If you want to experience true greatness, choose to pursue significance over success
To change the world, we do not need grand gestures and superheroes. We need simple actions that ignites and influences the world in profoundly important ways. All we need to do is pay attention, to see possibilities where others see limitations, to take action where others stay idle, and to focus on making a difference in other people’s lives.
The difference between a life of success and a life of significance is what we give attention.
We can choose to pay attention to things that are happening in our own lives or ask ourselves what we can do to improve the lives of others.
Glenn Cunningham was an Olympian who lived a life of significance. He was terribly burned as a child but braved those odds as he learned to walk, to run, and to participate in the Berlin Olympics. While Wikipedia records his accomplishments, the story ends with the record of his retirement in 1940. However, the five decades between retirement and death turned out to be the time he lived a life of significance. Those 48 years delineate the difference between success and significance.
With his wife, Ruth, they became dedicated to providing parenting and guardianship to children. Before Glenn died, his family had fostered and raised 9,000 children. This project elevated him from a life of success and status to one of significance and impact.
“The victories we clamor for often end up feeling hollow. The individuals who attain the highest forms of achievement in life don’t sprint toward success, but significance.”
John O’Leary
Give attention to what you can do for others. Ask yourself what you can give. When news of John’s fire accident broke, a Hall of Fame announcer, Jack Buck, heard about it. He decided to visit the hospital where the 9-year-old John was being treated. That step became the first of many that he would take to transform the life of John. By paying attention, he was able to encourage John to learn to write despite his amputated fingers. His actions weren’t loud, weren’t overly heroic, weren’t costly but he consistently invested in others.
One person can make a difference but the person must believe.
When we believe in the power of one, we begin to see where we could make a difference. We begin to see opportunity as we start to pay attention. When you believe, your heart will open to love and to the fact that every life matters.