3 Lessons that Literally Transformed My Life

YouTube Version (If You'd Rather Watch 👉) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJLefR5ZXPo

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Three lessons that quite literally changed my life.

That's not an exaggeration.

That's not clickbait.

I’m going to be 100% honest and vulnerable with you. What I’m going to share with you really did change my life and leadership forever.

These are lessons that I learned in the first decade of my leadership journey, and they continue to anchor me.

Some of these lessons I learned the hard way, and I don’t want you to have to go through that.

I don’t know what your definition of success is, but these lessons helped me reach the level of success I was looking for.

But beyond that, these lessons didn’t just help me build a successful life; they helped me build a meaningful one.

I’m excited to get into it.

Now, before we jump in.

I need to preface this episode by saying a few things:

First, if you’re new to this leadership community, I want to say a big welcome.

Let me tell you what we do here: Every week, I release new leadership content, grounded in fresh research and designed to encourage and motivate you to keep fighting the good fight.

You’ll quickly realize that I say that phrase every week; that’s because it’s the motto of this community.

Leadership is hard, but this community exists to serve you and, hopefully, make it just a little easier so you can keep fighting the good fight day after day, week after week.

Second, you should know that I’m a man of faith. In fact, I’m a pastor.

I don’t push my faith much in this community; you’ll get more of that from my socials, but it is the foundation of my life, and it informs my leadership.

I know many of you wouldn’t consider yourself religious, you’re here for leadership research and encouragement, and trust me, I’m not here to give a sermon, but I want you to know that I’ll be putting the pastor hat on a little more today than I normally do because when I say life-changing, I really do mean life-changing.

These aren’t surface-level lessons.

Lastly, every lesson lays the foundation for the next lesson.

So, make sure to hang with me until the end because that’s where I think it'll all come together and serve you the most.

Alright, let’s get into it.

LESSON 1: ACCOUNTABILITY

Someone recently said to me, “Zach, you seem really disciplined.”

I laughed, and I said, “Actually, I’m not.”

People might look at my life and see the actions I do consistently and assume it’s discipline.

People might look at my life and see evidence of success and assume that it was built through discipline.

But whatever success I’ve had up to this point in my life, whether it be financially, relationally, vocationally, or spiritually, it wasn’t built through strong discipline.

It was built by something more powerful than discipline, in my opinion.

It was built through the power of accountability.

This is the first lesson I learned many years ago.

LESSON: Accountability is the secret weapon for life change.

Accountability is your friend.

Too many people out there are preaching that you just need more discipline.

You know, “Discipline equals freedom.”

I’m here to tell you that “Accountability equals freedom.”

I believe that accountability is stronger than discipline.

Why? Because while discipline is all about drawing from your own internal strength, accountability is about drawing from the strength of others.

While discipline equals the strength of one, accountability equals the strength of many.

Let me tell you how this works for me personally.

I have accountability in just about every facet of my life.

For instance, I wake up around 4:30 am every morning for some quiet time with God and to go to the gym before my kids wake up.

Discipline isn’t what gets me out of bed; accountability does.

Years ago, I asked one of my buddies to hold me accountable to wake up early for the gym.

It started out as a simple flex emoji we’d send to each other, then we started working out together, and we invited more guys into the group to keep the accountability high.

Years later, we’re still doing it.

As a pastor, I meet with a lot of married couples who are having issues in their marriage because of financial problems.

I start digging, and I usually find that they have separate finances.

Not only is that crazy to me on a spiritual level, but it also means there is zero financial accountability.

My wife and I have shared finances; everything I make financially is ours, everything she makes financially is ours.

We do our budget together.

We make money decisions together.

There are no separate accounts that we don’t have access to.

Everything is shared.

In biblical terms, we are “one” financially, but what else is happening?

Accountability.

I've asked seasoned parents whom I respect to observe my kids and my parenting and hold me accountable if they see anything I should address.

I’ll pick specific individuals to hold me accountable for certain goals I’ve set for myself or for certain spiritual disciplines I consider mission-critical.

I also have accountability software on all of my devices because I don’t want to be a man who watches porn or any type of vulgar content.

I have a brick device that holds me accountable for not wasting time on time-wasting apps.

I could go on and on…

And let’s be clear about something…

Accountability is not weakness.

Accountability is all about attacking weakness.

It’s about preparing the soil where discipline, transformation, and integrity can be nurtured.

It’s about drawing from the strength of many rather than just depending on your own strength.

I want to encourage you to invite accountability into the areas of your life that you know aren’t going well and watch what happens.

I think you’ll find it to be life-changing.

I did.

Okay, that’s the first lesson.

The second lesson takes everything to the next level.

This is where things get really exciting.

LESSON 2: COMPOUND EFFECT

Let me start by asking you a question.

Would you rather take a job that pays you a million dollars today to work for the next thirty days?

Or…

Would you rather take a job that pays you a penny today but doubles your salary every day for the next thirty days?

What do you think?

If you ever get this question in a job interview, take the penny one; you can thank me later.

Let me tell you why.

If you took the penny job, you’d have over $5.3 million at the end of the 30 days!

Isn’t that crazy?!

That’s the power of compounding.

You may be familiar with Albert Einstein’s famous quote that “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.”

This is the second lesson.

Understanding and applying the compound effect changed my life and leadership.

