A common motivation for people during their careers is the desire to ‘make an impact’.
Yet when asked what kind of impact they want to make, they’re unable to explain what that would be.
The good news is you can better understand what ‘making an impact’ means to you by putting parameters around it.
This can be done by answering questions like:
- Have you made an impact if you’ve helped just one person?
- Do you need to help many people? How many would that be?
- 10?
- 1,000?
- 1 million?
- 1 billion?
- What form would your impact take?
- Financial? Access? Knowledge?
- Is your impact related to technological advancement? An improved process? Cultural change?
- Are you passionate about a particular cause?
- Does your impact need to be enduring? If so, how many generations will it serve?
- When all is said and done, how will you know what impact was made?
- Etc etc.
Your aim is to change your default motivation from ‘making an impact’ to something more tangible.
If you can do this, not only can you apply yourself more deliberately and be more satisfied with your choices, but others will be able to better assist you too.
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