Week 368

Positive post Sunday, March 17, 2024…. Week 368. Keeping with the theme from last week, this week’s PPS is titled, From “Success” to “Significance”. As background, by the grace of God, and the sharing of a photo of my tee ball team on Facebook, I’ve recently been reunited with two longtime friends, Jay McCall and Brian Cameron. All three of us were on the Knights tee ball team and Brian’s dad was our head coach and my dad our assistant coach (see photo below). All three of us were also blessed to go to school together from St. James Elementary School through St. Francis High School.

Upon reconnecting, it became very evident that, among other things like love of family and sports, we have all grown into men of God. We are brothers in Christ who are proud to actively profess our faith and serve our Lord. I am grateful the Lord has brought us back together and excited to see where He takes our relationship as we explore opportunities to serve others in His name.

All three of us have experienced significant challenges in our lives, that fortunately have strengthened and crystallized our relationship with God, when many would have lost their faith. On the career side, although we have all taken different and diverse paths, we have worked hard over the years and through the grace of God, we have all had successful careers.

Here’s where the title of this week’s PPS comes in. A few weeks ago, Brian, Jay and I had a virtual meeting to explore how we can work together to serve others in God’s name. We discussed the work each of us has done in our communities to date and how we could pull our strengths, knowledge, experiences and resources together. It was a very powerful meeting full of ideas, sharing and brotherhood and I’m excited to see where our Lord guides us.

During our meeting, Brian said something that really made me think and reflect on my life to date. He recognized that we have all been “successful” in our careers, but have we been “significant”? I’ve been praying about this for the past few weeks. Although my family and I have a rich history of community service, have I made the conscious and deliberate shift from driving to be successful to focusing my life on being significant in the eyes of our Father who art in heaven? Let’s just say, I have work to do. I’m grateful our Lord reconnected me with my brothers Brian and Jay, and I’m confident that, with God’s guidance and much prayer, the service my brothers I will do in His name will be lifechanging and be the catalyst for my transition from success to significance.

While researching, from success to significance, I found a few books on the subject. The first is actually titled, “From Success to Significance, When the Pursuit of Success Isn’t Enough”, by Lloyd Reeb. Here are a few excerpts from the Foreword and Introduction that might peak your interest in reading the book:

There is no connection between money and happiness.
The transition from success to significance as a central motive force in life’s second half is not at all dependent upon income and net worth.
A transition from “material want” to “meaning want”.
Significance is an existential need not an economic need.
Many of us spend much of our time driving next quarter’s earnings, even while our potential impact on eternity slips past us on all sides.
Of the millions entering midlife, a growing number are charting a Halftime course, choosing to swim upstream in our culture, away from the temporary toward the eternal, simplifying their lives so they can focus on the things that really matter.
This book will ask tough questions and point you to resources that will enable you to redefine success and pursue significance and chart a new course for your second half.

The other book is titled, “Halftime, Moving from Success to Significance”, by Bob Buford. Using the example of the transition that happens during halftime in a sports game, Buford provides a framework for making the second half of your life much better than the first half. As noted by Peter Drucker in the forward to the first edition of the book, “…he (Bob) also determined that the time had come for him to develop a parallel career in which his strengths, his knowledge, his experience – and his money- would serve his deep personal commitment to advance the kingdom of God on earth”. Exactly what Jay, Brian and I aspire to do together!

Although I have only scanned both books, I look forward to reading them in their entirety.

How are you shifting from focusing on success to significance?

Are you ready to transition from “material want” to “meaning want”?