What do you do?

President John F. Kennedy was visiting NASA headquarters for the first time, in 1961. While touring the facility, he introduced himself to a janitor who was mopping the floor and asked him what he did at NASA. The janitor replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon!”

The janitor got it. He understood the vision and his part in it, and he had a purpose. 

There is another story which is kinda similar. Maybe you have heard the story of Christopher Wren, one of the greatest of English architects, who walked one day unrecognized among the men who were at work upon the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London which he had designed. ”What are you doing?” he inquired of one of the workmen, and the man replied, “I am cutting a piece of stone.” As he went on he put the same question to another man, and the man replied, “I am earning five shillings two-pence a day.” And to a third man, he addressed the same inquiry and the man answered, “I am helping Sir Christopher Wren build a beautiful cathedral.” 

That man had vision. He could see beyond the cutting of the stone, beyond the earning of his daily wage, to the creation of a work of art—the building of a great cathedral. And in your life, it is important for you to strive to attain a vision of the larger whole.

Always remember this; you are part of a big picture. Your actions and inactions do either make the world a better place or a worse place. Whatever you do, let your goal be, to make the world a better place.