Ever stop to think about what you’re doing and why? about what we as a nation are creating and why?
So here’s a tiny hypothesis: maybe the real depression we’ve got to contend with isn’t merely one of how much economic output we’re generating — but what we’re putting out there, and why. Call it a depression of human potential, a tale of human significance being willfully squandered….
via Create a Meaningful Life Through Meaningful Work – Umair Haque – Harvard Business Review.
Today is Monday, and most of us are going back to work after a weekend, after a Super Bowl. We’re going back to jobs we left last week, to do things we left pending Friday. Some of us are at desks. Others are walking past lockers to an assembly line. Still more are getting things ready for dealing with customers or cleaning up after messy folks.
In the article linked above, Umair asks important questions about what we are doing and how it’s effecting our bottom lines, our lives, and our legacy down the road. He asks if it stands the test of time, if it stands the test of excellence, and if it stands the test of you – in the end, was it meaningful and was it worth it? Those are big questions, deep things for us who are just trying our best to do our thing and to answer YES to each of them.
I’ll add one that, as I read it, is also in the mix of the articles thoughts and questions: does it make life better for those we are with now and for those to follow after?
We do not work in a vacuum. The work we do today impacts people today, and will add something to the mix for tomorrow in ever-widening ripples of influence. I think the way we do that work has as much of an effect as what it is we’re working on. What we make and how we make it is important for now and for later. Yes, economic success is important – but alongside is relational success, being friendly and kind, and working hard with good attitude. Those things all work together to make something worth making. Meaning comes from the experience of the whole, not just the end of the means. Worth comes from the time together and the progress made at least as much as the end result.
So today, we decide to work hard at the same time we decide to play nice together. We add “smile more” and “say thanks” to the to-do list’s tasks and meeting reminders. We will think things through for not only if this will work but also throwing in questions like “is this the best we can do?” and “would my kids be impressed?” - I have the feeling that this is the kind of thing that, if acted upon, will make a bigger difference. And it’s not just the feel-good emotional side, but the very bottom-line economics of our world that will feel the effects of meaningful and relational work practices taking each other into account as well.
Have you thought about what success means for you right now?
I’ve come to a theory that most of us don’t do things THE BEST WAY. Instead, we typically do things THE WAY IT FIRST MADE SENSE. Maybe it was a good teacher, or well-written process instructions. Maybe it’s something you figured out on your own.
Here in South Carolina, constituents are being blitzed by ad campaigns from GOP candidates for President of the United States. A handful of commercials on TV tout the plans of their candidate. Mostly, the rest of them hammer each other with fear and trembling. It might be two to one, negative to positive. It’s been much worse in elections past, and who knows if it’ll get more scathing as the week goes on.
