How many of you remember all of your teachers from school? I remember a handful…most of the ones I remember, they were great teachers and they did something or taught me something that has stayed with me still today. Kind of got me thinking about how all of us make an impact on other people’s lives…in my opinion it is 3 ways: 1) You won’t make any impact at all. You will walk right by them every day, pass them in the grocery store, whatever it may be…tomorrow, a week from now or 5 years from now, you won’t remember that moment or that person. 2) You’ll make an impact, but they will remember you because they didn’t like or agree with your actions. 3) You’ll make a positive impact on their life and they will remember you for that.
Now, there is nothing wrong with any of these options. I think it is impossible to impact every single person you come in contact with on a daily basis…so option 1 is going to happen more than you think…and that’s okay. Think about this though, as you go through a toll booth and you pay the extra $1.50 for the car behind you…you just went from a (1) to a (3). They’ll never know who you are but they’ll remember the moment and now they may do the same thing for someone else…just one example.
For those that are a (2)…I’m the person I am today because of the lessons I’ve learned from people that did things that I didn’t agree with. Sometimes they were right in the long run and I learned from that…and sometimes the lesson was “don’t do that”.
Then there are the (3)s…you never know when that might be because most of the time people don’t tell you. As a person in a leadership position you might think this is you most of the time…but believe it or not, I’ve had more people have a positive impact in my life that I “outranked”. You just have to be open to letting it happen.
Always know that you impact everybody that you come in contact with…everybody in some way. You might only get one chance to have an effect on that person…make it count! Have a great day!
Deliberate Development 