Over the years of coaching people in all walks of life, I’ve noticed that the most successful people, personally and professionally, have a heightened sense of purpose, a clear direction, a feeling that their life is in some way significant.
Here are some simple tips for creating personal and professional significance.
- Write a journal… whether daily or weekly. No one else need ever read it, but your personal journal makes every day significant in your life’s progress.
- Write out highlights of each week, business and personal, and look forward to what’s planned for the coming week.
- Look for the lesson in everything you do and everything that happens.
- Nurture creativity. Being creative exercises the inner spirit and like a muscle this strengthens with use, and atrophies with neglect. Cultivating creativity helps you see life from many angles and the enjoyment becomes fuller. The business applications are legion.
- Look for passion, enjoyment, fun and enthusiasm in everything you do. It’s your life, and if you don’t feel it’s significant, no one else will.
- Become observant, really seeing things (not just looking at them). This generates attention to important detail in every situation. You will notice what others don’t notice, without being hung up on the small stuff.
- Make every conversation count, every action matter, every thought meaningful and positive.
- Be a “meaningful specific rather than a wandering generality”. Know what you are about, what you stand for, and where you are going… and where each moment is as part of that.
- Take time to reflect. Time to plan. Time to act.
Even when things are not going well, or adversity is all around, taking time to create significance using one of these ideas will change perspective. And when things are going well, the extra significance will add propulsion and extra momentum to those good times.