The Difference

My dearest readers,

with the year moving along I want to refresh your memory and touch on what it means to do things differently, and I mean not only differently from how we've handled situations previously but how we sort them out compared to the people around us. We are to decide whether us "being" makes a difference in the world, because that decision will be a determining factor of how we can review our lives at some point. Let me show you the difference…

Nelson Mandela once wrote: "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead." I could end this post right here, because with those words all has been said. We can strive for so much renown or legacy, but is not what we seek this: knowing that what we do makes a difference? Is not our mission accomplished when we can honestly say that we have made a difference, that in the end it did matter we were there? We don't need to seize everything at all times, but it can't hurt to consider it and claim a thing or two.

When you wake up in the morning, do you tell yourself you want to go out there and make a difference? When you're struggling, don't you want to take on whatever needs fixing, find a solution, and be different and not give in, but do things differently this time, better, with more confidence, so you and nearby or distant observers see you were the difference in the end? I'm not saying we shall enslave ourselves for recognition, but if we make a difference, others will notice, because it comes with results and it's important to realize the effects to our causes.

Imagine a warehouse, untidy, filthy, an uncomfortable place that dust, rats, and mites have vanquished long ago. This warehouse has been in the same condition for a decade or two, business was "alright," and no one felt the urge to clean up. "It's always been like that," they said. When you'd walk in on your first day, would you float alongside your peers, or would you be moved and bold enough to roll up your sleeves, play in the dark, and turn a gloomy hellhole into a pleasant storage facility, a thing for a decade or two no one else would've dared to do?

How dare you!

Fortune favors the bold, they say, the ones who dare. The bold are the ones that want to make a difference, the bold want to be the difference and do what no one else would (want to) do. If you dare, you will definitely note how impressed your coworkers, even the management was that you had the compulsion to finally clean out that sordid store where custom and carelessness had taken over. They notice. No one might talk to you face to face and tell you about it, but they sure as hell talk about you.

There is no need to dare or save and change the world every day. Although, at times you should realize this: "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do" (Edward Everett Hale). Do something. Dare! Do something worth doing, something that makes a difference and something you will be known for. Do something that still echoes long after you vanished, when a once small storage facility has ultimately become a global logistics enterprise, because "[t]he best the world has to offer comes from the best you have to give to others" (Matshona Dhliwayo). Take courage and be different; and if you haven't been different before, why don't you start with being different today, just this one time? #MomentumToGo ...to be continued!