The power of our success is not in the money or material possessions we accumulate in our lifetime. Our power is revealed when we use our talents and gifts to serve a greater good. I call that the Power of Living a Life of Significance. Our heroes are those who have given of themselves in some small or large way to make a difference in the life of one or more people. Our significance in life is determined by our capacity to extend the gift of hope and inspiration, to reach down the ladder, extend a hand to lift another up.
When most of us think of the Power of Living a Life of Significance, we think we’re on overload now and you’re asking me to do more. I am but I’m not asking you to add more to your full plate. I’m asking that you stop for a moment to think about the people around you.
Recently, in a rush, I found myself at McDonald’s drive-thru. In the moment, living significance, I paid for the person in the car behind me. I don’t know who it was, she didn’t know me. What I do know is that she told several people and probably still feeling good about the kind act. I’m sure, what a joy it was for her to get to the window to find she owed nothing. Someone had done something for her with no conditions, no expectations. How often has that happened in her life? There’s another story of a woman getting herself and her young daughter off the streets of homelessness after recalling what her physical education teacher had told her in fifth grade. “Joy, you don’t deserve what you’re doing to yourself.” Thirty years later, her teacher’s voice led her to make a new life for her and her daughter which included earning a master’s degree. Or, consider the garbage man who hears a thank you from a customer acknowledging that if it weren’t for his work society would be unmanageable. Imagine his sense of value and worth hearing those words and sharing them with his family and friends.
Imagine the lives we touch with expressions of kindness. Our power, our success is our vehicle to making big differences in small ways. It takes only seconds to make the decision to add significance to others lives. Our power is in encouraging others, expressing gratitude and being a beacon of hope and inspiration to those we make contact with throughout our day. Let them know they are significant in our lives.
Are you living a life of significance? This is a question that I ask many of my audiences and coaching clients. We have no idea how or when our act of kindness, our shared talents and skills may inspire others to commit to Living a Life of Significance. If not us, who? Therein lies real Power.
