The Ripple Effect Of Your Life
On my first visit to Melbourne, a standout memory was the plethora of graffiti. The colours, sprawl, and sheer vibrancy had me taking photos for an entire day. From portraits to protest statements, insults to inspiration, the spectrum of human emotions is splashed across walls for entire blocks. Since then, I have hunted out wall art and ‘tasteful’ graffiti when I travel. One message that stuck was a statement: “If your dreams don’t scare you, you are not dreaming big enough!”
Are you dreaming ‘big enough’?
Where will you be in 1-3-5-10 years' time? Do you allow yourself to think that far out? What about 50 years? What legacy will you leave, and how will you be remembered in 100 years' time? People sometimes get stuck in their past, and it robs them of their future. Regrets, resentments, and past glories create internal chatter, stealing focus and drawing attention away. Making peace with your past and controlling which voices you listen to in your head allows you to live more fully in the present.
Being present allows you to accept your reality for what it is and to be honest about where you are now. Accepting where you are now and allowing yourself to dream big puts you back in the captain's seat of your life, able to chart a course for a destination of your choosing. Don’t underestimate what you can achieve in five years with inspired clarity.
Grappling with the niggling feeling that you could do more, be more, and have more—and using it as inspiration—allows you to see the gap between where you are and where you want to be more clearly. If you are prepared to sit with the gap before you, acknowledging where you are, who you are, and where you want to be, you realise there are steps you have to climb to realise your potential. Looking at others who have gone before you can be inspirational. If they could do it, so can you. You can become somebody's inspiration. Your future destination can be your beacon, your North Star, shining light on the pathways available to reach it. It is your responsibility to be the best you can be.
Do you like riddles? Here’s a great one that ties in with the point above: Explain this. A man decided to leave his job early and absentmindedly turned off all the lights before he left. 200 people died.
The answer: he was a lighthouse keeper!
Each person has people looking to them—people they may or may not know, some of whom they may never meet. You will have a ripple effect on people's lives, on history. Make sure it is the one you want. If you check out of fully living and embracing all life offers, you close the door on your potential early. What will the ripple effect of that be? Who might look at you and copy your example? Likewise, if you live with purpose, who might you affect and inspire?
Write down your dreams, be it with pen and paper, whiteboard, flip chart, sketch pad, or Surface Pro. Think about the important parts of your life—your health and wellbeing, your relationships with family, friends, and others, your faith, work, finances, sports and hobbies, and your contribution within the community. Rate how you feel each of these is now and where you would like that rating to sit in the future. What would need to change for the rating to improve?
A great way to dream big in each area is to create a vision board. Find images you aspire to. Look in your pictures, online, or in magazines, and collect these into a single space that you can look at often. A visual aspirational board is a powerful way of getting clarity. Stick up pictures of dream holiday destinations, events you want to compete in, the car or house you want, the watch you want to own, career goals, organisations you want to help, and ideas about charities you want to set up.
The goal is to get clarity. It could be something in writing or a board that captures your ideals visibly in a place you will look at often. Some people are not picture people, and I have seen these done in so many ways, from mind maps to mantras or short recordings that people play for themselves to start their day. The method you use is optional. The end goal is to have a clear picture that you can refer to, which shows what is possible and will inspire and pull you forward.
Start today.
Now is good.
Dream big!
