What Will Matter?

Did you finalise your New Year resolutions? Got your targets and action plans in place for a stellar year in 2010? Are you lining things up to give yourself the best chance possible of achieving everything you want this year?

Great! You’re amongst a small percentage of people committed to making things happen. People who are willing to be held accountable for their actions, and accept full responsibility for their achievement.

Setting high targets and challenging ourselves is a worthy pursuit. Congratulate yourself as you tick them off your ‘to-do’ list and enjoy the sense of satisfaction that will surely come from achieving your goals.

And as you enjoy the journey, remember that in our rush to acquire more, achieve more and experience more, we sometimes forget that what we have, and do, is less important than who we are and how we contribute.

The words of Michael Josephson, of the Josephson Institute of Ethics, are very timely at the start of a new year and new decade. We are, after all, human ‘beings’, not human ‘doings’ or human ‘havings’.  What will matter?

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.

So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought but what you built,
not what you got but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched,
empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew,
but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.

What will matter is not your memories but the memories of those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

To download a PDF poster of ‘What Will Matter’ from the Josephson Institute, click here.