Some years ago, I spoke at a dinner for Esperanza ("hope"), an agency that provides medical care in Latin America.
I asked the group: "Given the work that each of you does with Esperanza to benefit people far away, could you tell us about when you first became aware of the world around you?" A great question, or so I thought.
I wanted them to think about how they had acted because of the kind of people they are, but they took the more usual response. They focused on how compelling the needs were. And so we heard story after story about what's wrong with the world. (This was early in my work with these ideas; otherwise, I would have called a time-out and reframed the question.)
That's the way people usually frame their actions on behalf of the common good: "I did it because the need was so compelling."
But could it be that our actions actually say something much more significant about us? The situations may seem important, but we might also think of circumstances as simply a catalyst, an opportunity to express who we are as human beings.
As we'll see, it takes some doing to shift the focus so that people can see what they bring to the table and how their actions add meaning to their lives. Yet that awareness provides the footing on which we stand when we make our greatest contributions.