Monday Motivation 12/16/2002 BONUS

Making a difference -- even when it's just a little difference

Lately, along with the cartoons, wisecracks, and occasional business-related items that hang on my office door, I've been adding motivational quotes.

I don't really know why I started doing it. I just started doing it one day -- and continued it. Occasionally, I put up a quote that someone makes fun of -- but most of the time, people stop, read the quote, and move on.

Last night though, one of our custodians spoke to me as she was cleaning the office.

"I really like the quote," she said. (It was one by Dr. Seuss). "I've thought about it and mentioned it to other people."

It's a simple little thing to do. They aren't usually funny quotes, although I sometimes put up one from Murphy's Laws of Combat (my favorite one is "A sucking chest wound is nature's way of telling you to slow down), but they seem to make a little bit of difference.

It's hard to measure a little bit of difference. No Nobel Prize is likely to come to a person who tries actively to make his or her company a more positive place. It may not even be evident that you're making a difference -- but you are.

Some years ago, I was in a church meeting, when I heard one of the speakers quoting something I had said. Since he knew me (I had grown up in that community), and didn't acknowledge me, I feel safe in saying that he didn't know I was there. It startled me -- one, because I didn't remember saying it, although it sounded like something I would have said; and two, because it sounded quite profound.

Like it or not, you probably make a difference in life -- for good or bad. People watch you, follow you, listen to you -- and some of them may emulate you, or respect you, or ignore you as a result.

Shouldn't we be trying to make a positive difference -- even if it's a simple little difference. Shouldn't we be trying to make the life of each person better -- even if it's just a little bit better?

In our lives we are given a choice. We can choose to pursue positive paths, or negative paths. We can choose to make a positive difference or a negative difference.

We should choose to work to positively affect the lives of each person whose life we touch. We should work to improve the world around us -- even when that improvement is minor.

Even though our contribution may appear small, it may make a world of difference in the life of someone else -- or our life as well.

You never know whose life you touch -- shouldn't you touch it in the best way possible.

Choose today to make a difference in the life of someone else.

Choose to care more, worry less. Choose to love more, hate less.

Choose to grow more, shrivel less.

Life is a series of choices -- choose to make a difference, and in so doing, make your life, and the lives of your loved ones, different as well.

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