“My purpose is to live a fulfilled life, achieve my goals, and make a lasting impact on others, while at the same time guiding others to their own fulfillment by supporting them and encouraging them to step out of their comfort zone to achieve their goals.”
Last March I began working with a coach to start practicing meditation. My good friend Mike Philbrick introduced me to the idea back at Inside ETFs in January 2020 (that seems so long ago but it’s just been a year 🤯) and if Mike says it’s worth doing, I listen.
At some point, I plan to share my journey with meditation, but today is not that day.
The quote at the beginning of this post was one of my first assignments—to come up with a personal mission statement, my North Star. I remember Mike sharing his statement with me and he had three versions: one that was a couple of sentences, one that was just a few words, and one that was one word.
I was impressed that Mike was able to condense his mission statement to one word—being concise is not a strength of mine, so I always admire those who are able to say a lot in few words—just look at that run on attempt for my mission statement.
Condensing my mission statement was never a part of the assignment, although looking back I’m sure Jean knew it would naturally occur. One of the many lessons I learned while working with Jean is often the answers/goals/desired outcomes will reveal themselves over time—there is no need to force it. You just need to follow the signs and allow the universe to do the work.
This is exactly what happened with my mission statement.
A Slow Reveal
It was this week—almost one year to the date that Mike Philbrick introduced me to the idea of practicing mediation to become more mindful, self-aware, and productive that my one-word mission statement revealed itself.
IMPACT.
Impact actually shows up in my original mission statement, although when I initially thought of it, “impact” was just a supporting word. I didn’t put much weight behind it, yet it became THE word left standing.
Funny how that works.
As I move forward in my personal and professional life, the decisions I make will always have to answer one question: “What is my impact?”
If the decision in front of me does not help me make a positive impact on my family, friends, clients, other financial advisors, or the world it will be a hard pass. If it doesn’t leave an impact I would be proud of—hard pass.
We’re coming up on a year since Kobe Bryant passed away—his death really shook me. There are many reasons his death left such a large impact on me but one that really sticks with me is all of the great things people had to say about him. Kobe Bryant was impacting the lives of people on many different levels—the world basically stopped when Kobe died. I don’t know about you, but his death made me think about what people would say about me when I die.
Over the last year, I’ve decided I want to be known for making a positive impact on the lives of people I come across—the size of the impact does not matter:
Most importantly, I want to leave an impact on Roman, Leo, and Silas that helps them become caring, thoughtful, and loving human beings.
I want to leave an impact on Ang that she knows I will always love her and support any and everything she pursues.
I want to leave an impact on my clients that extends beyond their financial plans.
I want to leave an impact on the advisor community beyond creating content, being a friend to every advisor, and not making our profession look bad.
I want to leave an impact on the cashier who’s had a crummy day when I come to her lane to check out.
I want to leave an impact on the waiter who had someone leave a crappy tip, despite his great service.
I want to leave an impact on the man asking for change downtown.
I want to leave an impact on you, the reader.
Impact.
That’s my mission.
What’s your mission?
Take some time over the next week and write out your own mission statement. Don’t worry how long it is and begin to live it. Align your actions, your time, your dollars, and the people you spend your time with to your mission statement. Write it down on a 3×5 card so it’s constantly staring at you. We’ve even introduced mission statements in our financial planning at RLS Wealth to help clients make sure their financial decisions are in line with their values, goals, and ultimately their purpose—as defined by their mission statement. I believe this will take their financial planning to the next level—helping me make an impact beyond their financial plan.
As you begin to live your mission, watch as the words of your statement begin to fall off, and ultimately, you will have your one-word mission statement.
Hold onto that word, protect it, and most importantly live it.
All About Your Benjamins Going Forward
You may notice a slight change in tone in the blog.
I’ll still be writing about the typical financial planning, investment, and personal finance topics I always have, but I will also be spending more time exploring and sharing the connection between self-awareness, mindfulness, happiness, and purpose with money.
Beginning next week, I’ll also be introducing a weekly “show” on the All About Your Benjamins Podcast called, “The Pursuit” which will be a combination of me discussing the connection of the above-mentioned topics and guests joining me to take those thoughts to the next level. These Friday episodes will be short (20-30 minutes) and will hopefully be impactful each week. There will be a short intro episode on Wednesday and on Friday I’ll be joined by my friend and mentor Josh Brown—you’ll enjoy this conversation about life.
A little inspiration from Nas…
Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining to your individual situation you should consult your financial advisor. For all of the disclaimers, please see my disclaimers page.
