2012-07-25



“We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone … and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.”

- Sandra Day O’Connor

**Time-Sensitive Contest Ends this Sunday: I want to feature your story on Live Your Legend! All you have to do is fill out the form at the bottom of this post (or at this link) to share what you’re doing to Live Your Own Legend.

I will choose 10 stories to be featured and send out to our 40,000+ readers. I will also be giving away $100 cash & a free live coaching package to two of you, to help your project succeed.

In order to participate you must submit your story by this Sunday at Midnight PST (7/29)

Read more info below or go straight to the form at the bottom (email readers click here) - I can’t wait to hear from you!

*****

Letting Our Community Inspire

In honor of Live Your Legend’s first full year on earth (as of tonight at midnight), and my eigth year helping people do work they love, it’s time to step it up a notch.

And the only way we can do it is with you.

Last week I asked you how we could take this community to a new level. How we could bring us all together to inspire, help and support each other to Live Our Legends. Your responses nearly put me to tears – both in your praise and your ideas.

The most invigorating ideas included:

Live in-person events hosted by LYL (the first one of those will be in S.F. in about a month- more on that soon!)

Satellite in-person meetups hosted by our readers around the world – anyone is welcome to host

Have a mini social network of sorts for readers to share their own inspiring stories, goals and talents so they can get accountability, give and get help, and inspire one another

Achieve a common goal such as raise money for a charity together

Create a premium membership for those who want a more focused & dedicated community to help them Live Their Legends

Your ideas left me literally shaking with excitement (in fact I couldn’t sleep, which is why I’m writing this at 4am…).

Thanks to you, there are some very powerful community focused tools to come.

And to start I want to put the spotlight directly on YOU.

For the past six years (back when I first started writing online) you have inspired me with your stories in unreal ways.

I cannot tell you the types of emails I get every day from people doing amazingly inspiring, creative and all together different stuff. I wish you could see them. Up until now, I was the only one hearing about the talent of our community – and the only one getting to soak in all your inspiration.

But I want that to change - I want to give you the chance to do the same for the rest of our community.

The true value of any gathering is not in the themes discussed or the topic of the keynote. That’s all great and can take us to powerful places. But the true magic of a community, whether it’s virtual, in person or both, is what happens when the community beings to share and put their minds together to make meaningful change. I’ve seen some of this go on in the comments, and I love that. But I want to find a better way.

That starts now.

So today I want to announce…

The Launch of Monthly Living Legends Reader Spotlights

Of all the responses I got last week, this was at the top: allow the community to share their stories, projects and accomplishments as a way to inspire the rest of the community, as well as get help from everyone else, in achieving their goals.

So starting today I am going to give all of you the chance to share a story of something you’re doing (or have accomplished) to make a positive impact, to Live Your Own Legend, no matter how big or small.

The goals are simple:

Inspire our community to pursue wild, fun and unique projects, to Live Their Legends, by showing them what other LYL readers are doing

Provide a way for all of us to give and get help on our projects from the rest of the community of all you crazy talented folks

Promote and share your projects with our community to help make it a success

And more selfishly, to get ideas from all of you, for me to go out and put to work in my own life

Here’s how it will work:

Using the form below (or on LYL at this page) you share your unique project, goal or accomplishment as well as how you’d like help to make it happen, and include a link back to your site related to the project (so the world can see it!).

Each month I will choose 10 of them to feature and send out to our whole community - Eventually I’d like to feature every project submitted. In fact I want to document 1,000 of these over the course of our time here.

I will choose one of you to do a free live coaching session to help you succeed any way I know how. And to kick this off right, I will choose another one of your submissions to receive $100 in cash to invest in the success of your project. (When Chris Guillebeau gave me $100 at the World Domination Summit earlier this month, he said to invest it in something meaningful – I cannot think of a better way!)

So how’s that sound? All you have to is fill out the form below and next week I’ll announce the coaching and $100 winner and feature a bunch of you to the rest of our community next month.

Wondering what types of projects I’m talking about? The only requirement is that it’s something that’s truly meaningful to you and gets you closer to Living Your Own Legend. Either a past accomplishment or a future goal. This could literally cover anything.

Some examples I’ve recently learned about are:

Donate to a different charity every day (or week or month) for a year and get others to do the same

Walk, run, or bike across the U.S. (or whatever distance – the length doesn’t matter) to raise awareness for a cause you believe in

Quit a toxic job

Negotiate a remote work schedule

Get your first client – helping them with something using your unique talents

Start a charity to provide education to young girls in Sierra Leone, or give clean water to those in need, or whatever…

Write your first book

Write the first chapter to your first book or maybe just write something every day for a few weeks

Provide a random act of kindness or find a way to uniquely help a new person every day for a month

Rent an R.V. with your husband and two kids to tour Mexico and teach them about the world

Sell all your stuff and attend a mediation retreat in Nepal

Are you seeing a trend?

