By Meridith Rentz, COO, Points of Light Institute

My New Year’s resolution for 2011 is quite simple:  Each and every day I come to work at Points of Light Institute, I want to party like a rock star.

What a minute….say what?

Let me be more specific.  My goal for 2011 is to learn how to do my job with the same passion, unadulterated joy, focus, excellence and innovation that will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas demonstrates when he is doing his job – creating and performing extraordinary music.

Seriously?

Yep – I wanna’ be more like will.i.am in 2011. I wanna’ party like a rock star each day at work. 

You see, I recently had an unexpected opportunity to see will.i.am in action (3 rows back from his mixing board in fact).

I got to see will.i.am spinning and mixing and creating an extraordinary tapestry of songs for a relatively small crowd of several hundred people.  He was absolutely captivating to watch.

While he was certainly “performing” for the crowd, I believe the joy he demonstrated was 100% genuine and his work was deeply personally satisfying as he danced and sang and hovered over his mixing board on the stage for several hours.

Some might say that what he was doing as his “job” is not comparable to the average guy’s or gal’s regular office job.  I would respectfully and completely disagree.  There were a lot of reasons that will.i.am could have viewed this particular gig as “just another day at the office,” but he didn’t – he was having the time of his life up there doing what he loves to do – creating amazing, captivating music.

His delight in his work was contagious and as a result, the crowd had a blast.

So there you have it.  I wanna’ be more like will.i.am in 2011. I wanna’ party like a rock star each day at work.  I want to be innovative and have fun and I want the people I work with to have a blast – all while making a difference in the world and doing our jobs.

We in the nonprofit world can tend to take ourselves a bit too seriously….come on, you know it’s true.

We can get a bit too stressed and down-right depressed by the enormity of the social challenges we are called to take on each day.  We worry about having an impact and raising money and driving social innovation…..all very important things, don’t get me wrong.  But, as we wonder why our best people get burnt out or why we can’t attract the top talent to our extraordinary, mission-driven organizations or why we’re all just so darned tired much of the time, maybe,we need to try a new approach.

Let’s loosen up.

Let’s dance a little more.

Let’s be a little goofier.

Let’s sing loud, even if it’s not always on key.

Let’s laugh at ourselves and how gosh darn earnest we can be.

What’s the worst thing that can happen?

If I can get even a smidge more similar to will.i.am in doing my job, the upside is huge for me and for the people with whom I work and for our organizational mission.  I can have more fun doing something that I already love, and maybe a few other people will even want to join the party.

Wish me luck and rock on friends.