Are You Making a Difference?

Can you imagine reaching the end of your working life and looking back over your achievements as you prepare for a well-earned retirement? Take a moment to think about it. What would give you the greatest satisfaction as you contemplate the long years of toil and effort that you devoted to your career? What would you want to stand out as your lasting contribution or achievement? In other words, how would you ensure that you had spent the precious currency of your time in the best possible manner?

It’s an intriguing question because we get so caught up in the daily distractions of everyday living that we lose sight of why we’re following our particular pathway. We forget that our time is limited and that each day can only be experienced once. And then it is gone forever. Perhaps this is a good moment for you to pause and consider what you’re really doing with your life. Are you following your heart and expressing your gifts and talents? Or are you content to lose yourself in a game or in a cascade of trivial images on social media? If you could appreciate the uniqueness of this moment, of this hour, this day, knowing that it will never come again, how would you wish to invest your time in order to feel that you had made the most of this most precious commodity, the gift that is the limited time allotted to your lifespan?

Sometimes we need to be shaken out of our complacency and brought to face to face with the reality of our mortality. I’m sure that if you knew you only had six months left to live, you’d make some radical choices about how you’d use the time that remained to you. Of course, we all avoid these questions because they are by their nature a deeply uncomfortable subject to contemplate. Yet they can prove to be the motivation we need to wake us up and set us on a more productive course, a pathway that leads to fulfilment and the sense that our lives have been well spent. If you can look back one day at the span of your life and know that the world is better place because you were part of it, then you will know that the journey was worthwhile. Even if you made a positive difference to one other person, the benefit or improvement you brought into their life justifies your existence. The key then is to ensure that you are making a difference, a simple principle that applies to every day of your life. Because we do not know how many days remain for us to make that positive contribution that could help to shape someone’s life and reveal their hidden potential.

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