Do you struggle with wondering if what you’re doing is having an impact?
I had an odd thought the other day.
I walked into a public restroom and as I walked by one of the stalls for some reason I noticed the little sign next to the door handle on the stall that says “vacant” and “occupied”.
This is how my brain works: My first thought was:
“I wonder what font they used to make that little sign.”
I know, strange observation. You’d be surprised how often my mind goes down rabbit trails like that.
But then it led to a deeper thought…
I thought, “I wonder if the person who designed this sign felt like the work they were doing mattered.”
Maybe you’ve felt that way before, and maybe you’ve asked a question like that before.
Most people don’t have glamorous jobs that allow them to clearly see the deeper impact they’re having on the world.
Teachers, doctors, and motivational speakers can all pretty clearly see the change they’re making. But what about the rest of us?
What about the industrial designers and assembly line workers and utility workers? Is it possible for them to see that their work is changing the world?
Or is their work changing the world?
In a society where everyone is connected and we constantly compare what we do to everyone else, it’s depressing to think that what you’re doing might not matter…
Especially when it feels like people around you are doing things that are meaningful.
But what if the person who designed that bathroom sign didn’t do their job? What if no one did that job?
Well, we would never know if we’re about to walk in on someone using the restroom or not. And that’s a real problem.
But there’s a more practical problem with abandoning work that feels menial. And it centers around this question…
What’s the threshold to “meaningful” impact?
How many lives does your work have to change for it to be valuable?
I think we’ve gotten it backwards in America.
We’ve come to believe that if we can make a large scale impact, then we can justify small scale neglect.
In other words, it’s okay to bypass the small things at the expense of having a “large” impact – financially, environmentally, politically, socially, etc.
This line of thinking goes like this:
- It’s okay to be rude because I’m late to an important place
- It’s okay to go into a little debt because what I’m working towards is worth the trade off
- It’s okay to spend less time with my family for an extended period of time because I’m building something for their future
Let me be a little more direct:
American culture lures us into the lie that achieving our dreams is of utmost importance.
For the designer who created the bathroom sign, I pictured his or her family.
I pictured the house they would save to buy so their kids would grow up in a safe neighborhood.
I pictured them saving for a swing set and weekend camping trips and school supplies, all so their kids could make memories that would last for generations.
I pictured the money they would save for college because their kids wanted to become architects and doctors and engineers.
I pictured the work ethic they would instill in their kids so that when they got to college they wouldn’t party, skip class, and drop out.
I pictured the values they passed along to their kids – values that when you’re faithful with a little you’ll be faithful with much.
This led me to ask myself a tough question:
How would I feel if I knew that my life’s work was for an audience of five?
What if my four kids and my wife were the only ones I focused on impacting?
Would that be enough for me? Is that enough for you?
I’m not encouraging you to think small, and yet, at the same time I am.
What if instead of striving for personal significance in the large things we started striving for personal satisfaction in the little things?
And I don’t mean begrudgingly doing the little things so you can one day have a meaningful life.
I’m asking, what if the small things are the point?
Here’s what will happen:
Once you start focusing on doing the small things well, they will inevitably snowball into bigger things.
The man who loves his wife well and does his daily work with pride almost always ends up gaining more in other areas of his life.
It’s not because he was working his way up to that. He just simply cultivated a character that could naturally carry more weight.
But having more isn’t what makes him happy. He understands what living a meaningful life truly is.
Let’s be honest, the bathroom sign I saw that day is never going to change anyone’s life.
Sometimes we try to make the “purpose-chasing” narrative fit the insignificant things in life.
We’ll say things like, “You never know how your work can impact another person.”
But sometimes work is just that – work that needs to be done. That doesn’t make it any less holy.
It’s okay that the designer of the bathroom sign probably isn’t going to change anyone’s life with the signs he or she creates.
The point we often miss in American culture, and the thing that’s driving us to anxiety and depression, is that your meaning is not found in your work.
Meaning is found in your audience of five, whatever that looks like for you.
Then it will naturally expand from there.
So…
Who has God given you the ability to invest in right now?
Life is about the people we get to interact with, not the projects we get to build. The projects we build are only as valuable as the lives they interact with.
Building things that impact people is a worthwhile pursuit. But using or neglecting people to build things will always leave us disappointed.
So who’s your “audience of five” and what’s your “bathroom sign”?
Ask yourself these questions:
- Who can I set an example for and invest in today?
- What’s the work I have in front of me that I can do with excellence today?
Because regardless of how cool or boring your work is, those two things are the only things that create a meaningful life.