The biggest thing stopping us from moving to the next level in our lives comes down to whether we see having a greater impact in our lives to be an opportunity or an obligation. Is reaching your highest potential a nice-to-have or a must-have in your life?

Here’s a video I shot in London this week, beginning on the Mall and Buckingham Palace to Nelson’s Column and Trafalgar Square. On the way, I do my best to answer the question ‘Do you deserve more?’

Entitlement to Worth vs Entitlement to Wealth

‘Entitlement’ is a difficult word for many entrepreneurs. We feel we need to earn our way through life and have a difficult time listening to those who say they‘deserve’things without working for them. But what if feeling we ‘deserve’more was the one thing we actually need to do?

Precessional and Processional Effects

Buckminster Fuller gave a great distinction by saying that us humans are focused on ‘processional’effects when nature works largely through ‘precessional’effects that are perpendicular to the line of procession. A ‘processional’effect is the linear, direct line of cause and effect. Like dropping a pebble where based on its mass and the force of gravity you can predict exactly where it will go. We look for these processional effects when we ask “What are the steps to success in my business?”or “How do I increase my sales?”, expecting a cause and effect recipe we can follow: If I do this I’ll get that result, etc.

But imagine the pebble hitting a pond, and see the ripples it creates. This is the precessional effect of the pebble, which the pebble knows nothing about. In the same way, you have ripples created by all your actions that you may not be aware of. They are perpendicular to your path in life, but have a far greater impact on others, and what gets returned to you.

The Lesson of the Honey Bee

Take the example of the honey bee. It sees its duty is to collect honey for the hive. It goes out each day, visits the flowers, collects the honey, and returns with the honey. That’s the processional effect. That’s like what we do going out to work or our business each day.

Then the honey bee notices, if it keeps doing its duty, the garden flourishes with plenty more flowers. Little does it know that this was the direct result of its duty. As it went from flower to flower, it was pollenating them, passing pollen from one to the next. Like the ripples of the pebble, it wasn’t the main intention, but it was the greater result that supported the whole. Everything in nature, when acting naturally, acts in this way. Doing its duty and adding to the whole.

The Strangest Secret

Many of us pursue wealth like it is a processional effect: “If I do certain things in a certain order it will lead to wealth”. But true wealth is not the result of cause and effect. It is a precessional effect that ripples from a direct line of our duty. So what is this duty?

Earl Nightingale spoke of it in his recording, “The Strangest Secret”, where he defines success as “The progressive realization of a worthy ideal.”By focusing at increasing our worth (the processional effect), we naturally grow the wealth in ripples (the precessional effect).

What if you made being of greatest worth, and serving at your highest potential, your No.1 Duty? What if you made this an obligation instead of an opportunity? Where your greatest entitlement was to serve for the greatest good in your unique way? By switching focus from worth to wealth, life transforms from doubt to duty and the wealth naturally follows.

Admiral Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar

I end my video in Trafalgar Square with the story of Admiral Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar, the amazing story that anchored the dominance of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars. Heavily outnumbered, Nelson came up with a brilliant strategy where there was no turning back. What did he do?

Watch the video to hear the full story, and how it links to our journey today. The story is especially relevant during a time when we do not need to wait on any one leader to give us directions – Where the key to not just our wealth, but the wealth of our next generation rests on our own individual commitment to doing our duty.

Do you deserve more? Yes you do. You deserve to serve at your highest potential. To live a life that is truly worthy – where your worth is not measured by what you get, but what you give.

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
~ Winston Churchill

Keep shining brightly,

Roger

If you’re inspired by this post, leave a comment at http://youtu.be/GlzBnWO_-u4