 |
|
Positive impact
|
Can you name the people who have had a positive impact on your life?
Probably you can name a few – but even those of us with the best memories are going to leave some people out.
That’s because throughout our life, we are often nudged in the right direction by a host of people – people who affect our lives for the better – sometimes without even knowing it.
Have you ever felt your day being turned around by a stranger – whose cheery “Good Morning” might have put you on a better mood? Perhaps you’ve had the reverse – a stranger whose negative actions put your day on a bad track?
You see, little things can make a difference in the lives of others. It can be as simple and positive as a friendly smile or a kind word – or as simple and negative as a notorious hand gesture or a nasty tone of voice.
Let me ask you – what kind of impact do you want to have on the lives of the people you meet?
Do you want to make an impact for the better? Do you want people to be better off because of having met you that day? Do you want people to be affected for the better – or the worse?
Each of us will have some effect on the people we meet – and we should attempt to make those interactions positive if at all possible. Even if we don’t know the other people (of if we do, we might not particularly care about them) we need to make a make a positive impact – for our own sakes, if nothing else.
We can never really count the cascading effect that might come from a positive impact – whether it be a large impact, such as in the case of a loved one, a mentor, a student, or a co-worker, or a small impact, such as when we treat another human being, even though that person might be a stranger, in a positive, uplifting, way.
Our view of our life is limited, and most of the time, we just don’t get to see the effects of our actions in real time. Some of them don’t really surface until days, weeks, months, or years later – but surface they will.
It seems trite to say that everyone can make a difference – but everyone can affect the lives of other people, and that can make a difference.
Most importantly, we need to make a positive impact in the lives of other people because we never know how it will later impact our lives. In my own case, I met my wife because of one person, who later introduced us to each other. If I had been in a bad mood that day, or if I had treated that individual with disrespect, my life would never have taken the turn it did – with wonderful results.
Day in and day out, our lives are influenced in big ways by little things. Each day, we are impacted by the people we meet – and they are impacted by us.
Moreover, our own lives are impacted by little things that we do, little choices that we make.
Let’s work to make a positive impact in the lives of other people, and in our own lives as well.
Copyright, 2007, by Daryl R. Gibson and Salesstar.com. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial redistribution of this document as long as it remains intact with this copyright and all other lines. This license does not extend to the use of this material in a compilation, whether for profit or non-profit use. Join us at http://www.salesstar.com.
Do you like reading our weekly Monday Motivation feature? Help support Salesstar.com by making your purchases from Amazon.com, Atlas Pen, or Nightingale-Conant through one of our links. If you'd like, just setting this link to Amazon.com (http://salesstar.com/amazon) as a bookmark and then using it for your purchases (or clicking on any Amazon link on website) will give us a small percentage of your purchase, at no extra cost to you. It's much appreciated!
