"What is my greatest contribution?"

Kia ora koutou

It is now March! Can you believe how quickly the year is hurtling by? The speed with which time passes means that it is so important for us to think about how we use our time. A recurring message keeps coming up for me from a huge range of sources - serious books and articles, BLOG Posts and Facebook - and it is essentially that no-one on their deathbed ever wished they had worked harder at their job; rather they wished they had spent more time with those people most important to them - friends and family.

Another constant message is the need to value our contribution sufficiently to look after ourselves. Shortly before her death, Celia Lashlie wrote, “We become complacent about the need to take care of ourselves….always something more to do. Some of this is driven by our desire to save the world, others driven by the desire we have  to reach the many goals we have set ourselves - many of them superficial….My wish is that others will learn to stop before I did, to take into account the limitations of their physical bodies and to take time to listen to the yearning of their soul. It is in the taking care of ourselves we learn the ability to take care of others.” Celia died later in the day that she posted this (www.celialashlie.co.nz/celia-says).

One article I read said that the difference between successful leaders and highly successful leaders is that successful leaders say “Yes” to just about everything and highly successful leaders say “No” to just about everything. As a result, Urs, Angela and I are reading a book called Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. On the cover it says it is, “An essential read for anyone who wants to regain control of their health, wellbeing and happiness.” The book says, “The way of the Essentialist isn’t about setting New Year’s resolutions to say, “no”more, or about pruning your in-box, or about mastering some new strategy in time management. It is about pausing constantly to ask, “Am I investing in the right activities?”

There are far more activities and opportunities in the world than we have time and resources to invest in. Many of them will be worthwhile, even highly worthwhile. The question that we need to ask ourselves is, “What is my greatest, most significant contribution?” Essentialism is not about getting more things done; it is about getting the right things done, “It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at your highest point of contribution by only doing what is essential.”

Angela, Urs and I are exploring this as individuals and as a senior leadership team. We are asking the question, what is our greatest contribution and the wisest possible investment of our time? And then we are asking the same of teachers. How should their time be best used to maximise the important outcomes? This would also be a great question to ask about parents....what is parents' greatest, most significant contribution to the education of their children?

Perhaps this is a question we should all be asking ourselves. I imagine the world would be a much richer and happier place if we stopped spending our lives in trying to fulfil the unrealistic expectations we place on ourselves or that we feel others place on us, and just did the few things that are our most significant contribution - our wisest, most prudent investment.

Nga mihi
Lesley