You know the little sign next to the door handle on bathroom stalls that say “vacant” and “occupied”?
Have you ever wondered what font they use to make that little sign?
Odd thought, I know. Here’s a deeper one:
Have you ever wondered if the person who designed that sign felt like the work they were doing mattered?
Most people don’t have glamorous jobs. So is it possible for everyone to see how their work is changing the world?
Or is their work changing the world?
It’s depressing to think that what you’re doing might not matter.
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. 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.
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
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 shape their character.
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, bathroom signs don’t change lives.
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”?