The point is anything goes – as long as it’s meaningful to you and gets you closer to doing what matters. The more creative the better!

Impact is Our Only Measure

I have one way of measuring the success of Live Your Legend…

Impact.

The value our community gets from being a part of what we’re building. Both from the material I write and create as well as what other members share and support along our journey.

That’s all that matters to me, and my guess is that’s all that matters to all of you.

Up until now, this has mainly been a oneway street. In the sense that I’ve created content and you all have consumed it.

It’s time for that to change.

This community does not exist because of me. It exists because of all you. Because you felt compelled to listen to, support, share and act upon the ideas put fourth in our products, videos and articles.

Live Your Legend is based on the belief that everyone can Live Their Legend. It’s not just for the lucky few. All it takes is the right creativity & wanting it badly enough, combined with the proper support & inspiration. That starts with the smallest of steps.

This site is not about me. It’s about all of you and our quest to make an impact in a way each of us are uniquely capable of.

The more we can see the inspiring things that so many around us are already doing, the more it will raise us to a new level and inspire our own actions. The more our community sees this, the more change we’ll create and the more we can help each other. And the snowball will continue to build with the new members that join us every day.

Think of how fast that snowball could grow. Think of the impact it could have.

Up until now, that growth has been limited by me not giving all of you a better chance to share the stories that shift our thinking.

Our community is nearly 16,000 strong at this point (and over 40,000 of you visit each month).

We can have a bigger impact than we realize.

In a word, the future of Live Your Legend comes down to community. To sharing our inspirations, ideas and fears with those around us, to give us a new belief of what’s possible.

This community, this movement, is what it is because of who you all are.

I want you to be a bigger part of that.

I want you to have the chance to inspire our community as much as you’ve inspired me.

If you don’t have a project or an idea yet, that’s totally fine. I hope what you read about your fellow LYL community members will inspire you to launch your own.

And that’s exactly the point.

Inspirational stories of those around us have the power to influence and ignite emotions, and in turn, actions.

It’s time for you to provide that inspiration for each other.

Everything starts by starting.

Before long the momentum becomes unstoppable.

I can’t wait to hear from you!

Please tell us your story by filling in the form below.

Thank you for doing what you do.

We’re inspired,

-Scott

P.S. In order to have your story featured and to be entered to win the free coaching session or the $100 cash, you must fill out the below form by Sunday 7/29 at Midnight PST. So I’d jump on it!

Also, if you know someone on an amazing quest who you think would like to share it with us, please share this with them. We’d love to have them a part of what we’re building!

**Email Readers: Since you’re reading this in email, you need to click here to access the form on LYL.

*****

Live Your Legend Reader Spotlights – Share Your Story!

Please use the below to tell us about your project. We look forward to hearing your story and featuring some of them on Live Your Legend in the next few weeks!

Everyone who submits a project will also be entered to win a free LYL coaching session to help you bring the project to life! Winners will be announced next week.

What's your first and last name?*
First Last

Enter your best contact email (we will need to contact you if your project is chosen).*
Enter Email Confirm Email

Where do you live?*
Country, state, city - the more specific the better!

Please describe your project or accomplishment. Also tell us why it's meaningful to you & exactly how you're making an impact.*
Be specific and to the point -what exactly are you setting out to do? Response must be 150 words or less.

What inspired you to make an impact?
What about our community at Live Your Legend (if any) has inspired you to make the impact you're making? If your inspiration came from elsewhere, please tell us where!

How can we help?*
Please briefly describe how Live Your Legend and/or our community could help your project be successful. Response must be 75 words or less.

How will you know you succeeded? What's your metric for success?
Make this measurable and controllable by you. Good examples include: I will quit my job, I will help 25 people, I will reach out to 40 colleagues to raise $1,000 for a cause, I will run across the country, I will visit the state next to me, or I will visit every continent...you get the idea. (*Note: no need to fill this out if you're discussing a past accomplishment)

We want to promote you! Please provide a website link where people can learn more about your project. *
If your project doesn't have a website, please provide your blog or any other link where people can learn more about you (at the least, a link to your LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter profile will do). The more relevant this link is to your project, the better!

When do you plan to have this completed? Please provide a date.
*Note: no need to fill this out if you're discussing a past accomplishment

Tell us one fun/interesting/unique thing about you.
The more unique to you, the more genuinely we can all connect. Anything goes!

Please upload a fun picture of you.
We want people to see who you are when we share your project with the world! Ideally the picture should be a headshot that's about 250x250 and less than 1mb. But if you upload something different, we can make it work :). *Note: If the picture is not uploading after clicking submit below, you can skip this for now.

Thanks for sharing and congrats on doing your part!

Just click submit so we can read all about your story!

 

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