The world is not totally fucked up, but as we tenuously cling to the outer edges of our planet, it is easy to allow thoughts of helplessness and despair to stand in front of our good intentions blocking our path to making a difference.
The world we live in today offers immortality (of a sort) if you can stick a lighted flare up your backside at a football stadium. A spectacle that can then be live-streamed to young men all over the world, decamped in their bedrooms sitting in rank stale boxers, snarling misogynistic obscenities across the internet.
The world we live in today also means that we can sip tea while watching another country being systematically dismantled and dismembered in front of our eyes because one flawed man has lost control of any checks on decency and is overwhelmed by a desire to inflict his dystopian vision on millions of innocent souls.
Is it any wonder that the small vulnerable child that lives within all of us might be intimidated into a hopeless silence of inaction and despair?
And yet… And yet, we also live in a world where despite all its sadness and tragedy, we can still take into our hearts those moments when we see that someone else has made their difference and is inspiring others to make their difference too. The outpouring of care, concern and action to help the people of Ukraine is thankfully a thread we can all hold onto as a way through this dreadful time. Lighting a candle with a quiet prayer, a donation, a petition, or the offer of a room for a refugee, will each leave a tiny but positive impression on others who badly need to feel our gentler touch.
And away from the unfolding tragedy of war, each of us have our own stories of people who once changed us and our circumstances for the better. It might have been a teacher, or a lecturer, a manager, colleague, or a friend or mentor. In many ways just ordinary people like us, but ordinary people who in one moment, or quietly over the course of time, allowed us to be more of our potential and helped us to grow.
More than ever now, the world needs us to be the people who can inspire others.
Can we change a life for the better by helping someone to grow and to be more of their potential? Of course we can.
My existential helplessness today is, I know, understandable, but it mustn’t stop me from making my difference. For those of us who have been inspired by the past kindnesses of others, it is now our turn to pay forward. We are all ordinary and full of our own insecurities and preoccupations, but we can still be an inspiration for others. Our kindness, our care, our example, our words, our deeds, our hopes and our dreams, all matter; and each of us can say and do things that potentially land in the hearts and minds of those we meet and influence.
We do not have to change the world, but we can change someone’s world.
We do not have to believe that we are an inspirational person in order to do something that feels inspirational to someone else.
This therefore is my hope; that we will read the room, see what is needed, and be the person who tries to meet the need we see. Let us at least ask what we can do to help, and let us never be worried that we need permission to have a big heart and a generous mind.
Finally, if you are in a role of significant influence because you are a partner in a professional services firm, or an executive in a large corporate, or the leader of a team, then please take this moment to reflect on the leader your clients, colleagues, communities and family want you to be at this time of all times. Please be for them the difference that your leadership empowers you to be.
Let us make our difference and help others to make their difference too.
Take care. Paul xx
