Perspectives

Live a life that matters

I’ve discussed the importance to live a purposeful, meaningful life to thousands of people throughout my career. We’ve also taught hundreds of leaders to do the same in our True Growth Academy. I’m often disappointed to learn the number of people who have yet to take life seriously. Life entangles people in a web of struggles, which serve to divert their eyes from seeing the important matters of life.

Just recently, a beautiful PowerPoint presentation on this subject showed up in my inbox. I hope you enjoy reading the words as much as I enjoyed reading them.

• Ready or not, it will all come to an end.
• There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
• All the things you collected whether treasures or baubles, will pass to someone else.
• Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
• Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear. So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.
• The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won’t matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end.
• It won’t matter whether you were beautiful, or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
• So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?
• What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.
• What will matter is not your success, but your significance. What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
• What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered, or encouraged others to emulate your example.
• What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
• What will matter are not how many people you knew, but how many people will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.
• What will matter are not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
• Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Like you, sometimes I make inappropriate choices and allow frustrations and disappointments to interrupt the joy of living. That is usually followed by a conversation about how “stupid I was to make such a choice”.  I’m getting better at making better choices, but perfect I’m not.
Living enjoyably is a constant challenge. I now have Living a Life That Matters filed in my daily reading file. Let me encourage you to start a daily reading file. Mine contains one document outlining my vision, purpose, goals I’m working to achieve, several prayers, and a description of the day I want to live. Reading this content every morning provides a psychological boost of energy to start the day and excellent guidelines for the choices that will be made throughout the day. Then at the end of the day, you can spend a few minutes thinking about the successful choices you’ve made to Live a Life That Matters. Trust me, once you start this ritual, you’ll like it!

Larry Cole, Ph.D., founded TeamMax®, Inc. and the TeamMax® methodologies to improve employee performance to maximize financial success. He is the author of People-$mart Leaders: Maximize People, Performance & Profits.  Each year he speaks to thousands of people on personal development, change management and measuring behavioral change.  He can be reached at: larry@aligningchange.com