Why help your community deal with racism or failing schools? Why press for cleaner air or water, join a neighborhood association, or attend boring hearings on traffic, land use or homelessness? Why spend hours searching the web for data on trade or terrorism? Why send letters and emails to your congressperson or your mayor? Why stand up to speak your mind when your friends wish you'd sit down and shut up? It's so much easier to stay on the sidelines, wanting and expecting "someone," (the government, perhaps?) to solve the problems—meanwhile complaining that things aren't the way you want.

When we ask Giraffes—the people honored by the Giraffe Heroes Project—why they've gotten involved, most tell us, in so many words, that their motivation comes from deep inside. What they're doing is meaningful to them at a profound level, and that insight helps keep them going, especially when the going is tough. From what I've seen, operating with meaning also helps make them as effective as they are.

And it isn't just Giraffes who are motivated by meaning. Philosophers and spiritual leaders have been telling us for millennia that there's no deeper human need and no more powerful yearning than to live a meaningful life. We all want to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror and know that who we are and what we're doing matters, that we're not just marking time.

That's certainly true for me. I've lived a while and my resume is pretty full. What I've found is that there's no more powerful motivator for me than that my actions and commitments be part of a purpose that satisfies me deep inside and makes me feel totally alive.

Look to your own experience—at home, at work, in the community. Isn't it true that the more meaningful your actions are, the more alive you feel?

You may work very hard and there may be trials, but there's always an energy, a sense of excitement, a deep satisfaction of being in the right place at the right time. You're inspiring to others and more of them want to follow your lead. And you're much more likely to get the results you want.

I've been speaking to groups for twenty years and there's no topic that gets people to lean forward in their seats like this one. Even if buried, unspoken or denied, the search for meaning drives our lives.

If meaning is that important as a motivator—where does it come from and how do you get there? What's the path to a life of purpose?What we've found over nearly two decades of Giraffe work is that people who lead meaningful lives don't find that meaning in possessions or positions; they find it in carrying out personal commitments to ideals bigger than themselves and their own needs. And the most consistent, powerful, lasting meaning comes from commitment to ideals of service, of working for the common good.

Sarri Gilman, for example, stuck her neck out to provide safe shelter for abused and runaway teenagers in Everett, WA. Muhammad Yunus, a banker in Bangladesh, created a global model for creating economic self-sufficiency among the poor, motivated by his profound compassion, and his intense belief in the potential of his clients. Giraffes like Gilman and Yunus see a task that means a great deal to them and they take it on. Win, lose or draw they're living fully, giving their all. It's commitments like this that generate the personal enthusiasm, passion and power of a meaningful life. That's true for Giraffes. It's true for anyone.

So back to the question: why get involved? And the Giraffe answer: get involved because service is the path to a meaningful life. Find a way to serve and it will add to your personal passion, power and clarity of purpose. You'll know that what you're doing matters.

So find an issue out there with your name on it, something that you care about, some place where you can serve and make a difference. Do it for the people who will benefit from your action. And do it for you.