Hello and welcome back. It has been a very eventful last two days, and as I was thinking about what should be the next blog topic, I got to thinking about everything that has been going on at Purdue since I moved in on August 14th. Looking back on these last two weeks, one question keeps popping into my mind: Have I made an impact? This blog is going to lay out the steps one can take to make an impact.
We usually view the people who make the biggest impact as the people with the highest positions of power, but many of us fail to realize the monumentous impact of the people behind the scenes, or the "everyday people." It only takes one person to make an impact on someone or something that can last a lifetime. That is an amazing idea to think about. Your one action today could change and mold the future of another without you even knowing it. Because of this, we all have potential to be life-changers, and you would be surprised at how small the difference is that separates the impacters and the impactees. These are four simple ways to make sure that you are making a positive impact.
1. Always Smile.
If a picture can be worth a thousand words, a smile can be worth a trillion paragraphs. On a day-to-day basis, we fail to realize just how important smiling is. A smile has the potential to completely change one's mood in a matter of seconds. A smile is reassuring, comforting, and highly contagious. Everyone always says that life is too short, so make the most out of it. A smile is a silent form of communication, but its impacts are far from quiet. It is single-handedly the easiest yet hardest thing to do in the entire world. It is human nature to worry and linger on things that bring us down. Smile more, and see how the world lights up around you.
2. Be Vocal
Probably the most important way to make an impact on those around you is to be vocal. This is by far the hardest area of focus, because there are some people who have absolutely no problem being the loudest, most talkative person in the state of Indiana. Yet there are others who enjoy peace and quiet, and you could spend an entire day with them and hear 25 words total. So being vocal, although difficult at times, is imperative. However, I must note that just because you talk loud or often, you are not necessarily being vocal, at least not by the standards of making an impact. The vocal person is the person that the group looks to, the person that you ask for advice, or that the person who is talks to anyone and everyone. The last of these is the greatest quality of an impacter. You cannot simply hope to impact people by your lifestyle. This only works to a certain extent. The person that is friends with everyone; that can strike up a conversation with the business associate or the worker at the local restaurant is the person that will make the most impact on others.
3. Be Polite
You don't need to have the best manners in the world, but do the small polite things. If someone asks you "how are you," respond by explaining how you are then asking them how they are back. Hold the door for a stranger. Listen to others. People want someone that they can talk to and tell their problems to. Be active in looking for ways to help people out. In the end, people are far less likely to remember your name, major, or where you are from as they are to remember how you were kind enough to help them.
4. Give Life Your "Best" Effort
People have a genuine appreciation for hard work. The people with the biggest impacts in life are the ones that put all of their efforts into every aspect of their lives. They live life to enjoy it, but they also realize the wonderful opportunity that they have been given, and they are sure not to waste it. If you really stopped and thought about it, how many daily tasks or activities do we kind-of just go through the motions with. If this continues, it will soon come to a point where we are drowning in a sea of "sameness." I made up a quote that I think of when I feel as if I'm slipping into a lifestyle of normality. It goes, "The tide cannot claim the standing as drowned." For some of us, we slip into a lifestyle of the same things over and over, and we get so good at living in this routine that we can practically do it asleep. If we walk through life sleeping, if we lay down and let the tide claim us, we have made no impact. Be spontaneous. Marvel at the impact each and every one of us can experience if we stand up against the tide.
Studies have recently shown that when meeting someone for the first time, the first impression of that person can be made in the first seven seconds. SEVEN SECONDS. By the time that it will have taken you to read this one short sentence, your time to make a first impression and to be an impacter has come and gone. When we break life down, it no longer becomes about how old you live, how much money you make, where you live, or what car you drive. It is about what connections you have, who your friends are, and what kind of impact did you make when you had the chance.
I recently went to one of my long time friend’s birthday parties. He turned 20 years old. There must have been over 100 people at that party, and it got me thinking. Right now, if I were to throw a birthday party, how many people would come to it? How many of my friends would find that I had impacted them in such a fashion that they would show up to my birthday party. I know this may be a silly example, but do some self-reflecting and ask yourself. How many people would come to your birthday party? Ten? Fifty? Maybe one hundred? What kind of impact are we having on the lives of the people around us?
Closing thought for the day: "Count to seven. That's how long it takes to change the world."
Signing off,
JD
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