Touch Lives Everyday

I opened this month with an article about finding purpose, it is when we find our purpose that we really begin to touch the lives others. But please don’t think I am saying that you can on touch lives when you are serving your purpose, because I am not. You only need to walk along the road and smiling at someone and you have most likely touched life. But living a purposefully gives a different kind of impact on those lives we touch.

Touching people’s lives range from simple things like saying hello as you walk by to actually completing a task like helping in the garden. It’s about being interested in knowing about that new neighbour who moved in yesterday, it being willing help someone and expecting nothing in return. Touching people’s lives starts when we choose to serve.

Touching people’s lives is not about becoming the person everyone relies on because you are the only person who can do it, this is only about self and nurturing ego, something that generally repels people. Teach people to be self-relent and they will keep coming back and bring others with them. It is the way in which you touch a person’s life that creates the reputation, good or bad, that will later precede you.

When times become hard for you personally, it can be hard to think of ways to help and touch other people’s lives. Especially when we are dealing with job loss, bereavement, bad mental health, even the unexpected news of a diagnosis. These are enough as an individual to deal with, without having to worry about others. It’s in these times we need to be honest, tell people you can’t function normally as you have things to deal with. Details not needed, just label it, mental health, bereavement, people will understand.

We are all human, if we don’t get through these emotions’ by dealing them properly, life will be tough and serving becomes almost impossible. Learning to balance life is hard enough, remembering to look after self is important and if others cannot accept that you’ll go through bad times then those you are not inspiring them, you are being taken for granted. But remember going through bad and tough times you be just as much, if not more of an inspiration then when you are in the good times. It’s at these times when you’re not really thinking, you just live off instincts that make things more real for those around you.

There’s this saying, ‘never give up, you don’t know who you’re inspiring’. I think this is so true, we may have an idea of the audience we want to reach or even the reaction we desire, you have to understand that you don’t just inspire and touch the lives of those you plan to help or in the immediate space around you. So often you will reach way beyond your comfort zone walls, beyond the circles you move in and complete strangers start to gravitate in your direction.

Here I am writing these articles and making videos, I have no idea who is reading them or watching them or if anyone is interested in them or being inspired by them or if they have helped anyone at all. I am however doing this for me as a way of documenting my thoughts and in the process share them with the world. I know that if I touch one person’s life, inspire just one person through this work then it’s a bonus for me. But ultimately, I can look back listen and read the way I thought, the way I saw life, whether it be right or wrong, but it will be ever changing.

So it’s important to always be who you are, don’t try to be something you’re not, even when you’re experiencing bad times. People see falsehood, so if you’ve been knocked off course and you’re find it hard to realign with your map and compass, then say. Its more inspiring when you’re honest and respect is earned because you’re showing a human side as success is not all open road and easily to accomplished.

But, however you feel, whatever you are going through, be kind, always, even when things are tough and the world seems against you, either professionally or personally. Kindness is an inspiration on its own. All of your actions in a lifetime become your legacy after you’ve gone. What people say when about you when you leave the workplace, the organisation or even at your funerals is about how you as an individual touched their life.