REdiscover Your Contribution to the World

REdiscover Your Contribution to the World

Greetings, friends! I’m so passionate about helping you reclaim every area of your life that I want to invite you to read this particular [RE]store article to the very end. Not only was it written for you; it’s about YOU! Today, you’re going to receive a KEY to fulfilling work and true productivity….

Over the years, as a speaker, many organizations have asked me to share on the topic of productivity.

Countless books and articles have been written on the subject. And you would think that a professional organizer would be uniquely suited to this subject.

But not a peep from me.  I could never bring myself to teach on productivity. And I always wondered why.

Why didn’t I want to address (what most see as) efficiency and getting things done? Why didn’t I have anything to say on the matter? After all, I’m a business consultant helping people restore their work lives! And “productivity” has been a staple of workforce language for ages.

Recently, the profound reason for my resistance to embracing “productivity” (as it has been commonly understood) has occurred to me….

“Productivity” is a derivative of PRODUCT.

Product comes before “ive” – which is a suffix that means “tendency, disposition, and function.”

So “productivity” SHOULD mean the tendency, disposition, and function of that product.”

And yet, the dictionary definition of “productive” is “able to produce large amounts of goods.”

Therein lies the rub! Common language has turned productivity into something it was not intended to be! Our vernacular has put PRODUCT on the hamster wheel of striving – cheering “more, better, faster!”

And WHY is this a problem????

Because, my friends – prepare for this:

YOU are the product.Woman laughing

You are the product that the world is in need of…you are the solution to the problems others face!

Yes, you!

You’re a time capsule, sent into the world to be unfolded at just this exact time in history.

You have onboard everything that was needed by your family, your community, and your workplace…. and all of that greatness is just waiting to be discovered and unpacked for the world to enjoy!

We are all products. In fact, we are all masterpieces.

We are the workmanship of a Brilliant Designer who had a Brilliant Plan and smiled broadly with delight when you were packaged up and sent as a time capsule into the world.

Our great privilege as a human is to treasure hunt the nature, the features, and the benefits of this product called Me.

And the better we understand ourselves and how we are supposed to function in the world, the better we can contribute our strength to those around us.

This is TRUE PRODUCTIVITY: understanding our nature, our design, our makeup so that we may multiply ourselves in the world.

FALSE PRODUCTIVITY  is what the dictionary and economics have defined for us: the rate of output per unit of input, the sheer extraction of effort.

Too often, we have settled – in the marketplace, in our homes, in our health, in religion, and in every area of life, for the sped-up, effort-laced version of something very simple.

Most teaching on productivity deals with qualifying, volumizing, and super-sizing. We limit productivity to doing the right things, doing them better, doing more, or doing them repeatedly.

And I get it – that is what the business world is looking for….a way to leverage.

But the freeing truth is this: true productivity begins with knowing and implementing YOU in the world.

Now, THAT is “productivity” I am excited about!

Because once you understand that you are the product that was sent into the world, all your work is intended to proceed from this understanding.

If you’re like me, you may have to exit the dizzying hamster wheel of life to fully embrace this truth. You may have to let go of exhausting striving to accomplish stuff.

We’re going to have to get out of the dictionary to get into our destiny!

And letting go of the inhumane definition of productivity – and embracing ourselves as the product – is key to fulfilling work!

Our work is – after all – our contribution to the world.

It’s not our day job.

It’s not our career.

It’s not the sum of our resume.

Our work is what we – the Product – have to give.

It’s time to REdefine work – not as a measure of how “productive” we are, but WHO we are to the world.

In fact, “contribution” means a gift or payment to a common fund or collection.

Most folks try to get a job and try to find someone to hire them. Most are looking for a position, for a paycheck, for significance, for security.

And that’s because we still think that we’re a commodity that someone else could leverage to get more done. To get output from us. To improve profits. To return increase to shareholders.

And as long as we think like this, we will remain UNDER these limits. We will remain a nameless, faceless article of trade.

The moment that we discover who WE TRULY ARE and all the gifts that lie within us is the moment that we become positioned to bring the priceless GIFT OF US to the commonwealth of the world.

From personal experience, I can tell you that looking inside to rediscover the treasure within is a process; not an overnight exercise. It’s an undoing of limitations, one thread at a time. It’s an awakening to victorious living.

I hope you’ll join me on this exhilarating journey of discovering ourselves as the Divinely-Inspired Products that were lovingly packaged and mailed to earth.

As for me, I’ve asked new questions in my own journey. One of the questions I love to ask is: “What was my Creator thinking when – in 1973 – He looked across all the earth and decided He needed one of ME?”

My friends, what was He thinking when He created you? What are the reasons YOU were sent? Therein lies keys to your tendency, disposition, and function!

Here’s to the most delightful treasure hunt of your life! Welcome to the journey of a Life Reclaimist!

 

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