Future Guardian,
There are many ways I’ve tried to approach this subject, and many different offshoots and related ideas.
Boldness.
Living life with purpose and meaning.
In the recent Guardian Academy Events1, listening to Dr. Jeff Spencer2 share the truth of his life experience and opening the door to this perspective has brought me, personally, full circle on what matters most.
So,
I have to explore this.
As I wrote it made most sense to me to write a letter to my son. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to teach him these things and guide him. But if all I had was a letter to give him right now, this would be it:
Dear son,
You are growing up in a vastly different world, a vastly accelerated world.
It's a world where you'll have every conceivable option at your fingertips, and those options will fly by you in the blink of an eye.
You'll feel compelled to chase after things for fear of missing them.
You'll feel like you need to move just as fast or faster than the world feels like it is whirling around you in order to just stay afloat.
But,
What does it mean to live?
What does it mean to live a life of meaning and purpose?
How do you be happy and fulfilled and joyful and do all the things that make you feel alive and help you be the best person you can be contributing your greatest gifts to yourself and everyone around you?
There's a seed in you.
It's a call, a drive, a voice, a significance which sprouted the moment you came into being and which will continue to grow throughout your life.
But how it grows,
The flowers that bloom,
The branches that spring off from the center,
The other beings those gifts end up nurturing,
That will all depend on how YOU nurture your own self and the life in which you grow.
What you may find,
If you are listening closely,
If you are present with yourself and you are aware,
Is that every now and then in life there will be A Call to something greater.
It doesn't necessarily happen frequently. And if you aren't aware, if you aren't present with yourself, if you don't know yourself, if you are caught up in the speed and whirlwind of life around you chasing after what you think you need to be doing ... that call is going to disappear like a shout in a tornado.
But The Call is something which is connecting deeper, to the part of you that has always been and will always be. The part of you from which the seed has sprouted.
The part of you that, by the time you read this, and really understand this, may be buried beneath years of layers of societal and cultural expectation, belief, structure, and impression.
I'm writing this because,
I think the greatest gift you can give yourself in life is the ability to hear The Call and to answer The Call when it does come.
So, my son, I hope that my letter illuminates for you what it is that you can watch out for ...that which can keep you from hearing The Call,
And,
What you can do for yourself in order to live a life of meaning and purpose, in order to deeply know and embrace the seed within you that is unique and special and which only you can bring into the world.
I want you to know how to live BOLDLY - to live a life of meaning and purpose where you can easily embrace the gifts which are unique to you.