Why Engagement Matters

Performance management, talent lists, engagement��and Gallup surveys seem to be abundant these days. It seems that during my day job I am constantly thinking about one or more of these. To me, most of this stems from engagement in one’s work.

The truth is that I haven’t worked on a book in a while but even when I was writing several hours a day, I never worried about whether I was engaged enough. I traded sleep to write! I still think about writing all the time, but make the choice to hold off for now as it consumes me and quite frankly I don’t have time to be consumed by that these days.

So what does this all mean? Honestly, I think it means different things for each of us. I’ve read tons of articles about following your passion and I’ve even known some people to do this. I’ve also had a lot of real conversations with people and sometimes life doesn’t work out the way we went it to. Still, that doesn’t mean we should give up on what does engage us or what we are passionate about.

We each have reasons as to why we live life the way we do. Sometimes��we can’t pursue a passion because it doesn’t pay the bills or time isn’t there to do it. And sometimes we are too scared to take the risk.��It just may be a matter of finding a way to fit it in or taking a chance. The way I see it is we can spend our lives disengaged and not actively participating or we can search out and seize what helps us thrive. When we are old and wrinkled, what will we term acceptable? Only we can answer that and believe me, I’m still trying.

Happy writing this week!

Filed under: A writer's life, Toni Kelly