Q&A
The Question
What are you doing today that will matter in the end?
The Answers (came from far and wide)
scroll below to read
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Thanks Uma, for a soul-searching opportunity that your question entailed. Having lived my life, setting goals demanded by my life situation, prioritizing family/children, finding the right work-life balance and teaching courses and writing books on Gandhian thought will matter.
As will, My 2 decade-long on-going work in the social sector, through non-profit, Shanti Sahyog Team of 42, serving 17 South Delhi slums and Tughlaqabad Village, transforming their lives through education, health-care, vocational training and legal help / rehabilitation for domestic violence victims.
Gearing all my activities – including meditation – to my spiritual evolution is what will matter in the end.
Suman Khanna Aggarwal, Founder and President, Shanti Sahyog – a Gandhian NGO
Wow! Some question! My answer follows
It’s so easy to say “nothing!” Everything matters though. I choose to live in a city instead of a suburb, this improves my carbon footprint and helps create community. I buy as much of my food as I can from local farmers, this improves their quality of life and helps expand our local supply. My days are filled with creative activities, and yet, it’s the morning walk and the local carrot that will be my legacy, not anything I write or publish.
Brian Yarvin Author, Photographer www.brianyarvin.com
I am switching off lights that are not required.
I have stopped using shaving cream and soap to avoid sending harmful chemicals in the water chain
I am reading and making others read too and socialize over books
I am saving water for my future generations
I don’t pluck flowers (trees reproductive organ) to wish anyone or pay tributes to God
I am not buying new clothes that I don’t need or a new car or a phone or a new house or an unnecessary travel
Mohit Gupta, Founder of City Book Leaders
What I’m doing that will matter in the end is: being a strong presence in helping others towards their trips/vacations and helping others to find ‘their way’ or at least a location that caters to their personality.
Rob Ham river/wildlife guide
Writing. The legacy of words for my children. As a woman in my mid-forties, I find myself endlessly fascinated by the everyday stories of people like you and me rather than the lives of the rich and the famous. I’d like to think my anecdotes and notes about everyday living in the 21st century will someday be fodder for an avid anthropologist centuries from now. That is a rather vain thought but truly one that drives me to continue writing and sharing.
Lakshmi (Author. Parent) www.lgiyer.com
Having retired from photography for hire, I’m organizing the work I’ve created for myself over the decades. I’m working toward uploading copies of my hand-printed silver prints, Polaroid transfers, Cibachromes, and C-Prints in an effort to monetize my inventory. This will matter to whoever has the task of dealing with my work after I’m gone. At that point, will I care? Will anyone?
Deborah Gray Mitchell, Photographer
In recent years, after 12 years in investment banking, sharing has become a driving force in my life.
Sharing my experience
to motivate young people to find their way, starting with my children.
Sharing my network
in order to help people around me facilitate their daily life or simply connect people with common private or professional interests.
Sharing my Franco-Thai heritage
through cooking classes and special events like the International day at my children’s school.
Sharing tradition
like my „Adventkranz“ workshop for my international friends or the French „Galette des Rois“.
Sharing my creative enthusiasm
in DIY projects or new social initiatives
Sharing precious moments
with my family, friends.
Laure Souque, a multifaceted, creative human
Life has become a race against time, wanting more, wanting bigger. But to what cost? We not only lose ourselves in the process but also the near and dear ones around us. More than ever, time, presence, genuine care, and the ability to silently listen and create a space for the other to be heard and understood, is of great wealth. A person, any person – child or adult – when given the proper environment to simply “be”, can create waves of fulfilled purposes, not just your own. “A society grows great when people plant trees, whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
Elinor, Managing Director, Learimo
We inspire people to travel the world. In a time where populists all over the world get far too much attention and power, people vote Nazi parties and borders are getting built, instead of torn down, it’s so important that we understand that we are all “same same, but different”. To encourage and to get people to travel is far more important than many people think. Traveling gets us to meet different cultures and to talk to people with completely different and interesting backgrounds. Those experiences widen the mindsets. Two popular quotes reflect this nicely: „Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain “Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled.” –- Mohammed. Melvin, the founder of Travel Dudes, a pioneer and one of the top travel bloggers in the world.
