Wrecked

I feel like a piece of fuselage, smoldering on the beach.

In a beautiful place, surrounded by the good life, but still pretty much a hot mess.

I’m Wrecked.

But what I’ve learned recently is that while I might be in a place right now that’s not comfortable, that’s not pretty…it’s important.  This is the place where I grow.  This is the place where I will make decisions that shape the rest of my life into one of deeper compassion.

This is where I choose what matters to me.

A Different Path

In most of the western world, we spend our lives focusing on growing.  Collecting.  We focus on More.

I buy a CD, I listen to it a few times, and then I want another (Ok, I download it now.  Even better.  I don’t have to leave the house, I don’t have to take the 15 minutes to drive down to Best Buy, I don’t have to fight with that ridiculous sticker that they seal the plastic case shut with.  Click.  Get a cup of coffee. Listen.  …but I digress….)

I get a job, and not very long after that, I want a promotion.  I want a new project.  I want more money or more respect or more responsibility.

I want a new, better, faster car.

I want a bigger house with better trees and a six-burner stove.

I want more.

But here’s the thing.  More never satisfies.  Ever.

I’m trying to fill the Grand Canyon with a bag of McDonald’s trash.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Today, a new book is hitting the shelves in bookstores everywhere.  Like, a real book on real paper, people.

And I don’t tell people what to do very often (ok, I tell a lot of people what to do a lot of the time…but this time I actually mean it…), but seriously guys, you really need to click on over to Amazon or B&N or go to your bookstore and buy this thing.

Because it’s about fixing that Grand Canyon-sized hole that we all have.

It’s about filling it with compassion.  With love.

It’s about allowing our hearts to be broken by a broken world, and then actually getting dirty.  Getting into the middle of it and making a difference somewhere, somehow.

Jeff Goins calls it “being wrecked.”  

“We always assume someone else will come to the rescue, but it’s never us…It’s human nature to look after your own survival first, even when it’s not a matter of life and death.  We can’t help it.  We keep scrambling for scraps from the table, until someone is finally courageous enough to…obey our conscience.  To stand up and do what is right.”

Y’all, it’s time.

It’s time to ask ourselves: “What if the purpose of my life is not about me?”

I love you guys.  I love how you all encourage and inspire me, and I hope I give a little bit of that back to you two or three times a week.

Today, it’s time to do a little bit more than click and read and move on.

Today, I really want you to invest $9.90 (or £6.33 or ¥773.39) in the future of the world in which you live.

Yes, I feel THAT strongly about this book.  This is seriously about changing not only your own life, living more fully and with greater satisfaction and meaning, but it’s also about changing the lives around us.  About bringing hope and about demonstrating real, true, unconditional love, and about leaving this world a better place than it was when we started.

It’s about living a life that’s not about me.

It’s about prioritizing people over playthings.

So guys, this book is short.  I read it in a weekend.  Don’t be all like “Oh, I already have so many books to read, I can’t possibly read another.”  I know you have a copy of 50 Shades Of Grey hiding behind your cookbooks.  This is cheaper than that.  And far better for you.

Ten bucks to change the world…well, ten bucks and a life.

Are you with me?  Leave a comment…

Click here to buy it right now (if you’re in the US.  You global people…well, I’m not really sure what you have to do to buy stuff.  That’s a whole different post about American arrogance…for another day.  And this is NOT an affiliate link and I don’t make a little sliver of a penny when you buy this.  I just get the satisfaction of knowing that we’re changing the world.)

(As a launch bonus, Jeff and his publisher are giving away $158 worth of extra awesome stuff from now through Saturday, including eBook versions, an audiobook version, some awesome interviews, and an Action Guide.  In fact, our small group will be going through the action guide together.

Buy it wherever books are sold, and then shoot your receipt over to his publisher–details here–to receive the download link, and you can start reading it before Amazon even ships it to you.  Talk about meeting the need for immediate gratification?)

 *Photo credit:  puuikibeach (Creative Commons)