Recently, I was in a discussion with a friend about what difference can one human make in the larger scheme of things. When we were talking about large, we were talking about universe large. We concluded by deciding that one human was too small an entity to make any difference to the universe.
But when I got home, I got thinking again, and I realised that we had got it all wrong.
One human, any human, can make a huge difference in determining his, or her, own fate, the fate of the world, and perhaps even the fate of the universe.
To cite the obvious, we can look at the life of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi. All of them were individuals, who influenced the life of millions, and many of those whose lives they directly affected went on to affect the lives of many more. These great men are continuing to affect thousands of lives even after their physical selves are no longer among us.
On a smaller scale, each one of us is affecting the life of people around us. When you interact with someone, you make a difference. The way you deal with an individual affects the way that individual looks at the world. If you believe that your actions don’t make a difference, and you are not careful about the way you deal with people, you will be hurting them without even realising it. But, when it is someone close to you, you are rarely, if ever, inconsiderate, because you believe that your actions do make a difference in the lives of people that are close to you.
It is as Tic’Tic, says in the movie 10,000 B.C,
A good man draws a circle around himself and cares for those within. His woman, his children.Other men draw a larger circle and bring within their brothers and sisters.But some men have a great destiny. They must draw around themselves a circle that includes many, many more.
How large is your circle?
The Problem
The problem lies in the fact that we are looking for instant gratification. If we do something we want to see the results immediately, and when we don’t, we start to feel that all our efforts mean nothing and that we are not making any difference. This can be a debilitating feeling, and one that can stop you from making any effort at all.
The universe operates in mysterious ways, and sometimes these mysteries are beyond the understanding of the common human, whose mind is already clouded with biases and sometimes erroneous beliefs that education and society have fed him, or her.
Your job is to to believe that what you are doing is important, and is making a difference. If you are lucky, you will see the results of your work in your own lifetime. If you are not that lucky, you may not see how you have changed lives, but trust that you have. As John Milton said in his famous poem, On His Blindness, “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Once you start believing that everything you do makes a difference, you will do everything better. So why would you not believe it?
(Image courtesy: Chemtec from sxc.hu)
Wonderful post. I fully believe we have a larger influence than we realize. I think the mistake is assuming we’ll receive feedback on that impact in a tangible way in our lifetime. We may never fully know or see it. As a mother, with children, someday grandchildren and someday great grandchildren and so on, who I am and what I leave on hearts WILL continue– maybe not in a way that impacts me directly, but it’s like a pebble in a pond– the waves continue. I also believe that we are more interrelated as a whole than we immediately realize. The application? As you suggest, find your purpose and live and act with the realization that we can impact for positive or negative. Let’s make it positive.
We are a sum total of all our interactions with the world right from the time we are conceived till the time we die.The language and mannerisms we acquire, our behavior, m etc. are all learnt from our family, peers, colleagues, movie stars, idols and anybody and everybody we establish contact with…. Are we then as unique as we think ….food for thought 😛
@Julie Thank you for adding your valuable comments to the post. 🙂
@Varsha As I said in my post, we are as unique as we believe ourselves to be. 🙂