3 Ways to Impact Your World Immediately

Does it feel like the world is getting crazier by the day? The more we look to simplify our lives, the more complexity life throws at us. Just when we seem to have answers, the questions change.

What are we to do in the midst of this chaos to lead lives of lasting impact?

I believe we need to turn things on their head. Whatever we have done in the past needs to be turned upside down and inside out. If it doesn't work, we can always go back, but no one can accuse us of not trying.

And in the meantime, life will be a little more interesting.

1. Focus on Questions instead of Answers

Answers can tend to look like narrow roads, one-way streets, and even dead ends.

Consensus thinking can take a good answer and make it the only answer, even when better answers exist. What's more, a complex situation often requires multiple answers, which aren't always encouraged.

Questions broaden our view. A focus on questions requires openness. Instead of Answer Alley, we can have a Superhighway of possibilities with alternative and innovative viewpoints.

With an enlarged focus on questions, more of your own answers will burst forth from within you, and you won't be subject to everyone else's thinking for you. Certainly, answers are required at times, but broadening our scope of focus and sitting with questions without looking for easy answers is vital to creativity and innovation.

2. Start with Easy and Fun

Energy management is the name of the game. In the past, advice has been to "Eat the Frog," or in other words, get the icky stuff out of the way first. But always doing the hard stuff first can create problems, like a habit of thinking that only the hard stuff matters, as well as the habit of procrastination, and a looming sense of undefined dissatisfaction. It can deplete our energy when what we need is a boost of energy.

Obviously, the idea is not to fritter away the day doing only "fun" things when we've got goals to achieve, but doing something that brings us joy infuses us with enthusiasm will create energy to spare.

Spend fifteen minutes (off the clock if you have to) journaling, visualizing, laughing, or singing. Get your creative juices flowing. And if you must eat the frog first - and sometimes you must - make it a party! Learn to enjoy the hard stuff too.

3. Self-Respect instead of Self-Deprecation

Self-care and slef-love are popular buzzwords. Hey, I use them myself. But it occurred to me that perhaps what was missing was a healthy respect for the self, one that comes from balance.

The wrong kind of self-care can create more problems than we realize if we think self-care is eating a candy bar because we "deserve" it, especially if our goal is to be healthier. That's not to say candy bars are bad, but is it really self-care all the time?

I think many people, especially women, aren't really taught the fine art of self-regard and self-respect. Instead, they are shamed with words like selfish, self-centered, stingy, and egoistic, among others. "It's better to give than receive," we are told over and over. 

Self-respect comes from a healthy blend of serving others and allowing ourselves to be served. How often do we stop the energy of service in our own lives, by negating what others are willing and able to do for us, as well as by neglecting a healthy dedication to the needs of others (while maintaining boundaries, of course).

What can you do for yourself today that oozes respect for your whole Self? What can you do for others that creates this self-respect as well as meaning for your life?

♥ Michele Jennae