Melvin Böcher, Founder of Travel Dudes www.traveldudes.com
I am currently organizing a Meditation & Breath workshop for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. In the end, it will be very important, because it will help people get rid of stress, trauma from the past, intellectual inhibitions, have more conscious contact with the body, and that should help them to be able to do good deeds, to change the World, and make a better and more beautiful place to live.
Theodora Kostovska, Breath and Meditation Trainer, Art of Living
The truth is I am not sure what I am doing now will matter in the end. However, what I do every day is try to do my best to leave a cleaner footprint on this planet hoping that in some small way I leave it a good place for future generations to come.
Vivish George, Shutterbug
What are you doing now that will matter in the end? I’m currently building a global network of mentors that support initiatives in Africa that care for its people, its environment and addresses income and gender inequality.
Desigan Pillay, the Founder of Fund Social Good a non-profit organization that exists to build great people who do extraordinary things in Africa.
When I think about the end, I think about oblivion. I think about legacy. What will mine be? I’ve been fortunate to know others who, though they have passed, have made a lasting impact in the lives of those who know them or who knew of them. For me, this manifests not in my work or my writing, but in the way I treat others. I’d like to think drops of kindness and grace I show others today are what will be remembered in the end. Because love matters.
Emily Smibert , Writer
There are 2 things that I am doing that I think will matter in the end 1. The inspiration to women as a role model to showcase it is possible to successfully navigate family and career and community 2. My legacy – my kids – raising them to be kind and empathetic to grow into model citizens empowered to make a difference in the world.
Sangeetha Visweswaran – Daughter, Wife, Mom, Ally, Group Engineering Manager, PTSA President, local college curriculum advisory board member
I am living in the moment, doing what makes my heart and soul happy and fulfilled, with absolutely no attachment to any results. Am currently enhancing all my skills as a Life Coach and hope to touch many lives in the years ahead. I want to add value to people’s lives, in a very wholistic manner. My focus is on adding the wealth of spiritual knowledge, healing and breath work techniques that I have invested time in, to all the other coaching techniques I work with. I’m focused on growing, expanding my mind and consciousness and giving back 
Living a life with utmost gratitude!
Bhavana Sabharwal, Life Coach
Since publishing my award-winning book Incompatible with Nature: Against the Odds, A Parent’s Memoir of Congenital Heart Disease, it has been my mission to encourage and inspire others to find their inner strength and resiliency when facing life’s obstacles. To achieve our highest potential in life, we must be brave, driven, and determined. Character is developed in difficult times. We must be courageous in our convictions and have conviction in our courageousness, and above all, we must never, ever give up. Striving one and all to be better, healthier human beings will indeed matter in the end.
Tracie Frank Mayer, Rebel, Writer, and Public speaker
Through my photography, I try to preserve history, so as to retain the importance of what is present and that which may inform the future.
Bharat Patel, Photographer
My short answer could be “self-isolating until vaccinated” or “buying bitcoin”!
But my husband and I have discussed existentialism versus nihilism a lot this past year as he takes a career break to figure out what to do next. I similarly left the IT domain fifteen years ago to follow my passion for working with animals and supporting wildlife welfare and conservation.
I have a conversation with my idol Dame Jane Goodall in the offing; also the incredible opportunity to watch the BioRescue Team collect oocytes from the last two remaining Northern White Rhinos to save their species from extinction.
Lakshmi Natrajan, Tour Guide and Freiwilligen Team Member at Zoo Zürich
Actually it’s quite a simple thing. I always try to be friendly and attentive towards people. If you go nowadays on the street you see a lot of grumpy and sometimes sad face but we are actually living in a very beautiful environment with not so much to complain about compared to other places or other countries in the world. So, by spreading this positivity I think this will resonate with people maybe not immediately but for sure after a while. And if I can with this positivity make some more people happy and replace some of these grumpy and sad ones with happy ones – I think this is something that will matter in the end. (For more see video below)
Stefanie Gansterer, Building up DevOps
more answers coming soon. Come back again!
(You are welcome to send me your answer to be included here)