Can this Pandemic Ignite a Life-Changing Dream?

As I write this on April 2, 2020, our world is experiencing a pandemic that is truly unprecedented. Rampant health concerns, lives lost, an economic recession, businesses shutting down by the minute, ‘stay at home’ quarantines and city-wide efforts to ‘flatten the curve’ to lessen the burden on our hospital systems so that we can gain control of the coronavirus. The hope is that one day soon we can find a new normal.

Our thoughts first and foremost should be on supporting those dealing directly with this crisis: health-related victims, first responders, medical professionals, essential businesses, and their employees.

In parallel, we’ve all been processing the impact of this pandemic on us personally. What does this mean for our family? Our livelihood? Our well-being? Our career? For many, the time quarantined at home with loved ones has provided a refreshing perspective on what truly matters in life — who we do it for and why we do it. But businesses are scrambling and looking for answers on what the future of our work will be.  

Or perhaps there’s a glimmer of hope.

What if we could have more clarity and intention at a time like now than ever? 

What if this chapter of life could be the catapult to propel our levels of success, significance, and fulfillment? 

What if we could leverage this unexpected gift of time that we’ve been given to max out our impact and legacy?

These are the questions that have kept me up at night since this pandemic took over. 

I launched my first company a few months ago as a keynote speaker and corporate trainer – both at the nucleus of the live-events space. As of today, the live-events business is currently shut down, the 2020 calendar has been wiped clean, and it may take years to get back where it was, if ever. How’s that for timing?

Given all of these realities, why do I wake up today with even more gratitude, bullish on the future, not once playing the victim card, as inspired as I’ve ever been?

These mindsets come from a framework that I developed before these stormy times. A mindset that has never served me more powerfully.

Here’s the framework:

I’ll briefly explain the model and how it can benefit every person reading this by applying it to your life, and perhaps extending it to your loved ones and network.

Purpose and Values

For starters, we must have an understanding of our core identity: purpose and values. 

• Where do you start the purpose and values discovery process? I detail it all here.

Goals

Once you've identified your purpose and values, we move on to goals. The key is not only in identifying goals but aligning and connecting them to your core purpose. Ask yourself:

• What are your top three goals in life?
• Is each goal aligned to your purpose? If the goal is not tied to your core purpose, the result of this process may not be as impactful or meaningful. The recommendation is to go back to the drawing board until your (top) goals are tied to your purpose.

Impact

Once detailed, connect your goals to impact. Ask yourself:

• For each goal, what is the impact it will create?

Legacy

Intended as stand-alone questions. Ask yourself:

• At your retirement party, how do you want to be remembered? Describe in as much detail as possible.
• At the celebration of your life, how do you want to be remembered?  Describe in as much detail as possible.

The answers to these questions will provide clarity on the legacy you want to leave behind. How you will have impacted people. How you will leave this world better than you found it.

Connecting it All to Inspire Action

Now we will reverse engineer to connect all the dots.

Based on the legacy you want to build, connect it to your goals and impact. Ask yourself:

• What is the single goal (of three identified) you are most inspired by?
• What is the impact created by achieving that goal? 
• How will your legacy be stronger by making this goal and impact reality?

If you are inspired by the answers and thoughts to these questions, you now have your action plan. It is tied to your core purpose, true to your values, authentic to your identity, and aligned with your goals to create an impact that is meaningful to you, so you can start to build your legacy TODAY.

My Personal Commitment

I went through this exact process several weeks ago when this pandemic became an obvious disruptor, here is my open journal:

My legacy is to inspire purpose and positively impact the lives of others, just like dad did when he was alive. 

The impact I want to create is to transform the working world as we know it today, where the journey of working 100,000 hours will give us fuel vs. deplete us of our fuel. I imagine a working world where we are inspired to go into each day, contribute in ways that are meaningful to our purpose, create impact to something that is bigger than ourselves, all to be fulfilled on the back end of each day – excited to do it again the next. I WILL impact one million lives by 2030.

The goal I WILL execute on over the coming months is I will write my first book(!!!), to make this vision a reality.

Cheers to all of us accomplishing our dreams, and I hope that when we reflect back on this storm, we’ll have no regrets. We will have maximized this unexpected gift of time to better understand our purpose, live and lead through our values, tackle the most essential goals in life, to spark impact, and build a legacy we’ll eternally be proud of.

Paul Epstein is a thought leader on personal and organizational transformation, purpose-centered leadership, and breakthrough performance - also proud to serve as CEO & Founder of Purpose Labs.

To learn more about Paul's 'Why' and work: www.paulepsteinspeaks.com

To contact Paul directly: [email protected]