Imagine sitting at your favorite coffee shop and watching people stroll in with a number over their head—like a character in a video game. The number hovers in a circle with either green, yellow, or red numbers depending on the person's sense of Peace. Some people had a green 85% over their head, some a powerfully positive green 92%, while others have a warning yellow number of 62.5% or worse; a guy walks in with a red‐hot colored 40%.

Imagine the numbers figuratively represent how each person is doing at that moment of the day.

In reality, you don't see a number over people's heads, but you know it's there. You can probably guess the number of each member of your family without much effort. People, including you and me, have numbers telling us how at Peace we are or aren't, and those numbers change every day based on five areas of life. We can go from an 85% on Monday to a 58% on Wednesday back to a solid 90% by the weekend. Why? Well, that is what this book is about—helping you learn to understand those factors and move them for yourself into healthy green levels.

That is exactly what the Peace Index, the primary tool of this book, will help you do. It will help you assess your level of Peace and the corresponding categories of unrest.

The Reason “How are you?” Doesn't Work

Virtually every day of my life, I have the same short meaningless conversation with numerous people. I say to Amy at the coffee shop, “Good morning, how are you?” And she may respond, “Good, you?” To which I say, “Great, thanks. Have a good day!”

The truth may have been that Amy was at a 71% (out of 100%) that day because her friend shared some frustrating news about another friend. And me? I may have started my day at an 80% until I received some frustrating information about one of my businesses and I dropped to a 68%.

Our lives fluctuate like the stock market. Outside forces drive our Peace Index up or down. For some of us, we are controlled by our feelings to such a degree that our daily % can feel like a roller coaster, which is an indicator of the chaos in our life. Or the Peace.

Dealing with Reality

Years ago, I was off, and I knew it. I couldn't seem to get my bearings. My purpose was off, my view of the future was gone, and I was getting frustrated by the pettiest things. I knew I was off, but I couldn't figure out why. There were several mornings where I woke up in tears, which is not me.

My wife became nervous when she noticed I was watching the same movie for the sixth time in three months. It's true, I watched We Were Soldiers starring Mel Gibson, six times over five months.

While I knew I was off, I didn't have the language or the tools to help me solve my issues. I had to deal with my reality, and I began meeting with a coach to help me make it through the most difficult time in my life—the loss of my purpose.

Getting healthy means getting real. We must run toward the issues, not away from them if we plan to solve and deal with them appropriately.

The Number

What is your number? Let's calculate it.

You just need to complete the Peace Index below, which will take you on a journey to learn how to improve your Peace.

It is simple but profound. If you use it regularly, the number over your head goes up because you begin to think about the areas that need improvement more intentionally than you did before. You'll find it helps you formulate specific strategies you can use to improve it. This may sound overly simple, but it is that easy.

There are five segments to the Peace Index. Each circle has a number from 1 to 100% regarding Purpose, People, Place, Personal Health, and Provision. Each of them affects our lives powerfully. Some of them are more important than others to you.

The Peace Index is a tool that allows you to determine your level of Peace. Your notion of Peace may vary greatly from someone else's. For instance, one person's 79% could be another person's 89%. That doesn't matter, as you are likely to be consistent in setting your own % numbers.

Combine each segment (Purpose, People, Place, Personal Health, Provision) to determine your Peace Index. Having completed the index, you'll immediately recognize where you're doing well and the areas that need improvement. When you aggregate all five and divide by five, you will get your Peace Index. We carry this number wherever we go—in coffee shops, airplanes, offices, and shopping. Some people wear their Peace Index on their sleeves, while others can hide things extraordinarily well.

Complete the Peace Index to assess your current level of Peace. I want you to evaluate yourself at the beginning of the book and then test yourself again at the end after you have analyzed yourself in every circle and created a game plan for growth. Your number will change by the end and establish an excellent baseline for the future.

Let's take a preliminary evaluation here.

