Make your life count!

We all want to have a good life as well as a meaningful life.  You no doubt have heard the truth that if you enjoy what you do and feel like you are making a difference, then every day is like being on vacation.  I recently heard someone say that if you enjoy what you do, it even makes the day 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!  The more you enjoy your job and what you do, the faster time seems to go.

A great goal for this coming year would be for each of us to approach life in order to make a difference.  Just to get up and go through the routine of life on a daily basis can become drudgery very quickly.  On the other hand, however, if we know that our life is making a difference and is counting for something that is good, pure, and positive, then we will be more likely to get up with a "spring in our step."  We will know that what we are doing is a positive contribution to society and to our own mental and social well-being as well.

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 a great company.  Much of the information in the book can relate not only to a company, but to individuals as well.  The move from good to great does not happen by accident.  There are certain thoughts and behaviors that are necessary in order to move someone from simply being a "good" person to becoming a "great" person. 

It is also true 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. 

In his book, 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!  To realize that a meaningful life is directly related to meaningful work is an important truth.  What can be more meaningful than a mother or father knowing that they are positively impacting their children by the time, effort and energy they pour into them?  What can be more meaningful to a person than to know that he or she has influenced their work environment to be a more positive, uplifting place?

As you begin this New Year, let me encourage you to focus on what contribution you would like to make.  I do not believe it has to be world-changing.  It is not the size of the contribution that matters.  Rather, it is the impact that it makes within your sphere of influence.  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.  When you focus on the part you play and the difference you make, you will see that what you do matters.  It really does!

This information is provided in congruence with Personality Insights USA.