Connecting the Dots

I feel life is a series of leaps, from one S Curve of Learning? to the next. Childhood is full of them and they only increase as we enter adulthood. It almost feels like we are living out a connect the dots worksheet, with every leap, another line is drawn as the tapestry of our life reveals itself one dot at a time.

Often, the leaps are calculated efforts toward a defined goal and at other times, they are the natural outcome of not having a plan - of letting life nudge you along. At times, I have experienced both.

However, every so often you come across an extraordinary person who whether intentionally or not, influences the way you think, work and live moving forward.

Tom Rath, whom I interviewed on my Disrupt Yourself Podcast, did this for me. While talking with Tom, he shared that at just 16 when he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, one that shuts off the body’s tumor suppressing gene. The resulting diagnosis was devastating; Tom would most likely suffer from a series of cancer events over the course of his life.

Getting this diagnosis so young forced Tom to focus as he would be fortunate to live to 40. Next, he began the rigorous journey of research, as he put it, trying to stay ahead of his diagnosis.

Tom gives us the gift of remembering we all have a finite time here. Just this one thought, helps to prompt focus.

I needed to hear this and I suspect, many of you do also. Given Tom’s diagnosis, he could have easily found himself withdrawing from life and who would have blamed him?

Instead, Tom chose to live outwardly, he chose legacy, he chose to embrace his constraints. While this may seem counterintuitive, Tom opted to lean in and live. As he put it, “I knew I needed to build a lot of life into those years.”

Although most of us will not face the particular constraint that Tom is facing, odds are, we will face something difficult at some time. Our experiences, for better or worse, good or bad, they shape us. Tom let his constraint shape him into a person focused on others.

Now, Tom spends most of his days considering life’s great question…what am I doing for others? Tom says, “If you start with your passion, you assume you are the center of the world. Instead survey the community, family or organization around you and see how that can align with your passion. Then, serve that need.”

Tom’s interview yielded so many lessons but maybe the most profound was this quote he shared from his book, Life’s great Question:

“Contribution is the sum of what grows when you are gone.”

Tom’s contribution will undoubtedly grow well beyond his time here. I hope to do the same.

Tom has learned to refocus his thinking and constantly researches ways to stay ahead of his condition instead of merely being responsive. What are the little efforts you can do today that will help tomorrow?

Perceiving that he had a compressed timeline made Tom take action. How can we use deadlines to accomplish what we want to do?

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If want to prime yourself for taking the right risks, check out these questions on hiring potential. They’ll give you some insights on what the right risks might look like for you!

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Whitney Johnson is the CEO of human capital consultancy WLJ Advisors, an Inc. 5000 2020 fastest-growing private company in America. One of the 50 leading business thinkers in the world as named by Thinkers50, Whitney and her team are experts at accelerating organizational growth by activating individuals and their teams. She is an award-winning author, world-class keynote speaker, frequent lecturer for Harvard Business School's Corporate Learning and an executive coach and advisor to CEOs. She is a popular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, has 1.8 million followers on LinkedIn, where she was selected as a Top Voice in 2020, and her course on Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship has been viewed more than 1 million times. In 2017, she was selected from more than 16,000 candidates as a “Top 15 Coach” by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith.