I taught an Ethical Leadership class at Virginia Tech and posed a question to my students the first day of class- “What is a well lived life for you?” It is worth considering. People have various answers for this, but most talk about having good relationships with family and friends, leaving a legacy of something done well, or making a difference in someone’s life.
In my class of senior management majors, very few said making a lot of money was a primary determinate of living a well-lived life. Not that they didn’t want work that was challenging, meaningful or successful. It’s just that money wasn’t their driving force. Maybe this says something about those in an ethical leadership class or that in the end most people won’t look back on their life and rate the quality of their life by how much money they made.
When I later heard the news of former Texas governor Ann Richards’s death, I reflected on a graduation speech I heard her give at the University of Texas back in the 1980’s. She was a powerful and delightful speaker to hear. One point that I most remember from her speech is that she told the graduating class to have a life and not worry so much about having a career. She said- “No one ever laid on their deathbed wishing they spent more hours at the office”.
So true her words are, yet how many of us get caught up in taking care of all the details of our work that we forget to live, or maybe more precisely, we forget what’s really important to our life. Here’s a way to see if you are busy making a life or a living. Check out which idea you were raised with- Do you work to live or live to work? How you answer that question will tell you a lot about the focus of your life energy and what you consider a well lived life.
What do you consider a Well-lived Life? How does your work fit into your definition of having a well-lived life? What role does spirituality play in your well-lived life?
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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.
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