This is an exceptional picture of my cat, Calvin. Usually, when I try to get a picture of him, I get a blurry picture of his rear end as he’s running away. Because of the lag in the digital camera on my phone, sometimes, I just get a picture of the floor where he was just a moment before. He runs away so often, David’s friend dubbed him “the Runaway Cat.”
Calvin got me thinking about how we can be like a runaway cat. Instead of startling at fast movements or loud noises, we run away from things that seem too risky. Other times we run away from things that will take too much time or energy or money. Sometimes we run away if there’s too much commitment involved. While this inclination to run from scary things can be a self-preservation strategy, it will hold us back from having the maximum positive impact possible.
As I reviewed 2015, I found I did a lot of things that were scary. I was surprised how much I chose to lean into the fear and do those things anyway. Putting up the Life’s Impact Assessment was scary. What if people took a look at it and thought I was some kind of bozo. Doing public speaking was scary. What if I made a fool of myself in front of a bunch of people? Even getting in touch with my own passion and message was scary. What if I felt I needed to do something different than John to be true to my own calling? The list of scary stuff seemed to go on and on.
As uncomfortable as it all was, I’m so glad I did it all anyway. I’m in a much different place now than I was a year ago. That difference has nothing to do with circumstances. It has everything to do with choosing to do important things that were scary and stretchy that moved me forward.
If you have on your heart a desire to make a bigger impact in the world, you will need to do bigger things that grow you and stretch you to make you capable of the task. If it seems risky, do it anyway. If you think you might make a mistake, do it anyway and learn from the experience. If it looks like it’ll take a major commitment, evaluate your priorities and make some adjustments to make room for it in your life.
Let’s not be like my runaway cat Calvin. Let’s be a “Significat” instead. That’s someone who uses their life to make a deep, long-lasting, positive impact in the lives of other people. There are people who seriously need us to step up and make that difference in their lives. Won’t it be great to take a look back one year from now and see that you did what you need to do to make your own unique positive impact?
