So, as you wrap up your week, ask yourself: What am I working for? Are you working for retirement or are you working with a purpose? Clayton Christensen, over at the Harvard Business Review, offers some great insight into work, meaning and our purpose in life. In his words:
For me, having a clear purpose in my life has been essential. But it was something I had to think long and hard about before I understood it. When I was a Rhodes scholar, I was in a very demanding academic program, trying to cram an extra year’s worth of work into my time at Oxford. I decided to spend an hour every night reading, thinking, and praying about why God put me on this earth. That was a very challenging commitment to keep, because every hour I spent doing that, I wasn’t studying applied econometrics. I was conflicted about whether I could really afford to take that time away from my studies, but I stuck with it—and ultimately figured out the purpose of my life.
Had I instead spent that hour each day learning the latest techniques for mastering the problems of auto correlation in regression analysis, I would have badly misspent my life. I apply the tools of econometrics a few times a year, but I apply my knowledge of the purpose of my life every day. It’s the single most useful thing I’ve ever learned.
Working with a purpose–no matter what that purpose is–whether it be to put dinner on the table, to provide opportunity for your family to doing what you love, matters. And we are never done. Call it an end-of-the-week rant, but what do you think–are we ever done working?
flickr credit: markbarky
PS: Christensen’s HBR article is quite possibly the best article I’ve read to date. It’s worth the read.
On this particular day, Yoo was helping out with the church’s youth ministry where the youth would go out to the parks of DC and hand out sandwiches to the less fortunate. On this day though, there were more people than there were sack lunches available and the following interaction occurred:
As the kids were getting in the car, one of the homeless men came up to the passenger window of the van. Thinking he needed a sandwich, the pastor said, “Sorry, we don’t have any more sandwiches. But Jesus loves you.” The man started yelling back, “I know Jesus loves me! But what about you?”
Yoo goes on to say how the pastor just kept repeating the same thing: Jesus loves you. And the guy kept asking the same thing: Yes, but what about you? until the car drove off. I won’t do it justice, but Yoo goes on to talk about how impersonal things get sometimes–even when you have good intentions. And that sometimes, to truly make a difference and show you care, you have to get engaged and this may mean you have to roll-up your sleeves, get your hands dirty and get involved.
Does this sound familiar? I find Yoo’s story relevant because in the world of social media–it gets easy to thank someone for a RT. It gets easy to post a photo. It gets easy to give a #followfriday shout out. It gets easy to ask them for feedback or respond to an inquiry. It’s gets easy…and impersonal. So, here’s your challenge:
Take Five Steps Back
What else? How can we make sure we are authentically engaging people and building relationships?
Like they say: If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Don’t be everyone. Be unique–this is how you will offer true value to your customers.
flickr credit: Matthew Yaktine
]]>During one of those moments–you know, the times where you feel like everything is coming at you from all directions and you’re just not sure how you’re going to make it all work–I reached out to my friend Qui, who simply said: “Keep the main thing, the main thing.” Seven simple words that got my head to the ground working, only this time, I was healthier, happier and more productive.
Thus, I want to recognize some colleagues that I know have worked hard this past year to keep the main, the main thing.
Main Thing Keepers
Your turn. Who do you know that is keeping the main thing, the main thing? And better yet, how are they doing it?
]]>During Michael J. Fox’s “Adventures of an Incurable Optimist,” I found myself live-tweeting inspirational quotes, thoughts and ideas from the show. As a gift for a job well done this week, I encourage you to check out the points below and remember 1) that hope is alive and 2) it is attainable.
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“As hard as things are right now, there is something happening with people…people reaching out and helping each other.”
“Maybe that’s where hope comes from. If I could do everything, I would have no reason to be thankful for hope.”
“I’ve discovered it’s not always about winning…it’s about accepting yourself” -MJFOX (Do we do this enough? Remember to celebrate.)
Did you know that the Bhutanese officially measure GNH: Gross National Happiness. It just makes sense when you think about it. They base this on the belief that a commonality of the human experience is to be happy.
“Optimism is contagious…Happiness is contagious. You can give it out in handing out newspapers.” -Michael J. Fox
Is there a link between optimism and creativity and the arts?
“For everything this disease has taken, something of greater value has been given…After everything with Parkinson’s, I’ve learned that what’s important is always making that one step count.”
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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKk8Wyap7sE
“Optimists are open to alternatives in the face of adversity.”
So I ask you: Do you consider yourself to be an optimist? I think if we can attain just an ounce of the optimism, joy and connected-ness that I witness in Michael J. Fox, my mom, my friends, the dear elderly man in my building who smiles and loves the moment in a simple hello….then I think we’ll all be okay.
flickr: Shanissinha
]]>As a new Twitter member, one may be wondering a series of questions that I hope this post offers a “quick guide” to successful Twitter use and community, with the key ingredient reiterated at the end.
“What is Twitter?”
Twitter is a micro-blogging social media tool that asks the question, “What are you doing?” Individuals, who have logged in and registered for the free service, answer the question within 140 characters or within multiple updates and then ‘update’ their status. Twitter works by individuals agreeing to ‘follow’ a certain Twitter account. Once following this account, the person then gets the account’s updates. It is a great medium that lends itself to both one-to-one communications, as well as one-to-many communications. In the past six months, Twitter has gone from 600k accounts, to 2.9 million accounts.
“How can I/We use Twitter?”
The list below outlines 13 different functions that both individuals and organizations can use Twitter’s platform to accomplish:
1. Inquiry Response
2. Reputation Management
3. Promotion
4. Event Planning
5. Brand Equity
6. Marketing
7. Fundraising
8. Reminders
9. Emergency and Disaster Response
10. Provide information, news and tips
11. Research
12. Conversation Tracking through Hashtags (i.e. #WAD08, #healthcomm)
13. Social Networking
“Now what?”
“How do I connect?”
“Where can I learn more?”
In sum, just add meaning. This may seem easier said than done, so I want to help. What are your other Twitter questions? I can already think of a few (tools, metrics, etc.) Feel free to comment, and I will offer more in the comments. Finally, I too am on Twitter: @socialbttrfly. Feel free to follow, and I look forward to creating meaning together.
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