Is Making a Difference Enough for You?
Here’s a question that might interest you:
Is making a difference enough?
Yes, it’s a good thing to make a difference, to help someone or something in some way.
But we must also ask ourselves: is it enough relative to what we are capable of?
Will we satisfy ourselves that we’ve done our best?
An obvious example would be a donation of $100 to a charity or cause. That’s a lot of money if you’re unemployed. It’s hardly anything if you’re a billionaire.
Relativities matter.
However, I don’t want to frame this as being purely about money or donations – far from it in fact. In the work you do and the life you lead every day, it’s worth considering the ways in which you can maximise the difference you make.
If you’re an executive or leader in a large organisation, for example, you can potentially make an immense amount of positive change compared to what you can do on your own or in your spare time.
It doesn’t mean you abandon your junior sports team coaching role or avoid a bbq fundraising shift, it’s about weighing up several factors and making a considered choice. Here’s five questions to help you reflect:
- Are you taking your current circumstances into account?
- Are you playing to your passions and strengths in the difference you make?
- Are you trying to help in too many people in too many ways and doing them all poorly?
- Are you considering your impact relative to what you’re capable of?
- Are you making conscious decisions about what you do / don’t do?
Life is a series of moments, some more important than others, and with the state the world is in right now it feels like every moment matters.
Perhaps everything you’ve done to this point in your life has been in preparation for this, a moment that calls on all of us to maximise the difference we make from here?
Thanks for the work you do in making the world a better place.
Phil Preston is an experienced facilitator, event host and speaker on performance, impact and change.
