I Got Tapped

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I woke up this morning feeling like I needed inspiration. Not for any specific reason. Just a vague unrest, a sense of dissatisfaction, a minor frisson of frustration that things weren’t going the way I wanted them to, had been nagging at me all day yesterday.

One of the first emails I read was from my friend and long-distance mentor, Frank McKinney, founder of the ‘Caring House Project’, whose new book, “The Tap”, is launching in a few weeks.

Frank shares excerpts from his book with email subscribers (get his “Business of Life” insights), and as I read this sentence about Bill and Melinda Gates, and U2’s Bono, I felt that surge of excitement and inspiration I was seeking:

“God entrusts those responsible stewards, tapping them with a responsibility greater than they could imagine.

Why? Because they can and want to handle it.“

Well, there are times when I debate the “want to handle it” bit, feeling more like “God, I know you won’t give me more than I can handle… but I just wish you didn’t trust me so darn much!”

(Not my own, that one. Swiped it!)

But yes, I do want to handle my responsibilities most of the time. My good friend, Mary Donachy, told me yesterday in an email:

“Love ya, Teacher Mani, I’m watching you! So many of us are. That must be an awesome responsibility.”

I replied that it certainly is – but it’s something I’ve grown into, so it doesn’t feel as heavy as it might.

Many years back, I read Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. It led to some intense brainstorming to arrive at what he calls a “personal mission statement”.

Mine distills down to 4 words.

Be Kind. Help People.It has remained the same through the last 15 years or more.Frank McKinney’s “The Tap” also has this about cross-roads – points along our lives where we make critical decisions about the way forward.

“At every fork in the road, you get to pick whether you go the right way or the left. These decisions are presented to every one of us in the form of Tap Moments, offering us the opportunity to either head in the new direction God makes for us, the direction that leads us to greater things, or to stay on the road we know.“

Fortunately, (in retrospect though – at the time it was terrifying and scary!) I always grabbed opportunities to pick the “rough, untrodden path”. It hasn’t always worked out for the best. But the journey has been exciting, refreshingly different, and led me to experiences I might never have otherwise enjoyed.

If you’re looking for that, and hesitating because you’re not really sure, I urge you to learn from Frank McKinney, the maverick real estate entrepreneur. He has done the most amazing things, by being willing to follow his heart and push the envelope.

• He has run ultra-marathons which KILL participants – multiple times.
• He has built multi-million dollar homes – on spec.
• He has dedicated his energy to helping the homeless – in Haiti.

And he is releasing 3 new books, simultaneously, in February – to coincide with his opening of Acqua Liana, the world’s biggest ‘green home’ (a $29 million project).Read “The Tap” when it comes out.Join Frank’s email list here.

Or just sign up to this blog’s RSS feed (click the orange button near the top of this page) – I share tid-bits from stuff that inspires me from time to time!

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