What Do You Stand For?

We are at a great risk of pursuing things that may ultimately be unrewarding if we don’t think carefully about what we want, and why. What are our guiding pillars?

What am I talking about?

In olden times, noble houses of aristocratic families had mottoes. Examples include: "Non nobis solum" (Not for ourselves alone), "Fide et fortitudine" (By faith and fortitude). These sound like operations mantras - how those families were supposed to be.

Countries today even have official mottoes: France: "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" (Liberty, equality, fraternity), India: "Satyameva Jayate" (Truth alone triumphs), and of course - United States: "E Pluribus Unum" (Out of many, one). Again, principles on which the nation should stand on.

What are your values? Single word principles of either the life you have, or the life you want. How can you aspire to achieve the highest form of being you’re capable of, without thinking about what that actually means?

I forget who instilled this idea in me several years ago, but ever since then mine have remained the same. These three values, principles, whatever you want to call them, guide my life. The greater the enhancement of them in my life, the better my life is.

My values: Propositum, Libertas, Familia (I think of them in English, but Latin is fun):

1 Purpose - what I do with my life professionally fills me with a sense of purpose and meaning, connecting me to my craft(s). Whether that’s inspiring through my content, taking people on group trips, or coaching lost souls - inner me knows what fills me.

2 Freedom - freedom over my time, freedom over where I live, freedom financially. Unbound by the shackles society and others often place on people. Taking an afternoon off, choosing to live where I want, not constantly worrying  about money. That is freedom.

3 Family - Not only the family I have now, but to build a beautiful family with the best parts of me, knowing that it will become the most important thing in my life - the source of my deepest satisfaction and love. A devoted, loving, supportive wife, and ideally three little savages.

Nearly every day when I talk to myself, I pray on those things - that I am living a life, moving in a direction, and making decisions, to those ends.

What are you moving toward? What is this all for?

Sincerely,

Jacob

P.S. Exclusive announcement coming to newsletter recipients FIRST in the coming weeks - stay alert.

On life: