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ShareBig question for you: "What are you doing to help build a new and better world?" Don't blame politicians. Don't blame those around you. Don't blame your parents or your background. Doing so is playing victim and this world has far too many people playing the victim when they could be sharing their brilliance and making a profound difference. Mother Teresa said it so much better than I ever could: "If each of us would only sweep our own doorstep, the whole world would be clean."
Blaming others is excusing yourself. Telling yourself that you -- as an army of one -- cannot have an impact is giving away your power. After a hurricane a while ago, a couple of college kids got their hands on empty school buses and drove them into the ravaged area when everybody else said the city was impenetrable. A little man in a loincloth named Mahatma Gandhi freed an entire nation. A woman named Rosa Parks sparked a civil rights movement because she refused to sit at the back of a bus.
Ordinary people really can do extraordinary things. I love what Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, once said: "If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room."
Live by what I call the Jennifer Aniston Rule. In an issue of Vanity Fair, Aniston said that she gives herself one day to play victim after experiencing a challenging event. After that day of feeling powerless and sorry for herself, she wakes up and takes ownership of the way her life looks. She takes personal responsibility for her part in the problem -- even if that only amounted to 1 per cent. It doesn't matter who you are, or where you come from. "The ability to triumph begins with you. Always," offered entertainment superstar Oprah Winfrey.
What don't you like about your life or the organisation you work for or the country you live in? Make a list. Write it down. Shout it out. And then do something to improve things. Anything. Start small or go big. Just do something. As you exercise your power to choose, guess what? Your power grows. And as you work within your sphere of influence to make things better, guess what? Your sphere of influence expands. So do your part. Today. The world will be better for it.
