Live Inspired Vlog 199: Take It Public!

Mutual Accountability Can Help You Honor Your Commitments

Good Morning on an early Wednesday morning.

6:46 a.m. CST!

My name is John O’Leary. Welcome to another Live Inspired vlog, this one on the road in Mobile, AL.

Welcome, wherever you’re listening into and watching me today.

Last night, I had the opportunity of speaking to the Southern Alabama Big Brothers Big Sisters organization.

It’s a phenomenal organization. Anyone who even has a bit of knowledge around Big Brothers Big Sisters recognizes that they do amazing things in every corner of the community, throughout the United States and beyond.

Great organization!

As I’m listening to speakers before me, listening to littles before me, listening to the executive director and board members and everyone else who came before me, I’m moved.

I’m deeply moved.

And then, it’s my time to get up on stage.

I speak for about 45 minutes. I encourage and hopefully inspire, played the piano, gave them a couple takeaways (I hope), but at the very end, it comes down to this takeaway:

What do you do with inspirational messages?

What do you do with them?

Yesterday was Giving Tuesday, and I think it’s hard enough sometimes to even make a donation of $10 or a couple hundred dollars, whatever it may be, to an organization that we believe in.

An organization that we find worthy.

But what do we do to take that commitment to the next level?

So, my ask on behalf of all the littles, the community, the families, the spouses, all the individuals in the room last night and beyond, was that they make their commitment public.

That they don’t just leave with the buzz of the inspiration, but they be ready to take action on it.

I encouraged them to take it public, to declare it. What do you do with all this inspiration that you received tonight?

To lead the way forward, I proclaimed last night in front of 425 new friends in southern Alabama and today in front of a couple thousand who will tune in and watch this by the time the video does its thing.

I’m going to declare for you today what my commitment was because I think it’s very easy to get out of the mood, alright?

We make our commitments in one mood, but then that fades. And I want to make sure that the commitments we make, the ones that we recognize in our lives matter, that we are living into them.

I believe the best way that we can do this is to take it public.

Mutual accountability!

Let our partners, our colleagues, our work friends, our online community, our friends down in southern Alabama know that what we are committing to, we are serious about.

So my commitment last night was this (you can now hold me to it): That by January 1 (this coming year), I am committing to becoming a big brother for the second time.

I have the honor of being a Board Member for Big Brothers Big Sisters. I had the opportunity and the honor of being matched with a little brother for 8 1/2 years. His name is Travion House. He’s an amazing man. He’s taught me more about love and forgiveness and resiliency and grit and life and success than anybody else I know.

This kid who had a very difficult upbringing, who taught me about real success, and I’m looking forward to learning from some other young man, or young lady if they match us with a little girl, about life again.

I’m looking forward to not only learning from this person, but having my four healthy kids learn from this child.

I’m looking forward to bringing this person into my life.

I’m looking forward to having a little again.

I’m looking forward to being a big again.

And I’m looking forward to having this become a reality by January 1.

So that’s my commitment on Giving Tuesday yesterday.

It’s my public declaration.

What’s yours?

What’s yours?

If you want to post it on Facebook today, something you are committed to, awesome!

It could be around weight. It could be around your spiritual journey. It could be around personal finances or something you’re going to do at work.

(It could be around boarding this plane that’s going to leave without me if I don’t get on it super, super, super quickly.)

But what’s yours?

I think the more that we take our ideas and our heart and what we know to be true, and then we say, you know what, I feel this way, but now I’m going public with it, the more likely it is that we’ll live into it.

And the more likely that one life at a time we can change the world.

Starting with our own.

So my friends, I want to thank you for being part of our community and I want to encourage you today to think through what is it that deeply matters to you, to make it public, and then to live into it.

By the way, if you want to learn about the ability we have to do great things in our lives by doing little things, check out our Live Inspired Podcast with Jason Kotecki.

You know, I hadn’t heard of him before earlier this year. I learned about him, read about his work, read his book, interviewed him on our podcast, was blown away by this idea of adult-itis.

You’re going to love it!

So as you listen to the last words here coming up in a moment, I encourage you to go over to Live Inspired with John O’Leary. Check out the Live Inspired Podcast, this one with Jason Kotecki. You’re going to love it!

It’s going to remind you, as these podcasts always do, that the best is yet to come.

So for this time, my bigs out there and littles, and until next time, this is John O’Leary.

And this is OUR day. Live Inspired.

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