The End Game
I've had a lot of time to stew in my own thoughts these last several days as I lie in bed. Last night, while trying to get my back muscles to calm down, I had a flashback to a conversation I had with a buddy a few weeks ago. This is a former colleague who is fully bought into the keeping up with the Joneses lifestyle. He's running the materialism race, and he's running hard! Money, stuff, and status are the three measuring sticks in his game.
Here's where our conversation took an interesting turn. "What's your end game?" he asked. "At some point, you have to have a plan to monetize all this to build wealth." It's interesting that, in his mind, building wealth is (or should be) the default end game. "Maybe I'll make a billion dollars, or maybe I won't make two cents. That's not how I judge success."
He asked it again, "What's your end game, then?"
The truth is, I don't think I have an end game. It's not because I don't think about the future; I do that often! Instead, I don't usually consider the "end" game, as I'm too obsessed about the journey. I just want to make as much impact on people as I can. Then, tomorrow, I hope to do the same. There's no real end to that endeavor. It's just a fresh mission each day.
If we look at our daily calendar, that's really all there is: a series of opportunities to make an impact. Meetings, projects, social engagements, family events. Everyone has their own version of this, but the opportunity persists nonetheless. I so much enjoy my specific opportunities, and I hope you do, too!
I'm not sure anything I just wrote made sense, but that's the best way I can frame it as I try to fight through the discomfort in my neck. It's been killing me that my recent condition has hindered my ability to make an impact, but I'll try again today.
As for you, I hope you embrace some form of this concept today: Make an impact. Someone. Somehow. Some way. There's no end game in that mission other than to leave it better than you found it. Then, tomorrow, we'll try again.
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