit that the person we've robbed the most in living our lives - is us. As the title and subtitle suggest, to truly reclaim your life, you must begin by repaying the debt you owe yourself by finally living the life you were born for ...and there is absolutely no way that we can lead wealthy lives, if we steal from ourselves.
Isn't it time that you repaid the outstanding debt you owed to you? If you've lost 5, 10, or 30 years not truly living the life you always knew you deserved and were born to live, then you have a debt to pay to yourself.
This simple, easy-to-read book, takes you on a journey that is divided into four (4) segments which I like to call "adventures", designed specifically to help you reclaim your life.
These four (4) adventures are:
Reclaim Your Wisdom
Reclaim Your Time
Reclaim Your Passion/Purpose
Reclaim Your Happiness
Is this really happening?
Oh God no! – Not now.
I was jolted awake by heavy turbulence in the small five-seater aircraft and as I looked into the pilot’s ashen white face, I knew something was wrong.
What started as the wrap up of a wonderful fun filled week-end in the Bahamas with family, was now quickly becoming a nightmare scene out of a horror movie.
I looked to my right over the wing and the right engine sputtered and died …I looked out a window to the left and watched the left engine, fight to remain alive.
…and we were still a few hundred feet over the ocean.
What happens when you have your life all planned out, you finally start to get a glimpse of where you really want to go, then you see what seems like the final minutes of life smiling and waving goodbye?
Well, you quickly figure out what’s really important!
As I looked around at the horror of the faces of my fellow passengers, I also saw that just like me, they were quickly coming to grips with those things that were truly important in life.
It wasn’t about the dreams of that big house on a cliff overlooking the ocean anymore.
It wasn’t about the dreams of that fancy Bentley parked in the drive-way.
It wasn’t about that posh corner office at a big corporation with staff to do your bidding.
Rather, it was something that didn’t even seem tangible or physical; it was about answering those internal invisible haunting questions about my destiny.
Did my life matter?
Did I make a difference in my world?
Was my life really happy, satisfied, and fulfilled?
The day my plane crashed was the event that changed my life forever, because my world seemingly crumbled, and it made me do a huge reset!
Now, here is something else that you may find strange.
The day my plane crash was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me – because in having to reset and put the pieces back together, the lessons I’ve learned have totally revolutionized my life, and I’ve had an amazing opportunity to help others in the process.
WHAT IS LIFE?
Reclaiming your wisdom by moving with clarity on your journey and grasping an understanding what life is, how life is designed to work, and how you can manage life wisely and effectively, is an amazing pathway to happiness and fulfillment.
So let’s answer this age-old question as simple as possible - “What is life?”
To begin this adventure, let’s start with a novel idea called…
FIRST PRINCIPLES THINKING
First principles thinking is the act of stripping a process or idea down to its most basic and fundamental parts which you know are true, and then building up from there.
It is one of the most effective strategies you can employ for breaking down complicated problems and generating original solutions.
The first principles approach has been used by many great thinkers and inventors throughout history to solve complex problems in very simple ways.
Let me give you an example of how it works from a billionaire who uses it very effectively; the entrepreneur Elon Musk.
In 2002, Musk began his quest to send the first rocket to Mars—an idea that would eventually become the aerospace company SpaceX.
The problem was, he ran into a major challenge right out of the gate.
After visiting a number of aerospace manufacturers around the world, Musk discovered the cost of purchasing a rocket was astronomical—up to $65 million. Given the high price, he began to rethink the problem.
Musk said in an interview. “I tend to approach things from a physics framework, and physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. So I said, okay, let’s look at the first principles”.
“What is a rocket made of?”
“Aerospace-grade aluminum alloys, plus some titanium, copper, and carbon fiber”.
“Then I asked, what is the value of those materials on the commodity market? It turned out that the material cost of a rocket was around two (2%) percent of the typical price.”
Instead of buying a finished rocket for tens of millions, Musk decided to create his own company, purchase the raw materials for cheap, and build the rockets himself, and SpaceX was born.
