A Life Of Significance

Yesterday I had the pleasure of walking down the aisle

No not marriage, not for a while 😉

But rather commencement for graduation from college

At the commencement, there were many speakers, all of which made heartfelt speeches telling myself and the rest of the college graduates how we represent the future of society and that in order for us to leave our mark we need to do something great with our lives and make a difference in the world.

The event got me thinking, everyone at the commencement was tossing around grandesque phrases like, “leave your mark”, “do something meaningful”, “make an impact”, “be SIGNIFICANT”

I found me asking myself,

“What does it mean to be significant?”

A mark on society, a life after death, is something that all of us seek. People like to feel that their life was somehow valued and impacted the lives of others, because it means that they will be remembered and make them feel significant in the world. Having a level of significance in your life makes you feel more loved, cherished, and adds a level of meaningfulness to their lives that may have been previously missing.

In society today, people measure significance by a wide range of factors. Some of these include,

Wealth

Fame

Contribution

Power

Love

While there are many categories for defining significance in someone’s life, they all hold a value in the eyes of society

What I noticed in my talks with my fellow graduates is a wide range of beliefs about what significance means to each of them

What I found is that while the paths that each of them were taking was completely different, they all seemed to have the same end goal in mind when it came to their plans after college

Wealth

The vast majority of college grads I talked to find that their drive in life can be found in obtaining fortune and financial prosperity.

While the need for financial security is perfectly understandable and important more than ever in today’s economic climate, It quickly became apparent to me that these graduates were trying to obtain significance through wealth, whether than basic financial security.

When I asked them about what would happen after they got the nice paying job their answers all varied but all had the same underlying goals.

Money as it seems, gives people the single most important platform in these graduates eyes to obtain the things they truly desire in life

Raise a family

Buy a house

Go on exotic vacations

Buy a fancy car, or trendy clothes

The common denominator between all these may not seem immediately apparent, but upon further investigation it becomes clear, all of these goals offer significance in people’s lives

Whether you are  offering love to children and a spouse and raising a family, putting the hard financial effort into purchasing a home, or traveling to exotic locations around the world, all of them make your life more significant.

While raising a family, buying a house, and traveling are all things that many of us want to do in life,  I believe that many of the graduates I talked to simply like the idea of being significant over the idea of doing these positive things in their lives

In order words, I believe that they feel money = significance

While I do believe that people at a core level are trying to achieve significance by offering their love and contribution to others (raising a family, painting a portrait, etc)  Their goals have become clouded by advertisements and the general materialism that exists in society today.

Money can indeed make your life easier in terms of achieving significance, but significance is not achieved through wealth

What people don’t realize is that you are already significant

In order for you to realize your significance, I want you to write down what made you feel significant in the past, present, and in the future

Really dig deep and write down everything that comes to mind

One your list is written read it back to yourself

Maybe you wrote down some of my previous example of raising a family for your current or future levels of significance.

And maybe for your past you wrote about your mothers love or being the fastest 5^th grader to run the quarter mile

Whatever your examples you need to realize that your significance has always and always will be right there in front of you.

Just as it has occurred in the past, and how you feel it right now, and how it will inevitably be occurring in the future

Your life and its significance already exists because you are here, right now on this planet

You offer your love and your passion in something that you do every day, whether it be a loved one, your work, your partner.

That makes you significant right now

Not Money

Not Fame

Not Power

As long as you are a being on this planet, living or dead, you will offer a level of significance that will be unprecedented, and you will become aware that life = significance

Gabriel