Yes…there is more to life!
No, you’re not the only one asking the question either. You were Created for more than getting by month to month and raising little ones to do the same. You were Created for a BIG Life!
What is BIG Life? This is the question we are asked all the time.
Great question … Difficult answer and the reason we created a Roadmap.
A picture is worth a thousand words right? So how about a visual roadmap to explain what BIG Life really is? (if you just can’t wait for the full explanation, skip to the end – The Three Letters).
This roadmap is not a formula. There is no specific ‘recipe’ to follow and magically live a BIG Life. There is no guaranteed program of success. What we offer is a map to chart your OWN course. While no fool proof formula for success exists, there are things to make success much more likely.
We break up the roadmap into three sections of three:
Three Principles – Three Steps – Three Letters
Ready? Let’s start with the foundation, the BIG Life Principles. These Principles will help you see what a BIG Life looks like.
3 Principles
1) Become Your Best
There is a story about Michelangelo, one of the most famous artists of all time, and his sculpture of David. A masterpiece at almost 17 feet tall. When asked about how he created such a work of art, he said… all he did was knock off the lumps. The ‘image’ was always there in the stone ready to be set free. He called them captives.
We use the image of David for this very reason. The person we were Created to be is inside of us – waiting to be set free. Life is about knocking off the lumps.
We have an ENORMOUS amount of potential inside. Our soul grows restless waiting to be set free. You will not be happy or fulfilled trapped inside your comfort zone. For many of you … it’s killing you. You are suffocating inside a prison of your own making.
Set yourself free to become the person you were Created to be…
2) Enjoy the Ride
There is a great documentary ‘Long Way Round’ (warning-slow to start) where Ewan McGregor (yes that Ewan McGregor) and his friend Charley Boorman set off on a motorcycle journey around the world. Somewhere in Mongolia, they go through a stretch where their motorcycle falls in the mud every few feet. Since they have hundreds of miles to go, they get a little upset. Then Ewan remembers – ‘We set out on an adventure!’ They were after an adventure, but as soon as it got adventurous, they were discouraged.
What if we looked at our life as the adventure it is supposed to be. Most people are dying the slow painful life of boredom. Enduring their days versus living them to the full.
Embrace the roller coaster that is life.
“It’s a daring adventure or nothing at all.” -Helen Keller
As you’re striving toward the first Principle (Become Your Best), don’t forget to enjoy the ride.
3) Help Others Do the Same
If God wanted us to be alone, he would have placed us on individual planets. He put us together for a reason. He wants us to work together.
Sometimes this help comes in the simple form of food, drink or a place to stay. We should give help to those in need. This is a general life thing not just a BIG Life thing. Here in BIG Life, we believe the highest form of help you can give is to help someone with their BIG Life. Encouragement, accountability and support.
One of the most difficult aspects of helping people live a BIG Life is not enabling a little life. At some point we all have to grow up and take responsibility for our life. We seek a balance between soft, compassionate love and tough, disciplined love. Humans, like plants, need both sunlight and water to grow.
These three Principles form the foundation of BIG Life and help you see what a BIG Life should look like. The question that usually comes at this point is HOW. You get the principles, but HOW do you go about living them?
Glad you asked…
3 Steps
The three steps should be done in order but can happen back to back. The first two are all about mindset and the last is all about action!
1) Ownership
Until you accept 100% responsibility for your life, you are powerless to do anything about it. This has nothing to do with fault or blame but your ability to respond (respons-ability) to life. Responding to life in a way that is good for you and for those around you is a sign of maturity.
Ownership also means taking charge of your life. No more sitting around waiting for life to come knocking down your door, drag you off the couch and out into the world. Take initiative. Do something! Failure IS an option. That is where you’ll learn and grow. Just please fail DOING. Too many people accept the certain failure of not even trying over the potential failure of failure.
Fail – Grow – Get better.
2) Perspective
Most everyone has seen a 3D movie by now. Ever take your glasses off to see what it looks like? Fuzzy right? Put those glasses back on and … magic. What changed? The movie didn’t change, but how you viewed it. Like a 3D movie, “how” you view life can make all the difference. Now that you’ve taken ownership of your life (Step 1), decide to view it in a positive, productive way. You can dramatically change your life right now by simply changing the way you see it. Take charge my friend.
3) Momentum
It is a physical law that life fights change. The forces of inertia want you to stay where you are (not to mention the power of fear and comfort).
The beginning is ALWAYS more difficult than it should be! For everyone, not just you.
Over time, it is always easier than it should be.
Where this can be tricky is when you compare your beginning to someone else’s middle or end.
Smaller things are easier to start than larger things. Let go of ‘dead weight’, focus your effort and get started. It will get easier if you stick with it.
Or don’t…the choice is yours, but if you’ve ever started over and over and OVER again, you know that sucks. Keep pushing forward. It WILL be worth it.
Now that you’ve learned the three principles and taken the three steps, let’s look at the final three letters.
3 Letters
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Matthew 7:13-14 is a picture of the different paths of life. You can basically boil life down to 1 simple sentence: You are either on the path of life, or the path of destruction.
BIG Life is a WAY of living (yes, these are the three letters W-A-Y).
There can never be enough rules to tell us how to live. It didn’t work for God and it sure doesn’t seem to work for the government. Stack, upon stack, upon stack of rules and regulations have not helped. Matter of fact, it seems the more we have, the more we need to explain the ones we have. It’s not about the rules. It’s how you live.
How you live is THE most important thing.
BIG Life is a WAY of living your life.
Becoming Your Best
Enjoying the Ride
Helping Others Do the Same
What WAY are you living?
We invite you to join us…the BIG Life Army, in living the life you were Created for.
Meet the Founders
BIG Life is a family venture.
A dream born in a husband and wife, coming alive through an online community of people ready for more. We are Lonnie and Pamela Crim, and quiet honestly, we’re about as normal as they come. We are simple people living a ridiculously good life. A life of purpose and passion, adventure and crazy big dreams we get to watch come to fruition before our eyes.
We live a life of wild adventure, choosing a new and exciting place to live, moving cross country often. We just recently followed our wild dreams and moved to a 200 acre ranch in Arkansas where one day we hope to host our retreats and build ziplines and risky adventures. Lonnie is a prior military man with a drive to cut the crap, keep it real, and push people to make true changes in their life. Pamela (that’s me) … well I bring the fun factor and the infectious love of life. Together we’re a dynamic duo just doing what God created us to do. We live BIG and we live out loud for our children, and the rest of this great big world out there ready for what we have discovered.
What have we discovered?
Simply a different way of living. A way of living that brings life back into our days. A way of living that allows us each to do what we are wildly good at and enjoy. A way of living that raises eyebrows and leaves strangers saying “I don’t know what they’re smoking, but I want some of it!” A way of living that hopefully brings great joy to our Father. A way of living that makes waking up on Monday morning a whole lot easier.
That way of living is our passion and we share it every day with thousands of people. People just like us who are ready to get off the sidelines and get in the game. People who want to leave a legacy of more than just paying bills. People who want to soak up every ounce of life available to them. Are you one of our people?
This is a family thing, and you’re now part of the BIG Life family. Lock arms with us and let’s set this world on fire with a new way of living.
Find out more about Pamela Here.