Tip: Make your life count!
We all want to have a good life as well as a meaningful life. You have probably heard the saying, “If you do what you love and love what you do, then every day is like being on vacation.” If you enjoy what you do and are not bored with it, the day seems to go faster. It is very true that in the jobs that I have had in the past that I did not like, the clock seemed to barely move and the days were long. However, when I was working on a job that I enjoyed, time seemed to fly! I have been running Personality Insights, Inc. for 32 years and it seems like about 3 months!
A great goal each one of us could have would be to approach life in such a manner as to make a difference in the world in which we live. Just getting up and going through the routine of daily life can become drudgery very quickly. However, if we know that our life is making a difference and is counting for something good, pure, and positive, then we will be more likely to get up with a “spring in our step.” When we know what we are doing is a making a positive contribution to others, it also helps our own mental, physical, spiritual, and social well-being.
I recently read an excerpt from the book, Good to Great, by Jim Collins, who set out to find what moves a good company to become a great company. Much of the information in the book not only relates to a company, but to individuals as well. The move from good to great does not happen by accident. There are also certain thoughts and behaviors that are necessary in order to move someone from simply being a “good” person to becoming a “great” person.
Collins points out that companies do not have a life of their own. They are made up of individuals who work in them. If a company is to move from good to great, it will be because the people who work there have themselves moved from good to great.
Jim Collins sums it all up when he points out how to make this concept become a reality:
For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.
Perhaps, then, you might gain that rare tranquility that comes from knowing that you have had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution.
Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered.
To me that sums it all up in a short, clear manner. To realize that a meaningful life is directly related to meaningful work is an important truth. What could be more meaningful to a mother or father than knowing they are positively impacting their children with the time, effort, and energy they pour into their lives? What could be more meaningful to a person than to know they have positively influenced their daily environment to be a more uplifting place? Everyday you and I influence the people with whom we come into contact. We will make a difference in the lives of the people we meet, for better or worse, whether we realize it or not or whether we like it or not! Please remember that you matter; you are a difference maker!
Let me encourage you to focus on what contribution you would like to make to your world; the world in which you live. Not many of us will be a Bill Gates, Steven Jobs, Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa. However, all of us can change the world in which we live a little bit each day by making a positive addition and contribution to each person we meet. When you focus on the part you play and the difference you make each day, you will see that what you do really does matter. It really, really does!
Tip: Make your life count!
Have a great week! God bless you!
Dr. Robert A. Rohm
