The Who trumps the What

What do you want to be when you grow up?  I want to be a policeman, a fireman, a dancer, an astronaut.  You might hear any of these if you ask a child this question.  Today as I sit here and contemplate on the aforementioned subject, I am reminded that WHO you are is so much more important than WHAT you do.

I firmly believe that everyone has a god-purposed calling and are bent towards it at a very young age.  Our role as adults and mentors is to help children discover it, encourage it and feed it well and watch it grow.  There is something we are all instinctively good at and naturally have a passion to do.

However, I propose that who we are while we are doing it is what will glean the greater good.  I can be the best in the world at whatever I do, but if I can’t influence a life for good, what is it really worth?  Yes, there are some cases in which you could be a jerk and what you have done would still bring good to the world around you.  You could discover a cure for a disease, for instance, and that would bring good, regardless of your personal impact on society.  As a rule though, the who far outshines the what!

Who we are determines how others are impacted.  Do we exude kindness, generosity and love as we encounter others?  How we treat people has such a lasting effect, for good or bad.  There is a quote attributed to Maya Angelou that says, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.

Who am I today as I carry on with my work and life, as a mom, wife and friend?  That is what will be remembered and leave a potential life-long impression.