Want to make a difference and change lives? You can. Drive the magic bus.
- Barbara J. Mayfield, MS, RDN, LD, FAND
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
If I’ve learned something about food and nutrition professionals, it is that we aspire to be life-changers. We don’t enter this profession because it will make us rich or famous. We entered it because we wanted to make an impact. A positive impact. A life-changing impact.
However, reality happens. We don’t have the impact we desire. Clients don’t show up. Audiences stop following. Our messages seem to fall on deaf ears. We get disheartened. We get burned out. The passion we once had is fizzling.
When I was on the professional speaking circuit, a popular topic I spoke about was regaining enthusiasm for the work we do and not giving up. Realizing we CAN make a difference in the lives of the people we serve.
In this blog post, I will share several key points and activities from those speeches, and end with a true story.
Your career is life-changing – for you and others.
When we feel like our passion is fizzling, it can help to reflect on why we took our job in the first place. Think back... Why did you pick your profession? What are the reasons you do what you do? Can you list your three top reasons?
1.
2.
3.
Once reality inevitably sets in, we will find aspects of our work frustrating, and we will need to have a change of perspective. We will need to rekindle our passion, at least to a level that provides job satisfaction and a recommitment to doing what we do.
For work to be truly satisfying, it must be something that makes our lives count. Work in nutrition counts because it makes a life-changing difference in people's lives. Look at your list above. I’ll bet at least one of your answers reflects that life-changing difference.
Define and describe your career vision.
“A vision is a clearly-articulated, results-oriented picture of a future you intend to create. It is a dream with direction.” ~ Jesse Stoner Zemel
How do you know what your vision is? Answer the following questions:
First, imagine someone is writing your biography or giving your eulogy or even talking about you behind your back. What words would you like to be used to describe you? Write down as many as you can in one minute.
What do you do well? We all have things that put us in the “zone” – that feeling that we get when we could just keep doing something and never get tired. What are those things? List as many as you can in one minute.
Where and with whom can you make a difference? What can you offer that meets a need you can provide better than anyone else? Write it down in less than a minute.
Look over the three lists you made. Take a stab at merging the ideas into a first draft of a vision statement. How do you want to manifest all your best character qualities, the values you live for, your skills, abilities, talents, interests, God-given gifts, and all that makes you YOU, and match it with meeting a need somewhere in the world, quite possibly where you already live and work, but with renewed enthusiasm and purpose.
Commit to making the changes you need to make to achieve your vision.
After completing the vision-writing activity above, the next activity I shared with audiences was described in this series of blog posts covering the 6 Keys to Success:
Discover: How easily do you change?
A great group activity for answering this question begins with breaking into partners and spreading out around the room. Here are the directions:
Turn your backs to one another. Make one change that will be visible to your partner. Raise your hand to indicate a change has been made.
Now turn around and identify the changes to one another.
Maintain the change.
Turn back again. Make an additional change. Raise your hand to indicate a change has been made.
Repeat one or two more times.
Debrief with a discussion:
Notice how quickly and easily we reverted to our previous, unchanged selves.
How many changes are reasonable within a set period of time?
How often were the changes we made "taking away" rather than "adding to"? How does that impact our desire to make or maintain a change?
Set goals with Conceive, Believe, Achieve:
Making changes that help us reach our vision requires setting goals. A useful tool is to remember your ABCs backwards...
Conceive “Goals are dreams with deadlines.” ~ Diana Scharf Hunt Reread your vision statement. Post it where you can see it. Tell someone else your vision/goals.
Believe “I’ve found that one arm and the right attitude beats two arms and the wrong attitude every time.” ~ David J. Schwartz (sharing a quote from a one-armed golfer) Reread the list of why you do what you do, saying “I believe…” before each item on the list.
Achieve “Imperfect progress is better than perfect procrastination.” ~ Lisa Allen Do something every day that moves you in the direction of your goals.
I close with a true, inspirational story.
Be inspired: What I learned one night in Chicago…
It is fall 1995. I am attending the American Dietetic Association Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. That was before they called it FNCE. It was a dark, cold, rainy November evening.
Do I remember any of the presentations I attended? No… Do I remember the exhibits? No… Do I remember the name of the hotel I stayed in? No…
But, I DO remember how one BUS DRIVER transformed a bus full of dietitians. YES. A bus driver, mind you, not a keynote speaker, not the ADA president, but a bus driver.
To fully appreciate what he did, I need to set the stage for you. Imagine a meeting of over 10,000 dietitians; that’s a lot of people in one convention center. McCormick Place was not within walking distance of the hotels. So, at the end of the day, we waited in long lines to ride shuttle buses to our hotels. Each of these lines had hundreds of dietitians.
Now, keep in mind these dietitians were carrying bags, heavy bags, and coats, and we had tired feet, and we had plans for the evening, so we were in a hurry – get the picture, do you feel the mood? Does it remind you of the mood of some of your grouchy clients or patients on some days?
Let me tell you about my bus driver. I never learned his name, but I’ll never forget the impact he had on that bus. First, he greeted everyone – he smiled when we walked on, and he said hello. Second, despite the dreary, rainy evening, the lights were on in the bus, creating a bright atmosphere. The driver continued to interact with us as he drove us through the city to our hotels. I was actually thankful I was the second-to-last stop.
He gave us a tour of Chicago, which he referred to as the “2nd loveliest city…” Of course, that led us to ask, “What’s the first loveliest city?” And he would reply with a question, "Where are you from?"
He told us stories about his 42 years of driving the bus. He had been the bus driver for celebrities on movie sets and had done so many amazing things. He obviously loved his job, which is what he had wanted to do since he was 7 years old. He certainly did his job with passion, purpose, and pleasure.
The atmosphere on that bus was incredible – friendly and high-spirited. People were talking to one another, and everyone said “good-bye, have a nice evening” as they left the bus. I know that I felt better all evening. Being on that bus transformed every one of us.
Why do I tell that story? I believe we can all be that bus driver, no matter our job description. If you want to make a difference and change lives, you can. Drive the magic bus.
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” ~ William James
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