One other lingering thought that came out of our trip to Mount Rushmore. I mentioned in the previous post the infectious enthusiasm and joy that the Park Rangers brought when I asked about my friend Lou DelBianco’s grandfather, who was the master stone carver (if not you can read it here).
That night during a presentation on Abe Lincoln before lighting the mountain, another Ranger mentioned her why…her purpose. She said that she told the stories, answered all the questions, learned all the details not in the hope that she would always get a response or know what she was doing brought an immediate return on all her work…it was because she believed that her dedication, and the joy she brought to all that were around her, would resonate with people well beyond when they left Mount Rushmore.
In short, that everyone she encountered took away something and passed it on. There was no immediate measurement of her work, and in an analytics driven world that may seem old school, but the reality is we should always strive to give more than we get without knowing what the return is always going to be. In sports sometimes that’s hard to understand, especially for people that are so highly competitive. It’s often a zero sum game…someone wins, someone loses. You know the score.
In teaching, in life encounters, we often find that effort leads to so much more than tangible results today. It leads to unseen connections that people recall down the line, and that little things, like what Park Rangers do, matter well beyond getting a high five or a raise at work. Often times that return is intangible and unseen…sometimes it is a payback well down the road, but the effort usually is surpassed by the impact.
Sometimes that’s hard to fathom, when you think your work is well…not working. But when you look at it from a standpoint of impact…and joy just to do…you worry less about legacy and return, and more about unseen contribution, just like the Rangers or so many public servants.
Do for the sake of doing, the payback is often greater than you think.
Guest Post: Summer Lessons Learned…