I’ll never forget when I was around 22 years old, I discovered that if I started putting $80 a month into retirement and averaged 12% (which is what I average), I would have over $1.7 million when I retire.

Are you kidding me?!

Just $20 a week!

That’s like one visit to Chipotle or Starbucks for some of you.

I remember showing my wife a spreadsheet, and we were both in awe.

We would only put in a little over $43k, but would have over $1.7 million.

It’s amazing.

But you know, the compound effect isn’t just about money.

Compound effect applies to other areas of your life.

This is where real-life change happens.

For instance, what happens if you eat like crap for one day?

Perhaps you have an intimate experience with your toilet the next day, but other than that, not a whole lot, right?

But what if you eat like crap every day?

Well, you start to feel increasingly lethargic.

After the first week, you might notice that your skin starts to look unhealthy.

You get winded when you walk up the stairs.

Physical activity starts to feel really hard.

You don’t sleep well.

You then begin to notice changes in the mirror.

Your confidence starts to dwindle.

You find yourself underperforming at work.

It starts to weigh on your mental health.

Before you know it, you can find yourself in a urgent health crisis.

And it wasn’t from one big decision you made.

It was from the thousands of little decisions you made that compounded over time.

The opposite is true when you eat healthy day after day, right?

Think about parenting.

How are your investments compounding for your children?

Have you ever heard of generational sin? Sins that just keep getting passed down.

It compounds, doesn’t it?

Unless… We change our investment, right?

I’ll never forget someone telling me that my biggest contribution to this world might not be something I do but someone I raise.

I have four kids; hopefully, if I make the right parental investment, my children will have a good model to parent from as well, and a new generational cycle starts.

See, that’s the compound effect, and it’s critical in leadership.

Leadership is influence, and influence is built through compounding investments.

It’s when you show up day after day, follow through time after time, stay faithful to the mission year after year.

Those are the building blocks of leadership.

I think it was Bill Gates who said, “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”

I’ve also heard it phrased like, “People overestimate what they can do in the short term, but underestimate what God can do through a life of faithfulness.”

People, myself included, tend to want results fast.

They want rapid growth, quick success, instant gratification…

But great leaders learn a different lesson.

It’s the consistent actions, compounding over time, that lead to a great and meaningful life.

This is such an important principle to wrestle with as a leader.

My grandfather recently turned 90.

We had a big gathering where every single one of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren came to celebrate him.

My grandfather is one of the best men I will ever have the privilege of knowing.

He’s sharp as a tack, he’s retired with financial stability, he can still do a 2.5-minute plank, but beyond all of that, he’s a good man.

His legacy is rich and meaningful.

I sat on the back porch with him over dinner as he started to share stories.

He still wears his wedding ring 14 years after the passing of my grandmother.

He talks about his faith and dependence on God through her slow decline.

She had Alzheimer's.

My grandfather was faithful to her and cared for her so tenderly.

My grandfather never did one specific thing to leave a legacy.

He did thousands of things over his entire life that compounded to the legacy he will leave behind.

And he’s still not done.

He continues to invest with each and every day he’s given.

But you know, I know plenty of older individuals who have the opposite compound effect.

They become increasingly nasty, bitter, and selfish over time.

This is the lesson.

Your actions compound over time and shape your legacy.

So, ask yourself.

Are you seeing evidence of compounding in your life?

Is it the good kind? Or is it the not-so-good kind?

If you want to leverage the power of compounding in your life, it’s easy.

Start.

We’re only talking about one tiny little action at a time.

You don’t need to climb the mountain all at once.

It’s just one baby step at a time.

And before you know it, you can look back and see how all of those little steps led you to something amazing and meaningful.

The key is to never give up.

Keep fighting the good fight day after day.

While that might seem like a good place to end things, we have one final lesson.

And this might be the most important one.

LESSON 3: THE BOX

One of my favorite games is Monopoly.

I remember when I was a kid, the worst part was cleaning up the game after it was done.

Here’s the thing.

Eventually, after the game is over, it all has to go back in the box.

John Ortberg wrote a book on this. He writes, “You don’t get to keep one token, one chip, one game card… In the end, the spoils of the game add up to nothing. In the same way, winning the game of life on Earth is a temporary victory.”

It’s true.

When it comes to our lives, it all goes back in the box.

As a Christian, I believe that this life isn’t all that there is.

I believe that God has prepared a future beyond this life.

But it still raises the question, “What is the point of it all?”

“Why would God put things in front of us to manage if we can’t even take them with us?”

It’s a life test.

It’s about being faithful to God with everything he has given to us and living our lives with an eternity mindset.

The Bible says, “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world… The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls (1 Pt. 1:7, 9, NLT).

It all goes back in the box.

And when it does, will you be happy with how you invested your life?

Or did you make it all about the game and never think about what happens when the game is over?

The reason I invite accountability into my life is because the stakes are high and I need help.

The reason I leverage the power of compounding in my life is because I want to be wealthy in all facets of my life at the end of my life.

Where I make those investments has everything to do with the reality that it all goes back in the box.

I don’t want to make my life all about material things that will inevitably wither.

I want to make my life about serving and loving people.

Ultimately, I’m accountable before my God.

At the end of my life, will he say, “You made it all about the box?”

Or will he say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Do you now see why these lessons changed my life?

Will they change yours?

I hope so.

As always, keep fighting the good fight.