Welcome to the second installment of our Personal FAQs series, where we are exploring questions that can serve us as we continuously recenter, realign, and move forward with clarity throughout our lives.
To make it easier to have questions that can help based on where we are and what we need at any juncture, we’ll be looking at five different FAQs domains.
The Five Personal FAQ Domains:
- Identity & Purpose
- Work & Contribution
- Decision-Making & Direction
- Integration & Rhythm
- Growth & Legacy
Domain: Work and Contribution
“What you do makes a difference,
and you have to decide
what kind of difference
you want to make.”
~ Jane Goodall
We often define ourselves by what we do. The title in our email signature. The headline on our LinkedIn profile. The responsibilities we list on a résumé.
But here’s the truth: The real question isn’t what you do. It’s what disappears if you don’t.
What difference does your work really make?
Work is how we spend our hours. Contribution is the imprint those hours leave behind. Sometimes they align beautifully. Other times, we stay busy but wonder why it feels hollow. We produce, but don’t necessarily contribute.
Contribution doesn’t always come from a job. It also shows up when you mentor, create, volunteer, parent, or simply show up for someone. What matters isn’t where it happens, but whether it carries meaning and whether it sparks something only you can spark.
That spark is the key. Like a single flame in a box of unlit matches, your work matters most where it ignites something no one else could.
This domain is about strategy: the discipline of continually reviewing what you’re doing and the difference it’s making. Because what mattered yesterday might not matter today. And just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean it deserves your best energy.
When your work and your contribution align, possibilities expand, not only for you, but for everyone touched by what you do.
“Far and away the best prize that life offers
is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
~ Theodore Roosevelt
Why It Matters
- Work without contribution is hollow. It may keep you busy, but it doesn’t move anything forward.
- Contribution without strategy is fragile. Good intentions can burn you out if they’re not aligned with sustainable effort.
- Continuous review is essential. Work and contribution are dynamic. What was once your best expression may now need to evolve.
What to Look For
- Places where your work grows, but your impact doesn’t.
- Signs that your contribution is more visible to others than to you.
- Efforts that drain you but don’t create a meaningful or lasting difference.
- Spaces where your contribution creates ripples far beyond the immediate outcome.
Work and Contribution FAQs:
Remember that these FAQs aren’t about grand revelations. They are about grounding. They are prompts designed to invite honesty and curiosity about our current and future state.
That’s how these FAQs work best. They aren’t here to define us. They’re here to help us uncover what’s trying to emerge. Choose only those that speak to you now.
- Where does my contribution align most clearly with what I say I value, and where does it conflict?
- What question would never get asked in the room if I weren’t there to ask it?
- If I measured my work by ripple effect instead of output, how would the scoreboard change?
- What part of my contribution is invisible but essential?
- If my work stopped tomorrow, who or what would notice first, and who wouldn’t notice at all?
- What doesn’t happen if I don’t show up, and what new possibility appears because I do?
- What am I protecting that no longer needs me, and what am I neglecting that only I can protect?
- When does my contribution create possibilities for others, and when might it unintentionally get in their way?
- Am I building something that outlives me, or am I simply exchanging hours for results?
How do you know you’re asking the right questions?
- You start measuring your work by impact, not output.
- You can name contributions that are uniquely yours and protect space for them.
- You begin pruning and letting go of work that looks good but doesn’t really matter.
- You notice ripple effects from the difference your contribution makes in other people’s ability to contribute.
“Plant trees under whose shade you do not plan to sit.”
~Nelson Henderson
This Week’s Additional Resources (Books, Podcasts):
Books
- Pam Slim – Body of Work → frames your life’s contributions as a portfolio, not just jobs.
- Simon Sinek – The Infinite Game → reframes contribution as a long game, not a quick win.
- Michael Bungay Stanier – How to Begin → practical guidance for choosing and pursuing what matters.
- David Brooks – The Second Mountain → explores the shift from success-driven work to contribution-driven life.
Assessments & Strategy Tools
- Jonathan Fields – Sparked (book) Sparketype (assessment) → a practical tool for identifying the kind of work that sparks you, especially if you’re unsure what contribution is uniquely yours.
- SkillFlow (discovery tool) → a method for reviewing how your skills flow into contributions, surfacing what only you can give, aligned with identity and impact. (This link is to the message on this tool I developed. If you are interested in knowing more, just let me know.)
Talks
- Simon Sinek – How Great Leaders Inspire Action → His signature message about the power of beginning with WHY
- Michael Ivanov → Inspiring author and speaker on leading with purpose and reaching your full potential