Within a few years, SpaceX had cut the price of launching a rocket by nearly 10x while still making a profit. Musk used first principles thinking to break the situation down to the fundamentals, bypass the high prices of the aerospace industry, and create a more effective solution.[3]
So, this process of first principles, got me thinking about life in its simplest form, and that’s where the life grid concept came from.
Let’s look at my version of what I believe life to really be about.
LIFE IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM
Life, broken down into its acronyms to me, stands for
L - Length of Days
I - Investment of Resources
F - Focus & Attention
E - Engagement & Promise
Let’s look at each piece of this grid and I’ll walk you through a different perspective and how to use that power for more clarity on your journey.
Let’s start with…
L - Length of Days
Life is usually measured in length of days called a "life- time" - so most of us know that our lifetime, is the sum, or number of all of our days on this earth right?
Here’s a simple question then. How many days do you have left on this planet to live?
That’s a big question with a very simple answer right? And the simple answer is …You don’t know!
Just like me and everyone else on the planet right now, you have no idea what time you have left, right?
Now, here is what the ancient writer, poet and King David asked the Creator to help us all to do in Psalms 90:12 regarding this simple but critical truth of life. He said, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom".
Now isn’t that a dynamic concept?
David said, since we don’t know what time we have available, help us to live wisely and live well.
Let me give you an example to help you think through this.
There was this movie that came out in 2011 starring Justin Timberlake which was called “In Time”.
In it, humanity had figured out how to remove the aging gene so that no one got older, but the catch was that everyone had a timer on their wrist which had the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds their life would last.
Once the timer hit zero, you just fell down dead.
This timer was constantly counting backward, and doing various things either subtracted time from your life, or added time.
For example, buying food, paying rent, paying for a bus ride, etc. all cost you time, which was subtracted from your life’s time.
When you worked or contributed to society in some meaningful way, your boss or whoever would add a few minutes to your life as credit, to spend any way you wished.
The key to staying alive long was to make careful and wise decisions on how you spent your time credit and to work or make your contribution so that you always had more time deposited to your life’s account than you used.
Now, if you think about it, time is your most valuable asset. You can replace almost anything, except the time you have.
And the funny thing about time is it can’t be borrowed, begged, stolen, or even controlled ...it can’t even be managed - because you can’t manipulate it in any way - because no matter what you do, time keeps moving forward.
Whether you’re sick, happy, poor, rich, etc. your time-clock never stops counting backward.
But what you can do however in relation to time, is manage yourself (what you do, how you live, etc.) and these are all little choices about life that you have, that can determine whether or not your time on this planet is worthwhile and meaningful, or if it is unfortunately wasted.
Applying our heart to wisdom means that you can’t really afford to waste another day on things that do not help you on your journey.
You can’t afford to waste time and energy on things such as negativity, jealousy, and unforgiveness; whatever does not serve you in meaningful ways, it's important that you eliminate it from your life.
Here is a statement I want you to write down in your own handwriting in your journal or notebook.
Action Item: “I__________(your name) will eliminate __________ (obstacle/think holding you back) from my life this year, because it does not serve me in a meaningful way, but has kept me from ______________ (accomplishing important goal)”.
Here’s my example: “I Conrad Jones will eliminate procrastination from my life this year, because it does not serve me in a meaningful way, but has kept me from finishing my new book.
You know you only have a limited number of days, so whatever doesn't serve you, move away from it.
The second important thing to understand about life is that you will always have limited resources.
This leads us to…
I = Investment Of Resources
Every day, we spend our life resources in some shape or form. I like acronyms, so, I’ll use another one for the available resources you have in your life.
This one is TAGEM (pronounced ‘tag em’) - Time, Abilities, Gifts, Energy, Money
Let’s break this down:
Time - in this instance, refers to the available working hours/minutes you have to concentrate on what you deem personally important to you;
Abilities - refer to those tasks that you have acquired the knowledge and competence to perform, such as cooking, accounting, etc.
Gifts - refer to those things you are naturally good at or have a knack for such as entertaining people, giving sound advice, etc.
Energy - refers to both the physical and mental strength available to you during the day - for example, some people like me, are great at writing and thinking early in the morning before the weight of the day descends; by evening, I don’t want to do either because I’m mentally tired;
Money - refers to the available financial resources you have to invest in yourself and those people/things you care about.
