Core Words: Duty

This is the last of the series on Core Words, knowing and understanding yourself in order to define what is important in your life and reframing your life around those things. The last topic to cover is the last pillar or conduit. For me it's the word "Duty."

There's a foundation from which everything in life stems and a goal towards which you aim in everything you do. Family is a place where you learn and grow in these two aspects. The other parallel is duty. Duty is a big word with different meanings for different people. And if you were to throw a stone at any one person on the street and ask them to define duty, they will probably have a different answer for you.

Duty for me is two fold. It's what you do in life, as in your profession, your calling, or whatever else you busy your time with during your waking hours. And it's the obligations of life. Here we will explore both and how they are interrelated.

First off is your profession and/or calling or just what you do. This is your job and work, either what you get paid to do or what you have decided to do because you have a passion for it. This is probably the next heaviest use of your time in life, aside from family. This is probably the place where you spend most of your energy and waking hours. This is the place where if you were intentional in what you're doing, you can make an impact on the lives of those around you, those you work with or those you serve in your work. Work is often viewed as just a way to pay the bill, and this isn't wrong, but work can be so much more if you take it intentionally as a place where you can make an impact on the world around us.

Think about it. Whether you are the cashier at a big box store or the executive of a multi-million dollar enterprise, you will interact with people. Your attitude at your position and how you interact with those around you will say much about what is grounding your life and what you are aiming for. For the cashier that is more likely than not making minimum wage and probably not fully making ends meet in life, this job can be a get-it-done-to-get-the-cash-and-move-on or it can be a platform in making the lives of those that spend those couple minutes with you at the checkout a nightmare or a paradise in shopping. When you are aiming for excellence, your attitude and your ethics will reflect it. The people that come to you will see a difference that you ain't working just for the cash but rather you are also working to make this essential part of life better. And if you are the executive? Yeah, you have power, prestige and worth, in the world's eyes, but how do your clients and workers view you? Do they view you as the monster of a boss that they need to gravel and kiss up to? Or are you an executive that is known to care and take care of the staff, one that wants to help build up those around you and move them on to a better place in the world? It makes a difference.

Our work place is often like a second home for most of us. Our coworkers can either be competition in a cut-throat world in the advancement of yourself. Or they can be the family away from home that is working mutually together to make the world a more humane and liveable place. A place where you can make a difference and an impact, no matter how small or isolated, is still an impact.

Moving on to duty as obligation, this is the part where duty isn't so much about what you do, but what you have committed yourself to. Yes, your work and your volunteering is a form of obligation but what I want us to delve deeper in is this idea of a deeper obligation in life. The type of obligation that you make within your heart and your mind. The type of obligation that you are willing to stake down and take a stance for.

These obligations take many forms. For some, it is the obligation that they will be there for their family no matter what. For some, it is the deep belief that is driven by their foundations of life to live a certain way or to make an intentional decision on how life is to be done. It's a heart issue. Where are you going to place your life on? What are you fighting for in life? Are you fighting for something that is worthwhile?

In pulling back and understanding the two aspects of duty, you may see why I have chosen this as one of my Core Words. Duty in what you do, how you do it and why you do it. It's the place where you live out what drives you, and the place where you practice and work toward the goal of life.

I'm not sure about you. But as we close this series on Core Words, I hope that you have been challenged to reflect upon life, on what your foundation is, your goals, and how you're going to get there. For me, my foundation is built upon faith in something greater and bigger that creates purpose and I am working toward integrity in all I do, via the means of family, the place where I have learned both and where I can practice both, and of duty, making an impact on the world in which I live.

I hope this has been an eye opener. I hope that you too would reflect and select your Core Words in life.

I would love to hear back on your thoughts, comments and what you have selected as your Core Words.

(This is part 5 of 5 pertaining to the ideal of Core Words.)

Part 1: Defining and Knowing Yourself

Part 2: What is Integrity

Part 3: Baseline of Faith

Part 4: Family

Part 5: Duty