Why Live All In
We Hold an Amazing Hand
Dear Why Team Member,
I hope this finds you well and encouraged.
This writing is inspired by the speech and the events that took place after the speech I gave last week to an audience of about a thousand wonderful people.
(in the wonderful state of Texas)
It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I’ve been speaking professionally for over 20 years and I am one of the fortunate ones to love people.
The connection with the audience was surely Texas-sized. While I very much appreciate the opportunity to be of encouragement from stage, it was the one-on-one interactions after the speech that are always most impactful for me. I felt alive that evening. Deeply grateful for how the speech came together, I felt…All In.
Why Live All In?
Because our Best Life Ever is born from our openness, our courage, our connection, and attention to others, we are uniquely made to live incredible lives. And we have the power of choice to direct our attention toward that which lifts us or that which weighs us down. The school of life is one in which death is graduation - and until that day, we get to learn and love, grow and give. And from a spirit of serving we can truly live a wonderful life.
I am so grateful to those who approached me to share their lives with me, to express their gratitude for the encouragement given. No amount of income paid me for a speech can match the priceless value of a life encouraged. A daily mantra of mine is FTO: For The One. Imagine a mission to positively impact at least one life a day. No matter the person at the register or the one in an audience of a thousand.
I’m here for The One.☝🏻
I hope your year is off to a wonderful start. And if not, today is an opportunity to Begin Again. I do love the refresh of a new year, but am devoting my life more and more to living a happy new day.
This realization led me back to something Tolstoy once said: the only place we have any power is now. And in this present moment, attending to where we are paying our precious attention, our life currency, is of utmost responsibility.
Living all in isn’t optional. It’s the truth of the game. We are all already all in with this incredible life we’ve been given. Our chips are on the table. We win—or we learn—until one day the game ends.
Recently, someone shared with me their near death experience and how it profoundly shifted their life to live more fully - embracing and loving what is - and not wasting another moment of their precious life on the trivial, the meaningless, and on the things their worry alone will not improve. It is not our responsibility to suffer the pains of the world - we do not get extra credit for emotional suffering - in fact, we often diminish our lives in ways that affect ourselves and our loved ones.
There is no strength to be gained in self-pity.
My great grandfather, Royal Guy Findley, a bugler in WWI, said reject self-pity—it weakens where strength is required. God knows what he saw on the battlefields of Europe—but he came home solid as a rock. Strengthened, not softened.
The moment we accept full responsibility for how we respond to life is the moment we begin to grow all the more in leaps and bounds. Our entire life experience comes down to how we are responding to our life. And it is our responsibility to improve our ability to respond. Asking what strengthens rather than weakens is to discover a better trade with your life currency; your time and attention.
Successful card players waste no time or energy moaning and complaining, but rather take that challenge and learn from it. No win or lose, but rather win or learn.
“I would win every hand if it weren’t for luck” - Doyle Brunson (10 time World Champion of Poker)
Choosing to Live All In is the path to a more incredible life.
“Fortune Favors the Bold”
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great never said, come on men let’s minimize our losses. But rather he said, come on men, let’s maximize our gains.
If you are not consciously and energetically living all in, consider asking yourself ‘why?”
Many live hesitant lives because of remembered pain. It’s unfortunate that whatever happened continues to hurt them today. How might a reframing of the picture, no matter how unattractive it is, help them to see it differently? Unfortunately, the more identity we find in our memories of what came to pass, the less likely we are to reframe. Plus, it is incredibly difficult work—but it’s worth the effort. While the truth can end our life as we “know it”, it can also set us free to live fully—all in. With courage, curiosity, and excitement - rather than timidness, trepidation, and worry.
Let’s face it, we’re living all in anyway - there is no getting out alive - and embracing the truth of now, attending to where we pay attention with our life currency, can have us more thrilled and excited to see the next hand dealt rather than living in fear of it. And no matter the next hand dealt, have faith that you will rise to the occasion, as you have in the past, but this time with more capability from the experiences gained. You will come to know yourself all the more in your time of darkness and should you survive, it very well may be the reason you will live more in gratitude for the light—potentially becoming the very light others need.
Our “why me?” moments in time can answer the larger life question “why me?”The school of life brings us test after test and how we respond to them, and what we learn from them, can become our testimony for others—a gift of encouragement to assist others on their journey.
Looking for more meaning and purpose?
Live More All In—and become all the more by doing so. For yourself. For those you love. And for those you’re called to serve.
Make it a great week!
Steve Luckenbach
P.S.
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We are endeavoring to reach one more in everything we do - please join us by sharing your WTW experiences with others. And if this is already a practice of yours, thank you for joining in the mission.