One of the (many) fabulous things about the work I do is that I get to work alongside people who are looking to make change in some way. Sometimes this is a change of career. Sometimes a change in their leadership style. Sometimes, how they show up in the world for themselves and others. Being with people over months or years is wonderful, as I get to observe first-hand the changes they are making for themselves.
What’s interesting is that often years later, people will get in touch to talk about a defining comment or session that changed the trajectory of their journey. Which is lovely, of course. We all like to feel like we are making a difference in some way.
I had such a moment the other day, when someone I have worked with for some time remarked that during a more tricky period, they had re-read bits of my book Do What You’ll Say You Do, and that had been helpful to where they were at and what they needed to do next.
Which got me thinking.
How often do we make a difference, without even realising we are doing so?
For example, this morning, I read a wonderful blog post from Caroline Crosbie on sleep, which got me thinking about sleep (and waking) routines and what I can do to improve mine. Caroline wouldn’t necessarily know that she’s set me off down a rabbit warren of reflection and potential change, but she did. She made a difference.
Equally, there are a couple of colleagues I follow on LinkedIn who regularly post interesting, provocative and useful information and research. Almost always, this gives me pause for reflection and thought on how I show up and what I can do differently (or more of).
Some of us get to make a difference by virtue of the work we do, but we all get to make a difference by virtue of the human beings we are.
Whether that’s overt by showing up for people during a difficult time. Or more subtle in terms of the environment and energy we generate, we all have something unique to us that makes a difference to someone else, whether that’s family, friends, work colleagues, our community or the general public.
Most of the time, we just do our thing subconsciously. But from time to time, it’s nice to think about what our special magic sauce is, and how we can amplify that more deliberately.