Every day, we are investing these limited life resources into something or someone. However, the real question we all must ask ourselves is “Where am I putting my TAGEM?”; and more importantly, “Am I getting a healthy return on my investment, or am I wasting my limited resources?”
Action Item: Here is how to think through this - and yes, grab your journal.
Time: How much time do you spend per week on what makes you personally happy and fulfilled (in minutes)?
Abilities: List 3 of your abilities, then ask yourself, ‘how do I use my abilities each week (i.e. at work, charitable events, etc.), and am I feeling fulfilled in what I do?
Gifts: List 3 of your gifts, then ask yourself, am I using my God-given gifts to bless, entertain, and empower others, or am I allowing what’s great about me to lie dormant?
Energy: What is your most productive time of day and when are you in peak mode (i.e. 3pm, etc.); what do you focus on accomplishing during this time?
Money: How much of your income (percentage) is used to improve your well-being – spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially?
All this exercise was designed to do is help you evaluate your life, not to make you feel bad; because it is by evaluation of where we currently are, that we can make a plan and take the necessary steps to move to where we’d rather be - and that’s how progress happens.
I want you to always remember that you personally have the power to improve any area of your life if you aren’t satisfied with it, but you must make a decision to do so, and be intentional about it.
Take note of the things you spend your time and energy doing throughout your days; evaluate those things and see if they are moving you closer toward your life goals and closer to God’s destiny for you.
And if what you are investing your life resources into, is not bringing you closer to the fulfilling life you are born to live on this planet, then you simply need to rethink what you are investing in, and seek mentorship and guidance regularly for better uses for your TAGEM.
The third important thing to understand about life is that you simply cannot give your full attention to everyone/everything around you.
This leads us to…
F = Focus - What are you paying attention to, or where is your daily concentration?
One of the greatest truths about life is that whatever you focus on most of the time, becomes the most significant and biggest thing in your life.
Now, this can work out either positively or negatively in your life, depending on what you spend most of your time focused on.
Some people spend more time focusing on fear, defeat, unforgiveness, and failure, so these things become big mountains in their path; others focus on the blessings of God upon their lives, on happiness, and contentment (which doesn't mean that you have everything that you want, but you are still thankful and have a sense of gratitude for what you do have).
One of the most important things about focus is that it is really a choice that is available to everyone.
You can choose what you allow to hold your attention and what you focus on; you can choose whether you allow yourself to be distracted and get off course while headed toward your goals/dreams, etc. - all because focus is a choice
But focus is also a limited resource, so you certainly cannot pay attention to everyone or everything all the time. It is imperative that while on this journey called life, you jealously guard your focus because what you pay attention to most, will grow in your life.
This means you absolutely must prioritize your focus and concentrate only on what is necessary and important at various points during the days, months, and years of your life.
Action Item: List 2 things that are both important and necessary for you to focus on in the next few weeks. As you write this, think about the ‘what’ and ‘why’.
Example: [what] “I will pay more attention to my gratitude and attitude towards my spouse [why] because he or she is very supportive of my dreams and clearly loves me”
The fourth important thing to understand about life is that being significant comes from doing something rewarding.
This leads us to…
E = Engagement - What are you involved in? What causes are you fighting for, and are those things worthy of you spending your life being engaged in them?
Every single day, there are tons of things that compete for our limited time and attention. Regardless of how passionate we are, we can't engage in everything all at the same time, or all the time. We must wisely choose which things to go after, and which things to bypass.
And all of this is based on the priorities we have in our lives. It is great to have good priorities such as a happy home and family; a good career and money, etc. but the most important life priority we must always keep in our view is, “I’m I using my limited time and talent wisely, and I’m I doing something that truly matters and makes a difference in this world?”
Action Item: Here is how to think through this.
List at least 1 thing that you are currently engaged in doing which brings good benefit into the life or lives of others. It could be something as simple as ‘being a great parent to your kids’ or ‘regularly serving in your church or community youth center”.
As you write down your engagement activities, embrace the fact that no matter how seemingly small or insignificant, you are doing something that matters and is making a difference in someone’s life, so you should be proud of who you are!