3 Keys To Outlive Your Life
By Tierce Green
Singer-songwriter Billy Joel—Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, multi-Grammy and American Music Award winner—sang these lines to his hit song “My Life” back in 1978:
“I don’t care what you say anymore, this is my life. Go ahead with your own life and leave me alone!”
It tells the story of an old friend—they “used to be real close”—who got tired of the monotonous routine of his life, so he “closed the shop, sold the house” and “bought a ticket to the West Coast.” Then, he did “a stand-up routine in LA.”
You at least have to give a guy credit for having the courage to march to the beat of a different drummer. Bucking the conventional standard can be a smart move but not when it means living out your life centered on yourself and shutting others out. That’s not a dream worth following.
A Flawed Plan
The principle of outliving your life is not gender-specific, but I want to apply it man-to-man for a moment. I don’t know all there is about being a man, but I’ve lived long enough to understand a few things. For instance, a lot of men operate with a flawed plan for success and satisfaction. Go to school and get a good education. Get a good job, Work hard at your job and hope it will turn into a good career. Along the way, find a good wife, have some kids and raise a good family. If everything goes according to plan, you’ll have a good retirement that will allow you to live out your life in reasonable comfort. This has been the conventional plan for manhood. It’s all good, right? Oh, yeah … and then you die.
The payoff at the end feels less than satisfying. Along the way, a lot of guys feel restless and bored, suspecting that the process is flawed; but, they just keep their heads down and hope for the best. Underneath the surface, you can feel it. It’s like a low-grade fever. You’re not sick enough to stay in bed, but you’re not well enough to really enjoy life either.
A common mantra among business gurus says, “Your system is perfectly designed to give you the results you’re getting.” That’s also true about life. If your system is only producing a nice collection of stuff and accomplishments with no eternal significance, your success and satisfaction is only temporary at best. If you want something that is lasting and more meaningful, then you need a new system.
Designed For More
The truth is we are designed for more. An advertising campaign for Audi used the tagline, “Truth in Engineering”. That’s a powerful statement … and it’s just talking about metal and rubber! The truth in the way humanity is engineered—the way we are designed by our Creator—is that we are built to live for something greater than ourselves. We are wired to outlive our life.
Outliving your life might sound too epic and unattainable, but a few minor adjustments can make all the difference. Let’s say you board a ship in San Diego on your way to Honolulu. If the navigation coordinates are just a few degrees off, you could miss Honolulu and wind up in Tokyo. A slight course correction in whatever season of life you are in can change your trajectory and guide you to a more fulfilling destination. Here are three course-correcting adjustments that you can make right now.
3 Keys to Outlive Your Life
1. Discover a Transcendent Cause
What are you living for that is bigger than yourself? Having a transcendent cause means you leave more than a carbon footprint. It’s the opposite of marking time or making a living. It’s unconventional. A transcendent cause is really a paradox, because living for something greater than yourself is one of the greatest things you can do for yourself. There is a deep and fulfilling collateral benefit to yourself. Teaching our children to be “others-centered” and “outward-focused” is one of the biggest things we can do to outlive our life. It has a huge return on our investment, and it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
2. Leverage Your Influence Now
Some people on the front end of their careers, or those who feel stuck in the middle, give in to the idea that they don’t really have an influence yet. While the fall and winter of our life are typically the seasons of our greatest influence, anyone in any season of life needs to realize the potential to impact others where they are right now.
John Maxwell exposes the myths of leading from the middle in his book The 360° Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization. Maxwell says that some people believe leadership comes simply from having a position or title. So they wait, thinking, “When I get to the top, then I’ll learn to lead.” They believe they can’t really make a difference unless they are on the top.
The truth in our engineering is that most things are accomplished because of relationships and reputation, not because of position. According to Jesus, the one who is truly great is the one who serves others. If we want to be first, we must put others first. Look around at the relationships and responsibilities you have been given. Outliving your life by serving and influencing others starts right now.
3. Invest for Eternity
Someone who invests eternally not only wants to make a difference now, but they also see into the future. They understand the Laws of the Harvest. The first law is we reap what we sow. The second is we reap more than we sow. The third is we reap in a different season than we sow.
The best things require attention and take time. When we give our attention to leveraging our influence and investing in others, teaching them how to live for something greater than themselves, over time it will cause a culture shift for the next generation and make an eternal difference.
Jesus Christ challenges us to be part of something He calls the “Kingdom of God” or the “Kingdom of Heaven.” He urges us to understand its value and to forsake everything else to possess it, to acknowledge that it is the only thing worth living for.
Countless things compete for our attention. I was reading a magazine that targets men and tells us what we need to be healthier and happier and came across an ad that leaped off the two-page spread. Written above the hood of a shiny new silver Chevy Camaro was this: “You could live without it. If you call that living.” Can you feel that? I want a test drive right now!
Now, hold your horsepower, and think about this. You could live without a transcendent cause, without really influencing others for eternity. You could keep your head down on the conveyor belt of conventional success, work hard and carve out a pretty good life. You could just live out your life that way … if you call that living.