Changing the World

I love reading about the lives of great leaders. I am constantly inspired by their road to success, and very often that road is filled with hardship and potholes. Their perseverance and growth through challenges offer a great example to all of us goal setters that life is not easy and that true, lasting and worthy change requires work but the reward for hanging in there can be huge.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr Day. He was one of the greatest and most effective leaders in our nation’s history and he did it all through nonviolence and peace. He began with a dream which grew to reshape our nation. He is a great example that we should live a life of action and not reaction. We can model the great example of MLK in our daily lives. The small steps and successes in the little things can impact your life and the lives of those around you in ways that you could not even imagine. Know that you can change the world through brightening the world around you through small, thoughtful actions.

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”  - Martin Luther King Jr.

Here are 15 things that you can do to change the world by living a life of action.

1. Hold the door open for someone


2. Compliment or say something kind to server


3. Use a person’s name when speaking with them. As Dale Carnegie says, a person’s name is the sweetest word to them.


4. Smile. You have no idea the wide and lasting effects of this small action.


5. Pick one thing that you do not use and donate it.


6. Throw away trash that is on the ground or straighten up a shared environment such as the counter of the break room.


7. Every morning think of someone who you know well or very little and send them love and well wishes for their upcoming day.


8. Reach out to someone through email, Facebook, Twitter, anything! There are so many methods to contact people now just to say hello!


9. Forgive someone and mean it.


10. Read something inspirational. Expand your world and you will reflect that into the world around you


11. Bring own shopping bags to the grocery.


12. Call a friend


13. Really listen to someone. Practice active listening and reflect back what you are hearing to show that you are really taking in what is being said.


14. Research a cause that you value and make a donation to the effort.


15. Genuinely thank someone in your life for who they are or what you have learned from them.

As you can see these ideas are not earth shattering but they can be life changing. Isn’t true that it can be the small things in life that we value the most?