What I’ve Learned
So often in my travels, I hear students from the different places I’ve visited say,
I want to start a movement. I just don’t know where to start.
My response is always the same. I tell them:
Start where you are, write down what you want to do, and dedicate part of each day of your life to doing one thing that will move you towards your goal.
What I have learned is that distribution is the most critical aspect of starting a movement. Worry about how to perfect your idea once it is out there. Spend the majority of your energy on being productive and spreading your message. It does not matter what your goal is, what is important is what you do to get it out there and into the minds of others.
I have also learned that there are two necessities for your idea to progress. First, you need to have a complete discontent for the status quo. Secondly, you need to engage in a relentless pursuit to try to change it. If you implement these two ideas, you are well on your way to accomplishing your goal. To that point, if what you are doing gets difficult, it means it is worthwhile.
I love speaking. When I started doing this job as a speaker just over five years ago it was hard. Some days were great, some were more challenging (never bad) but certainly not easy. I remember in the beginning I was hired to work with a school to facilitate a presentation. On this one particular day, I was on my way to a presentation that was about an hour away from home. Just as I was leaving, I turned on my car only to realize that my fuel gauge was showing that my gas tank was empty. I quickly hopped on my phone and saw that I had zero funds available in my bank account. What was I to do?
I ended up driving to the school, hoping the entire way that I would make it there. About two kilometres from the school, my car ran out of gas. I had no choice but to walk the rest of the way to the school. My only thought was to do a good job at the school and worry about my car later. Fortunately for me, the school paid me while I was there. I discovered that there was a bank just over four kilometres away from the school. I walked to the bank, deposited the cheque, went to Canadian Tire, bought a gas can and some gas and then made my way back to my car. After filling my car up and driving home, I remember asking myself if resigning from my great teaching job was worth all of the struggles I was now experiencing. Without hesitation, my answer to myself was, yes.
What I’ve learned from that experience is that the people who get the most out of this world are the ones who have an infinite capacity not to understand what can’t be done. If at first what you are doing seems hard, stick with it. It is the difficult tasks that are always the most rewarding.
Don’t limit yourself, take the first step towards your goal; you will be happy that you did.
