Remember, these questions are intended to guide your reflection on the obstacles and challenges you’ve faced. You don’t have to answer all of them. They are meant to serve as prompts for your journaling, especially if you’re finding it difficult to know where to start. The goal is to help you articulate and understand the impact of these experiences on your life and the wisdom you’ve gained from them.
Easy
Uncomfortable
Fucking Brutal
The last one. Obstacles and Challenges.
Ooh, wow.
I hope you’re rested up. I hope you’re caffeinated. This could be the most difficult one and that’s why it’s last.
I feel like for me at least, I view all of these modules with a spin of obstacles and challenges, overall, because that’s kind of how I’m approaching this whole thing is the legacy I want to leave for them is how to overcome things and get past the difficult things. So kind of like every time I talk about something, whether it’s financial, spiritual, it’s an obstacle or a challenge thing, because that’s how I’m approaching this. But this is gonna get real specific for that cause. Right?
Yeah. I think you’re absolutely right, Jim. I think that we’re both pretty versed in storytelling and that is a great approach is. You have to have a protagonist who faces a decision and then overcomes it.
The hero’s journey.
That’s right. That’s right.
Luke Skywalker has to defeat the evil empire and his father and all that stuff.
I think you’re right. I think the way you can approach this one that might be different than some of the other modules is that these are the really big ones. So if you have shied away from some of those things in your life that you weren’t quite ready for, maybe now you’ve built up that muscle and you’re ready to do it. Talking about specific obstacles or challenges you’ve overcome, strategies to get past a difficult situation, your response to challenges. And again, thinking of something very specific, thinking of life changing or monumental periods in your life. “How do you get past those?” Also, recurring challenges and adaptations. “Is there something you’ve faced repeatedly and why is that? And, how do you respond to it? How do you let go of things that are unresolved? What about a challenge or an obstacle you face that you can’t fix? What do you do?”
Yeah. Those are really, really powerful lessons to leave. They’re also really sometimes difficult to admit to. It’s one of the advantages of getting older and being a Gen Xer is you’ve gotten to a stage in your life where you’re able to admit those things, at least most of us, and now’s the time to take it, shape it into something that’s useful, and give it to your family. And that’s what this is.
This is “Legacy X.” This is all exactly what we’re talking about.
So if you’re good with that and you wanna dive into this, you’re done watching this video. If you wanna stick around and hear us talk about it a little bit more, that’s fine. But again, I’ll remind you, if you’re doing the quick version, you have to go do it. I’m holding you accountable to go do it.
Jim, I’m not sure there is an easy category of questions for this particular topic because really what we’re talking about are those monumental life obstacles and challenges that you face. But, I think the easier ones would be to keep it at the abstract level. So again, talking about strategies or resources that you use to overcome a problem. It’s a little less personal and maybe not as valuable, but we’ll talk about how you build up to that and your typical reaction. I think those are sort of the easy responses.
That’s a good one for me because I recently got a tattoo on my wrist. It says, “Every second counts.” So my brain right now is in my reaction to the trauma of heart failure and cancer. This is the world I’m living in right now. And there’s another little mindset shift that I’ve had recently, which is instead of, “I have to,” it’s, “I get to.” So, “I have to go to the gym.” No, “I get to go.” I go to the gym, outside my office a couple miles away, and I get to drive up there in my car, go into the gym, work out, get my mind right, get physically better. And there’s a guy that sleeps outside the gym in his tarp wrapped around, in the cold. And every time I see this guy. I say, “I get to do this.” So it’s a gratefulness type of thing that only comes usually from trauma and age. And from failure. And this is an opportunity for you to take that and tell them that because if you can’t get it out now, maybe you can get it out for them later and it’ll help them in their lives.
And this is where we are. This is middle age Gen X. This is the opportunity.
This is what we wrote about in the manifesto. If you haven’t read this really short, manifesto that we—it’s free on Amazon—grab it. Just like this is free. Go ahead and listen to that and have a conversation about these difficult things.
If you’re looking for a few prompts or questions, the somewhat uncomfortable ones would be, “Facing a challenge to change your perspective or approach to life. How do you maintain resilience and hope when you have a prolonged or difficult challenge?” The fucking brutal is the most brutal of the brutal. Okay. “Is there a challenge or obstacle you didn’t overcome and how has that impacted your life and decisions?”
Yeah. How difficult some failure that you didn’t get over—health issue, a work issue, a relationship issue, and how are you dealing with that? How do you wake up every single day and deal with that failure?
We all have some version of that. We all have that thing that is what wakes us up in the middle of the night and maybe worries us—that’s the thing you have to tap into. This is the most difficult part I believe, of this entire project is right here, and that’s why it’s the most valuable.
Think about all the pain that either you’ve caused yourself or others over your life, and think about how traumatic that has been for you and how it has literally changed the direction of your life. And then think about how a five minute conversation—instead of scrolling some social media channel or watching a Netflix show—think about how a five minute conversation could dramatically and drastically change the life of your children. That’s really powerful. That’s what we’re doing here. That’s what you are doing. There’s a reason you’re watching this. If you ever needed any more motivation, that’s it right there. That’s the legacy that you want to build, and save them. Save them from going through what you went through.
So Jim, I wanna share some concluding thoughts and then I’ll, I’ll have you take us out since this is the last video, I wanna sincerely thank you on behalf of your children and the significant people in your life for doing this. We hope it was helpful. There isn’t anything after this. We’re gonna give you a place where you can reach out and get some help or if you just want to contact us. But there’s no upsell, there’s no subscription, there’s nothing. There’s nothing after this. This is it. You’re doing it and you’re gonna leave your legacy. And we’re really happy to have helped guide you in any way on this journey.
Yeah, absolutely. This is a passion project that we put together because we were doing it ourselves.
And we believe that it’s really, really important for anyone who’s interested. And what I like to say, “Who wants to climb a mountain with us?” You don’t show up to Mount Everest with boat shoes on in a Members Only jacket, right? You train…
You’re dating yourself.
Well, we’re Gen X… So, you wanna prepare for your death. And whether that happens tomorrow or 50 years from now, this is an exercise and a plan to do that. So when we created this, the reason we’re spending our personal time to do this without charging for it is because we really do believe in it. So what we’d like you to ask you to do is follow through with it as much as you possibly can and then share it with somebody. I mean, there’s no sign up, there’s nothing. There’s nothing to buy. Share it with somebody who you believe it would help, and that would be the best return that we could ever get from this, is helping people change their lives of their children and leave that legacy. So, thank you so much everybody for taking the time to go through all this. If you watched all these videos, boy, you really took the time to really get into this. I hope it changes the lives of not just yourself, but your family moving forward. And J., thanks for doing this with me.
Thanks, buddy.
It’s been a pleasure. We’ll see you guys.