A super popular topic online these days is about the power of impact and how to actually make a difference in the world.
These days, more and more people want to leave their mark, the way Steve Jobs talks about in this famous quote:
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
Whether you love the guy or can’t stand him, Steve Jobs made a lot of great points about how each of us can shed our light on the world through our gifts and talents so that others have a better life.
Why is it, then, that so many people fall into that rut Henry David Thoreau talks about in Walden?
“I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!”
Jobs, like Thoreau, and countless others before and since they graced the earth with their brilliance, had to battle the pull between following the herd and making decisions outside the borders of social conformity. Making a difference can feel scary sometimes because it’s not the common path. Routines and convention are powerful forces that hold too many back from following their hearts and risking something new or outside the ordinary in order to impact the way we think or do or feel about something.
You don’t have to invent the personal computer or retreat from society and live alone in a cabin in the woods to change things. Change always begins with micro steps, micro choices, little decisions that lead you from one day to the next. Making a difference and tapping into the power of impact, then, are within our reach, every single day.
We simply need to decide.
The questions then become:
How will you make a difference today?
Whose life will you impact?
Are you crazy enough to think that you can?
Share your story in the comments below!
