It’s Friday morning here close to the Canadian Rockies. From my office I can see people rushing to get to work on time. At this time of the morning , as I watch people from my community begin their commute to work, I often wonder how many of them stop to think why they are doing it. Why we do anything is a big question. Because it is like a loose strand of wool sticking out from a sweater. By pulling it we just don’t know how many things will unravel. Why also brings us to the meaning of our work. Or what we have chosen it to mean.
The more one forgets himself-by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love-the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.
After a long, hard week self-actualization may be the last thing on our minds. Yet if our work is not part the meaning we bring to life then we are branding the time spent at it as ‘meaningless’. That would be a shame. I’m talking about bringing meaningful participation into our professional work. When everyone in a team has a strong sense of meaningful participation then usually pretty amazing things are possible. The first step toward that lofty goal is, of course, finding it for ourselves.