Contributing

"Strengths are for a better humanity," said the Moon after saying Basmalah and Salaam. "While your talents are nature’s best building blocks, they serve the world best when your efforts are directed outward—not inward. Being “anything you want” or “more of who you already are” doesn’t add value for society unless it provides something others need. Simply put, your strengths and efforts must be focused on specific contributions you can make to other people’s lives.

However, most of us are so caught up with daily demands that we continually put off serious reflection about how to make a greater contribution to the teams, families, and communities around us. This is a consequential mistake. Tomorrow is gone in an instant, another month rolls by, and eventually you have missed years, and then decades, of opportunity to make meaningful and substantive contributions.

Knowing who you are—and who you are not—is essential. But it is only a starting point. All the talent, motivation, and hard work in the world will not be valued or remembered if it does not help another human being.

Most people agree that life is not about focusing on self-oriented or monetary ambitions. It is about what you create that improves lives. It is about investing in the development of other people. And it is about participating in efforts that will continue to grow when you are gone. In the end, you won’t get to stay around forever, but your contributions will.

A growing body of evidence suggests that the single greatest driver of both achievement and wellbeing is understanding how your daily efforts enhance the lives of others. Scientists have determined that we, human beings, are innately other-directed, which they refer to as being 'prosocial.' According to top researchers who reviewed hundreds of studies on this subject, the defining features of a meaningful life are 'connecting and contributing to something beyond the self.'

Knowing that we’re making meaningful contributions to others’ lives leads not only to improved work outcomes but also to enhanced health and wellbeing. Even small acts of generosity trigger changes in our brains that make us more relieved. With each prosocial act at work, energy is created that measurably benefits 'the giver, the receiver, and the whole organization.' Life is not what you get out of it ... it’s what you put back in.

If I pay you to do something and you do it solely because I am paying you, that is not a partnership or relationship. It is an economic transaction.

There is simply no reason why you should have to work indefinitely for a paycheck alone. Sure, there are times when making money to get by is necessary in all our lives, but over time you must push beyond the paycheck.

While 'working to live,' may have sufficed in the early evolution of the relationship between people and organizations, it is not a sustainable way to think about work today. You deserve a job that serves your life. You deserve a life that serves a job, career, calling, or higher purpose.

Finding unique ways to contribute need not be difficult, especially once you adopt a new mindset about what work is. The process starts by changing the way you think about work; redefining the way you approach what you do each day. So, challenge your self about how your daily efforts can be far more than 'just a job.' Work today is structured around a fundamentally flawed assumption: that you are doing something because you have to.

If you asked some people, what do they 'do,' they would say, 'I am an attorney,' 'I stay home with my kids,' or 'I am in commercial real estate,' it doesn't reveal much. The most important question is 'what do you spend the most time doing?'

You maybe often hear the attorney talking about relationships with her clients and how she enjoys arguing in a written form while working on legal briefs. You hear parents speak about quality time they spend with their kids on evenings and weekends. At times, people hesitate before responding, as they realize their average day is not as enjoyable as it should be. Most people are not thinking about their work as being oriented to serving others.

The prominence of 'money' suggests that people see work more as a necessary means to an end than as an effort steeped in meaning. Also particularly intriguing is that none of the words are about the specific contributions people make in their work, such as developing talent or helping people become healthy or providing useful information.

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Real growth is the product of following your contributions more than your passions. Simply asking “What can I contribute?” leads to a better path and result than starting with yourself. This applies far beyond the realm of careers, but to show how orienting your efforts outward to create perpetual growth for generations to come."

Before leaving, the Moon said, "Two friends had been playing a round of golf every Saturday for a few years with one golfer always winning. One particular Saturday the match was closer than usual. In fact, it was tied when they came to the eighteenth. Try as he might, the losing golfer couldn’t seem to pull out a victory, and started swearing and throwing his clubs.

'Hey, calm down,' said the winning golfer. 'You played a great game and had me worried right up to the end.'

'That’s why I’m so angry,' said the losing golfer and accidentally said,. 'I cheated like crazy and still couldn’t win!'

And Allah knows best."

Citations & References:
- Tom Rath, Life's Great Question - Discover How You Contribute to the World, Silicon Guild Books
- James Reason, The Human Contribution - Unsafe Acts, Accidents and Heroic Recoveries, Taylor & Francis

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