If the world was devoid of you, what would it be like and contrast that with if you were the whole world?  Which do you think would be the better place?

The above question was something that passed through my busy brain one night as I prepared for duty the next day at the office.  It seemed like an interesting way to keep my mind busy and off any anticipation of what the next day might bring.  As I lay in bed that night, I continued wrestling with this quandary.

If the world were devoid of me, I am not sure I would have left a huge gap in human existence.  There would be an isolated handful of humans that I have crossed paths with that might be missing out on some positive human condition influence, but the masses of this world would hardly notice my disappearance.  Big picture: my impact on the world is minuscule at best.

When I contrast that with if I was the whole world, I discovered that without the ability to interact and contribute to the lives of even a handle full of other humans, I am one lazy, boring and not highly amusing living being.  I am fully motivated to be in motion because I have humans to interact with.  It is my leadership role in management development that lends to most of my impacting the human existence. My inspiration comes from those around me.  Without them, I would just be occupying space.

The outcome of this game:  In order to make my world a better place, I need to let others inspire me, motivate me and keep me in action, but I need to not isolate my creations to just the handful of people in my life.  I need to look at making a difference one event at a time, so that it spreads beyond the borders of my immediate audience.

The light bulb came on again!  If you want to get somewhere, you need a road map.  So, I started to write my own eulogy.  Having a written document of how I wanted to be remembered, became a way of defining the pathway I now needed my life to take in order to reach my desired final destination.   In order to make this wish a reality, I began to speak it, share it and enroll others in my goals.  I had evolved from the kid who gave everyone chicken pox in third grade to the adult who has a contagious passion for living life to the fullest. We are all part of a plan; sometimes we just need a blueprint to see the big picture.

Sales Performance Training Lesson: Challenge to your staff to take on the game of “what if the world was devoid of you”.  Ask them to think about what it would be like.  Request they each write their own eulogy.  Show them that if that is how they wished to remember, that today is the day to start creating the blue print for their lives.  Inspire them to be contagious about their passions.

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