Source Credit: Frog Orr‐Ewing, Dr. Joe Hill© Pub House

The steps are simple: give yourself a number from 1 to 100% in each circle, with 100% being the highest. You can give yourself a 72.5% or whatever you believe is valid for each category. Keep in mind that your numbers could be lower or higher than someone else's. It is like ranking movies. One person's 70% could be someone else's 80%. That doesn't matter. But it is essential that you are honest with yourself on each category.

We will be going through each of these at a deeper level in the chapters that follow. But in taking this preliminary assessment, read the following details and give yourself an initial number based on what you believe your number to be at this moment in time.

Purpose is what gets you out of bed in the morning. Did your day have meaning? Do you feel that you are living out your Purpose daily? Did your actions positively affect the people around you? Does who you are match up with what you do and what you are called to do in life? Give yourself a Purpose score between 1 and100%. ________

When looking at People, you look at how good you feel about the most important people in your life. That could be 5 or 10 or 25 People. These are your family members, coworkers, and friends—the People you spend the most time with within your life. What is your People number from 1 to 100%? _________

Moving to Place, what is your level of Peace related to your spaces: house, neighborhood, town, city, or region? And how do you feel about your workspace or office? All these areas combined summarize your Peace level related to Place. What is your Place number from 1 to 100%? ________

When you think of Personal Health, you might naturally think about your physical health. Physical is one‐third of what I mean by Personal Health. Mind, body, and spirit make up your total Personal Health, so where are you when you think of your mental, physical, and spiritual health from 1 to 100%? _________

Lastly, what is your Peace level as it relates to Provision? By Provision, I mean the resources you have available to live your life and do what you desire. Provision is your salary and overall earnings. Most people would gladly accept a raise. That's not what I am talking about. The issue is whether your lack of income keeps you up at night. How well do you feel about your Provision from 1 to100%? _______

Now, add up all of the numbers and divide the total by five. This will give you your Peace Index in real time. As we go through each chapter you will notice your Peace Index change, most likely improving. Until then, this will provide you the number over your head right now.

When to Measure

“So, how often can I do this?” you ask. My answer is, “Yes.”

You can take the Peace Index as many times as you want. I know some people who calendar a quarterly retreat to walk through the Peace Index for themselves and share it with those close to them. Some people calculate their Peace Index three times in a single week if they are in a difficult spot.

The key is to measure and understand that the Peace Index opens the door to self‐awareness, and as my friend and business partner Steve Cockram likes to say, “You never graduate from the school of self‐awareness.”

Measure away, friends. It will just make you better.

You Can't Give What You Don't Possess

Because the Peace Index is about health, you can see where you are healthy and where you are not. When you are not healthy, you may negatively affect someone else's Peace Index. Did you get that? If you are significantly off with your Purpose, you might be causing someone else's People number to be lower because they are trying to help you.

In other words, people don't just recognize your Peace Index, they are often affected by it. Life is a series of cause and effect. There are ramifications of our actions: consequences. When you are not at your best, you have very little to give to others.

Conversely, you can give what you possess. Those who experience Peace help others experience it, too. It is the best contagion of all. But to give Peace to others, you first need to cultivate it in yourself.

This anonymous quote says it best: “When things change inside you, things change around you.”

Intentional Living Has Great Rewards

After going through the Peace issues I mentioned early, I decided to flip my life to become more intentional, specifically as a husband and dad. That meant that I began controlling my emotions instead of letting them control me. I started working on discretion and discipline in managing my work, relationships, and health. People noticed.

I realized that I was focused in certain areas and accidental in other areas. The accidental decisions began to creep into the focused areas, and I suffered the consequences. I will never forget the day I was sitting in my office in Atlanta when I began to experience some physical issues caused by stress. I was CEO of the companies over John Maxwell's training businesses, the Catalyst Conferences, and the Chick‐fil‐A Leadercast. We worked so hard to make these businesses thrive, which they did. While I was focused intently on my Purpose, I gave little attention to my Personal Health, and the stress of it began to affect the health of the other.

