Today I posted a quote by Helen Keller on social media. Just like every other dead person we revere, she lived well. She lived with each moment of opportunity in mind, not because she knew her name would be praised centuries later, but because she knew small tasks mattered. Over time, those small tasks amounted to the greatness we associate with her name today.
It’s not even that she saw needs as opportunities to complete, as she called them, “great and noble tasks.” She saw them as her opportunities to share kindness and practical help. Her priority was to give what she could from her knowledge and capabilities to enrich other people’s lives. Every time.
And it just so happened that word got out and then we all knew about her kindness. We still talk about it.
If you think you’re on this earth to achieve some great and noble task, you’re not. Because that great and noble task that marks the purpose of your life is not one big thing. It is the accumulation of thousands of everyday choices to care. It’s about you “being” every day. Not doing something once. You’re so much more than a one-off.
“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.” – Helen Keller
