With the call for a green revolution, it seems more people are paying attention to reducing the size of their carbon footprint in order to create a better environment. While protecting the physical health of our planet is important, it occurs to me that we can make the world a better place by developing our personal brands to expand our karmic footprint in a positive direction.

Many of us recognize that a pay-it-forward approach to life can benefit others and spark a virtuous karmic cycle that brings more happiness. Yet, we can easily forget to do this when immersed in day-to-day pressures at work. While no job is perfect, we can translate our work lives into opportunities to create a better social environment by benefiting others. In fact, focusing on delivering our unique promise of value is what personal branding is all about! So, if you’ve not engaged in the process of uncovering your brand, I strongly recommend it.

Meanwhile, here are three areas where you can begin to make a difference for yourself and for the people around you:

Own your life. When you build your life mainly around the expectations of others, you risk suppressing your unique gifts and may feel frustrated as a result. On the other hand, taking responsibility for your own achievements and happiness, often leads to an engagement with work and life that inspires others even while it satisfies you.

Focus on delivering value through relationships. You may have a wide range of skills, yet you risk commoditization and irrelevance if you become immersed in rote activities that drive little value for your team and your customers. By contrast, taking the time to build productive relationships often produces results that make a significant difference for others.

Build community. While you interact with people at work, it’s all too easy to build walls that separate you from people inside and outside of your company; as a result, you miss opportunities to build relationships with a wide array of people. While meeting new people can be every bit as challenging as dating, the process provides plenty of opportunities to engage in positive exchanges and create mutual benefit as you become part of a broader community.

If there is a theme here, it’s this: being authentically you while finding ways to serve others is the way to expand good karma. Yet, all of this is really a detailed way of expressing a truth Paul McCartney put so eloquently, years ago in The End: “And in the end, the love we take will be equal to the love we make.”