A recent discussion in the community raised the question for me. There is a difference between “the change we seek to make” versus “the impact we could potentially create”. It’s easy to mix the two, especially when we just start to seek a change.
The former is the reason to do the work we do, while the latter is the potential outcome from our doing. I learned it’s helpful to keep the desired outcome in mind but it’s challenging to get started if that’s where the focus is.
When we start a project or decide to pursue a dream, it’s inevitable to evaluate time and resources that are needed. How sustainable it is to do this in a long run? Will our efforts pay off at the end? But committing to the change we seek to make requires conviction – something must be done. The decision is a conscious choice rather than something nice to have, or accomplish.
When we find ourselves hesitant between the two, it’s possible that we haven’t connected all the dots yet and are still trying to understand what’s really matter to us. It’s possible that we are trying something that might not work at all, so we can learn from it and figure out the next step. And it’s possible that we are seeking the external validation to achieve a definition of success that's not even our own.
Mistaking “the impact we could potentially create” as “the change we seek to make” rarely works in understanding the nature of our work or how we talk about it.
