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Within hours of one another, two strikingly different examples of people creating change occurred this week. While the sparks of change came from almost opposite places, each resulted in an individual using what’s important to them to create positive impact in the world.
On one hand, Jose Andres was nominated for a Nobel Prize for his work uplifting hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. He’s using his passion for food to bring life to those in need. He could easily sit back on his culinary success, passively watching the world around him. Instead, he identified a problem, and used the tools at his disposal to alleviate some part of it on a very large scale.
On the other hand, I had to bury another former student this week who’d fallen victim to a drug addiction. For the 3rd time in 2 years, the same tight-knit group of friends watched one of their buddies lose the battle to an unforgiving disease. The young man was full of life and wringed every last drop out of his days on earth, but the hooks of addiction got to him early and he struggled to free himself. Despite his own demons, in his last couple years, he played a key role in driving record awareness and donations to The Shepherd’s House, a local addiction recovery organization.
In both cases, these gentlemen used their stories and their talents to improve the lives of others. Both saw a need and attacked it with full force. Both faced challenges, some internal and some external. And both saw success.
If you want to get more active in the world around you, start with some self-analysis. Ask some basic questions. What gets you out of bed every morning? Where do you feel pulled or called? Why are you passionate about those things? Answering these will build the first few steps toward creating a positive impact. I guarantee there’s a need that aligns with your passion in some way. It’s waiting for you to create the change.
Photo by Marl Clevenger on Unsplash
