The BOLD (Livable Success)
My fondest wish for you is that you attain livable success. If you design and live into a success that allows you to thrive—body, soul and bank account—we all win. Your contribution will be larger, your impact deeper and your example more potent if you can sustain your success. That means that we all benefit from your masterful, artful, deeply meaningful, enriching contribution for longer.
If you achieve a success that depletes you, you will flame out, like so many before you, and your contribution will cease.
Livable success requires harmony between investment and expenditure. It requires a flow between cost and benefit. How can we properly align our effort, our output, our rest, and our restoration? We need a decision model that emphasizes abundance, not sacrificial giving, as the source of our contribution. When the inflow replenishes the outflow, we are a conduit for abundance.
The Whisper (Careful of the Gate)
Imagine a beautiful, crystal clear lake. Its azure water sparkles in the sun as the wind gently raises ripples across its surface. At one end of the lake, a river flows in from the mountains. Snow melt from the peaks dances down the rocky bed to tumble into the lake. Over time, ample rain also feeds the lake, refreshing the mineral rich water with gentle drops. Along one side of the lake, a spring bubbles and two more rivers flow in from far away. The lake enjoys an abundance of sources.
The waters teem with fish. Ducks and geese float peacefully on its surface and nest on its shore. Reeds and water plants line its banks and lily pads bloom in its shallows.
At the other end of the lake are two features: a lock gate and a spillway. Beyond these, a canal stretches away from the lake past thirsty farms and towns whose commerce depends on canal boats. Constructed of heavy wooden beams, the two panels of the lock gate span the mouth of the canal, cantilevered on massive arms and joined at a center seam. It is the first of many that allow boats to descend from level to level along the canal. The lake water rests against the panels, lapping gently, prevented from flowing out.
To one side, a stone spillway is carved into the hill that descends from the surface of the lake to the canal below. In the Spring, when the excess winter snow begins to melt and the rains come more frequently, the spillway allows all the extra water to flow out into the canal. It protects the banks of the lake from being flooded and sends a manageable flow down into the canal for the benefit of all who live down river. Throughout the year, there are seasons when the spillway tips an abundance of water into the canal. On most other days, there is at least enough water to keep the canal boats afloat.
Requests are delivered to the lock keeper from the thirsty farms and the active towns. They have many needs for the water, and they express these needs loudly and often.
“Open the gates,” they plead and demand and request. “Let us have access to the lake water. You have more than enough. Don’t be selfish.”
The lock keeper does this job because he is eager to help. He knows that the water is essential for people and that it is a resource that he can help provide. Generous and caring, the lock keeper is moved by the pleas. He makes the decision to open the lock gates and to let the water flow.
He pulls the lever and the panels of the lock gate shudder. The eager waters push forward as the massive gates grind open. Soon, a splash turns into a torrent. The lock gates down the canal are all open, so with a roar, the water rushes out of the lake, gurgling towards the distant sea.
The algae-furred rocks that line the lake, rocks that have never felt direct sunlight before, lie exposed. The lake is dry. The water flowing in from the mountains disappears as it rolls around the rocks and into the empty lakebed.
It will take months to refill the lake. The constant replenishment of the spillway is interrupted. The thirsty farms will dry, and the earth will crack. Trade will cease for the towns. The lock keeper has learned his lesson.
When we throw open our gates and give sacrificially, we deplete our reservoir and end up with nothing more to give. When we carefully tend to our reserves, grateful for replenishment, and aware of the gift of our depths, we can make sustainable contributions. We must carefully manage our gates so that the world can be watered with our overflow. This is livable success.
Leave a Reply