Choose to Do Work that Really Matters

Nobody gave Joan of Arc the job of leading the hitherto battered French army on to victory against the English invaders at Orleans; Florence Nightingale did not receive paychecks or performance appraisals for her work improving the quality of army field hospitals during the Crimean War; Clara Barton – the “Angel of the Battlefield” during the American Civil War – did not go on to found the American Red Cross for personal fame and fortune. Yet each of these women had a greater impact on the world, and are better remembered by history, than most of the generals who led the armies with which they were associated. Here are several questions that can help you think about the work you choose to do:

What would you do if every job paid the same and had the same social status?

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

What would you do if you weren’t afraid? (A favorite question of my friend Traci Fenton, founder of WorldBlu.)

What would you do if you stopped worrying about what other people might think of you?

What would you do if you had only one more year to live?

What would you do if you knew you were going to live to be 110 years old?

Imagine that ten years from now you won the Nobel Prize (or the Pulitzer Prize or whatever other prize suits your fancy or fantasy). What was it for?

What one thing would you like to know that your great grandchildren will be told about you?

What are the implications of your answers? What would you be doing differently tomorrow if you were to act upon those answers today?

This is one of the strategies included in my book Winning the War with Yourself, available on Amazon.