My Peace Index lacked balance. My over‐focus on one circle (Purpose) and lack of focus on another (Personal Health) began to affect my Purpose. At the same time, I didn't realize that I was taking my People for granted. I was losing while winning. It took an MRI, which revealed stress‐related ailments, and an amazing grace‐filled wife to help me slow down enough to see what accidental living was producing.

I began to slow down to speed up. I started to refocus on a bigger Purpose, authentic relationships, and focus on my health (mental, physical, and spiritual). It impacted me so much that I eventually found a replacement to take on my CEO role while transitioning to our current business, GiANT Worldwide. We also moved to London, where we began to live again.

I began to hope again. My Purpose got dusted off as well. While in Atlanta I had allowed my Peace Index to drop to an overall 65%. The change of role and Place affected everything. I had to choose Peace and fight for my higher good to experience it.

How about you? Is it time for a reset of your Peace level?

Is your hope covered up with fear, worry, or despair?

The Hope Meter

Hope is crucial for Peace to exist. It is the belief that our future can be better than our past.

I will never forget when I knew my oldest daughter, Addison, needed some hope. We were driving and I was asking my normal check‐in questions. As I took her through the Peace Index, it was evident that her number was very low and needed a boost.

That is where my daughter Addison and I created the tool you are about to learn—the Hope Meter.

I asked her a simple question. “On a scale of 1 to 100%, how well do you feel today about your future (your tomorrow)?”

In my daughter's case, she couldn't see the future very well because of some issues with her Peace Index. That caused a bit of concern, so much so that we used a pen and paper to create this Hope Meter tool:

© Pub House

When Steve Cockram and I began creating many of the tools you will use in this book, we started with the concept that they need to be written for an educated 13‐year‐old to have the best chance of scaling inside organizations and families. My daughter was much older at the time, but the premise still stands—create a visual tool with a common language to allow people to respond to it for their Personal Health and to teach other people.

While I don't remember the actual number Addison gave me that night, I do remember that her number went up dramatically after we discussed it. We identified the pain and frustration and created a plan to address the issue. She realized that a People issue on the Peace Index had been so consistent and had caused her to catastrophize the future so much so that her hope began to fall dramatically.

Hope is the desire for certain things to happen. Hopelessness is rampant in our world. It is the feeling of despair that what you want to happen won't occur. Hopelessness over the long term leads to a depressed spirit, which is like being covered by layer after layer of disappointment and sadness.

What is your Hope Meter in this season of your life?

As I write this today, I am in the high 80s on the Hope Meter. I am optimistic about the future. I am not in the 90s, mainly because I was asked to write this book in 30 days and am in the middle of it. I believe my Hope Meter will climb significantly as I get excited for its release and for you to be impacted by it and give copies of it to other people, encouraging them immensely.

If you want to develop hope in others, use the Hope Meter to ask them where they are and walk them through the Peace Index to create a game plan to improve.

Back to the Number

Just like the Peace Index, we all have a Hope Meter. However, the Peace Index is a more holistic number that can lead to solutions.

A high Peace Index gives you more hope, allowing you to think more clearly about the future. You view the obstacles as challenges instead of barriers when your Peace Index is higher. A person with a higher Peace Index is more secure, confident, and humble. They can bring their best to others because they are healthy, as we discussed, and will tend to empower others more willingly.

Someone with a lower Peace Index is too absorbed with their issues to lead others well. It is hard to bring their best self to others because of their lack of health, and it can undermine their influence and disrupt others very easily.

The Peace Index is a self‐evaluation of a person's feelings regarding their current reality. We will dive into each segment in the following chapters and see why one is higher than the other. We will address the one that tends to drive you and the one that tends to be the constant issue.

In the end, I will help you build a game plan to make that segment better so you can work to control the controllable, where possible.

Your Peace Index number is a number that shares your life. You will need someone you trust to help you process your number because some people tend to list your number too low, while others may tend to overstate their health. You each know who you are. Let's agree to work together to get healthy. Deal?

Now, let's dive into the first circle, Purpose, so that you can begin to experience a higher level of growth.