This week I had the most fascinating experience while on vacation with my family.
First a bit of context. I’m in the middle of a LinkedIn experiment where I’m attempting to post 100 times in 100 days. May 25th marked my halfway point. It is not easy, and I have slipped into asking myself questions that are not particularly useful mid-experiment.
These questions sound like
- Does this even matter?
- Who even sees what I’m sharing?
- Words alone aren’t enough to change anyone, so why bother?
Now back to my family vacation. We were at an amusement park, and I stepped away from my wife and kids for a moment to talk to a worker about a ride that was down. When I returned, my wife was talking with another mom with young kids. I thought, wow what a small world she found someone she knew at this park. As I got closer, I realized she looked familiar, but I couldn’t place her.
My wife then said, hey this is Holly, and she has seen your posts on LinkedIn and came over to say hi. Holly and I shared some classes at BYU during our undergraduate degrees. It was so fun to connect with someone in real life that has seen what I am sharing on LinkedIn.
What was fascinating is how I felt afterward. Of course, I was thrilled to know that my posts mattered enough that an old friend would come say hi while they were on their family vacation. I also realized the external validation is not why I share and do the work. I returned to my family, and we created fun memories together. I didn’t think about my interaction with Holly once until I had returned home.
When doing the work of transformational leadership, you never can really know what impact you will have on other people. And in the end that doesn’t matter. I’m doing what I feel is right, aligned to my values and purpose. The compensation I receive for the work is that I continue to get to do the work.
Take a moment now to reflect back on your week. What have you learned this week from your experiences? Write it down.
If I had not sat down to reflect, I would not have gained the insight of not need external validation for the work I do.
