Make this world a better place. Make this industry a better place. Make your home a better place. You can do it—starting with you.
A few years ago, I lived in downtown Chicago and joined Michigan Avenue Toastmasters. This was a diverse group of interesting people all dedicated to becoming better speakers and helping each other elevate their skills. I took the No. 3 Bus up to the Magnificent Mile and cut through Water Tower Place to the Seneca Hotel every Tuesday evening. It was exciting, inspiring and motivating. When I moved to Grand Rapids, Mich. I joined a Tuesday night Toastmasters Club that met at the same time but in a retirement home and with a handful of people and very little of the energy or excitement to which I was accustomed. When I whined about this to one of my Chicago friends, he replied, “Well, it sounds like you’ve got your work cut out for you.”
What incredible advice! It echoed the sentiment of Mahatma Gandhi who said, “You must be the change that you want to see in the world.” We spend so much time fretting, worrying and complaining about things we don’t like. Instead, we should do the one or two small things that we can to make a difference.
We have unlimited power to allow ourselves to create beauty, love and art in the way that we live. You can be that creative force by doing one thing—be you now. Your gift is to be yourself—fully, fantastically and consciously—in this moment. Of course, you must love yourself to share yourself.
You have everything that you need in this moment. So why should you worry? Worry is a fantasyland that you’ve made up and are suffering in even though it does not exist. If you believe that you know the future, life has not yet taught you just how quickly your life can change. You can believe in now. Indeed, it is reality and it is perfect.
The past is just as fabled. It is gone. It’s yesterday’s wind. Living with regrets, or worse—living with grudges, resentments or hatred over past events, diminishes you and causes suffering. Let go of the negativity from past events and discover the grace of forgiveness. It is something you do for yourself, not for the object of your negativity.
We get to choose our thoughts, our attitudes. Choose wisely. Learn to love and to live with the awesome power that love gives you. Fear is the opposite of love and fear is learned. Marianne Williamson said, “Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. … Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.”
If you don’t love what you do, why are you doing it? You only get to go around once in this life, so make sure you’re doing it right. There is no dress rehearsal. This is it. You can create a better world, a better industry, a better company, a better family, a better you. Choose to create beautiful moments through your every interaction, your every choice.
