Monday 1 May 2017

Meaningful Work and The Meaning of Life

This month I'm celebrating 10 years of blogging. My key learning, unlearning, and relearning from the work that inspired the 1391 posts prior to this one (that I consider highly valuable for purpose-driven leaders now and into the foreseeable future) can be summarised in 3 words: Purpose, Progress and Process.

More on the power of 3 words here. More on why I believe we are living in The Purpose Age here.

The following is the first of five insights into purpose. The title, 'Meaningful Work and The Meaning of Life', is the overarching theme of all posts this month, and the title of the ebook that will contain all posts and be available as a gift for you here from 31st May 2017. There's two sub themes too that I believe are critical to your future success - 'Remarkable is the new normal', and a quest we're all on - the 'remarkablisation of the workplace'. Remarkablisation is defined directly under the video here.

Meaningful Work and The Meaning of Life

I created the following diagram and accompanying word descriptions as a focusing tool for myself. You may find it valuable too.

It’s inspired by an article by Lex Sisney here and mostly by the ‘Start With Why’ book and TED talk by Simon Sinek. More on these here.


Who for me is purpose-driven business owners and leaders who want to achieve better business results at less personal cost. Please visit this page at my website for my short overview of who purpose-driven leaders are.

Why for me is better homes, communities, villages, towns, cities, nations, and world which is a consequence of better business results at less personal cost.

How for me is providing tailor-made experiences and interactions, both one-off and long term, for purpose-driven business owners and leaders.

What for me is leaving the world better than we found it as a result of the above meaningful work together.

Long ago I learnt that the answer to the great question What’s the meaning of life? is to live a life of meaning.

I’ve also learned that to live a life of meaning has much to do with the value we provide other people.

For me a large part of this is my work. The above diagram helps me to have clarity and to stay focused.

You may not work in the traditional sense or you’ve “retired” from such work.

The key question for all of us is: How am I being of service to others?


In this great book of inspiration that you can get here one of the 34 business owners who contributed to the book Dr. Guy Campbell says:

What is the meaning of life?
A life of meaning.

What is a life of meaning?
A life of purpose.

What is a life of purpose?

A life of service.

Who will you become? What will you do next?

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“The question each of us has to ask is simple (but difficult): What can I become quite good at that's really difficult for a computer to do one day soon? How can I become so resilient, so human and such a linchpin that shifts in technology won't be able to catch up? It was always important, but now it's urgent.”
Seth Godin
Full post from him here.

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