What do I do that matters? It’s a great question, and one that I vow to start asking myself on a daily basis.

One of my mommy blogging friends tweeted out the other day (in celebration of the start of Lent) that she was “paring down and stripping away the unnecessary pieces in my life. I’m going to actually give up the things that I don’t need or don’t need any more.” It sounds so wonderful and simple, yet is probably the most challenging thing to do.

But the importance of stripping away the unnecessary and focusing on what really matters most can’t be lost. I’m guessing that for most of us, even though we work and have great careers, our families are what matters most. They are what holds us together and makes everything right in the world.

I ran across this video today from some of the moms I follow on Twitter. Many of them just got back home from attending a blog conference, the Mom 2.0 Summit, where author and blogger Katherine Center spoke. Katherine opened up her presentation with the video below. She then went on to ask the attendees, “What do you do that matters?”

Katherine’s video is powerful and extremely inspirational. And will make you think of your role as a mom and how it truly is the most important work we’ll EVER do here on this earth. I appreciate the reminder and will think more about my actions and words and how they affect my children. We are our children’s guides. We give them life experiences. We give them confidence in themselves. And we give them the motivation to do great things.

Isn’t that what matters most?