This post originally appeared on Rethink Creative’s Blog.
I spend most of my nights fighting to go to sleep, distracting myself away from thoughts of not being where I want to be. I love mornings because I can wake up with a refreshed and rejuvenated sense of hope and do what I need to do to make an impact, but nighttime is always difficult.
I hate nighttime because nighttime is when I’m reminded that life is really just a string of events, and my only hope at having life be significant is to have those events mean something.
In other words, I really just want to make a difference. I want to make a difference because I feel like my life is wasted without it.
To desire making a difference is life for me.
To have nights where I’m taunted and mornings where I work is my life.
I say all this because I believe people waste their time praising this life.
People love having innovators, artists, and dreamers go ahead of them to pave new paths and make a difference, but when it comes down to them, they waste their time watching and praising rather than partaking in the change.
I’ve had many people tell me that I’ve made such a difference already. I’ve authored some words that were read around the world. I’ve encouraged people with my blogs. And sometimes, I do little things here and there that inspire people to dream.
But the people themselves are not doing much to make their life stand for something.
They’re content to give praise to those making a difference, but all that does is widen the gap between the complacent and the active.
I’m guilty of this as well. I see leaders in our culture and I look at them as if they’re going ahead, doing things that I can’t.
But the truth is, those leaders are just like me: all they’re doing is living their life.
I have the choice, to join them in redeeming work, or sit and watch them pass, sealing the distance between us with my praise.
They are human and I am human. My praise might make them seem like they’re not, but at the end of the day, they’re just like me.
They might have sleepless nights. They might have productive mornings. Who knows? All I know is that I’m not wasting my time watching them make a difference while I sit by and only encourage their work.
It’s my job to close the gap. I hope you’ll join me in the effort.