Am I Making An Impact?

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A quick study of history will indicate that over time both individuals, and small groups of people, stood out as they made tremendous contributions to our planet. One new idea, one new invention, or even one revolutionary person with a new perspective has been enough to change the entire world for the better. Measuring the impact of the new is often easy to see in retrospect.

Most holistic practitioners have a strong desire to help, heal, inspire and uplift others. They basically approach people with their knowledge and skills and ask, “How can I help you?” Their can by years - or lifetimes - spent in the pursuit of perfecting healing abilities, acquiring esoteric knowledge, and intense application of skills in a variety of challenging life situations. It requires dedication, time and often sacrifices, in one way or another, to fulfill this mission of spiritual growth combined with loving service to others.

If you were a chef you would be able to get feedback the moment a person took a bite into your dinner entrée. The same goes for a singer, an auto mechanic, or a carpenter. The results can be seen almost immediately or within a short span of time. Not so for holistic practitioners. While you may get quick feedback, in most cases some time does have to pass. If you are a healer and someone does not get well, consider that they may feel better later on. Your caring will help them along in their healing process. Some people are not always ready to be whole. If you are a writer, your ideas may not be immediately understood or appreciated because they are new or different. However, in the fullness of time they may seem commonplace.

One word, one session, one product, or even one tool can make the difference - if you trust that everything happens in perfect timing. If you can let go of the time factor, and appreciate each small positive step or action you make as a practitioner on a daily basis, you will see results. Patience is the key. The desire to see things change for the better can be overwhelming, but there can also be a timing issue. You have grown over time. Other people, societies and new ideas are planted and mature in their own perfect timing.

Results in Reactions

The actions you take to promote positive change can elicit both positive and negative reactions from those you seek to help. Both are good feedback. Human beings, in general, are slow to change. People seek security more often than radical transformation. When you encounter resistance, lack of support, or even hostility when doing your holistic work in the world, it can actually be a sign of effectiveness. You are striking a chord, bringing up an issue, or challenging people to grow.

People can be lazy. They can beg for assistance and then balk at making any real profound changes in their lives - all in the same breath. You may experience people blaming you for their problems when your only intention was to help them. Even when you do an excellent job they may then quickly drop out of your reality because your work together has been completed. With the abundance of spiritual tools available, you will encounter people who hop from one group or holistic system to another, always in search of something better, bigger or newer. Do not be discouraged. This is human nature. It is often easier to seek the new than to stay with a process. Part of your lesson may be to not take anything personally. All you can do is do the best that you can do; that’s it. Every person you encounter must take responsibility for their own experience.

Results in Non-Attachment

Can you help someone without getting credit? Can you release the need for acknowledgment or gratitude? Do you expect a reward for your kindness, prayers, and loving work directed to others?

Does anyone think of Philo Farnsworth on a daily basis – the inventor of television? Since 1927, television has revolutionized our way of life in numerous ways. Very few people even know who Farnsworth is yet he changed the world. Do people get up and praise Thomas Edison for the Light Bulb or the many activists who created more humane standards in the workplace and/or society? Your ability to read this article is made possible by Konrad Zuse, the inventor of the world’s first program-controlled computer. Konrad who, you ask?

It is best to let go of results. Have a desire to make an impact, but release any concept of how and when it will happen. Just live, do your work, and seek to get out of ego involvements and identifications. Many of us have a special purpose to complete, a mission that we feel compelled to do, and this can be done with more easily, and enjoyably, with non-attachment. We are all equal – equal creators. Your skills and wisdom, in truth, come from a Higher Power that is beyond your personality. When you help someone realize that they have called you in as a part of the universal orchestration of giving and receiving. What we give does not come from the little self, but from the larger self, the universal self. And that is who should get the credit - if you want to keep things simple.

As you go about sharing your skills with the world, don’t wait for thanks. New thinkers often get the opposite; ingratitude, irresponsibility, suspicion and mistrust. What is normal or sensible for you may not be for people new to holistic thought. Remember that people have been socialized to relate as a victim and out of fear. When you relate to them as a creator of their experience, this can throw them into chaos. You do not want to be attached to other people’s reactions because they are unpredictable and often based on illusions. When you are acting from integrity – in right action – that is all you need – or may have - to support you. Self-acknowledgement will make your work easier.

Results in Growth

How are you growing from your work? What are you learning? If you are expanding, growing, deepening your wisdom, then you are making an impact. Too often there is an outward focus on results with others or in society, but you can only share what you have.

When you first make positive changes within yourself you create the space to help all the people you will encounter. If you master self-love, then even if someone treats you unkindly, and you respond with love, you make an impact; you give them an example of a person who can act from love rather than anger or hate or fear. It can be subtle. Raising awareness, staying positive, doing your best at all times, or being kind is not always as dramatic or flashy as developing a new, magical product or wowing an audience, but it is just as powerful. Measure yourself by the growth you experience and how close you live in integrity with your values.

Results in Excitement

Purpose is not always a set objective. Change is the new norm – the only thing you can always rely upon - and many times we have to take radical new courses of direction to fulfill our purpose. If you do what excites you, what inspires you, and connects you to your passion, and then you will be making an impact. People will be energized by your enthusiasm. They will be inspired by your presence.

If you are having fun and it feels good to do your work - that is a very good sign that you are living in purpose, on purpose. That joy in and of itself can cause a chain reaction in others. What would Earth look like if more people did what they enjoyed? The first, last, and every in between action you can take to make an impact is tuning into your excitement.

Once sentence, one idea, one action can make a massive impact; you never know who will be touched. Confirmation can come from bumping into someone you helped years earlier or sudden changes that you fought so hard for that become the norm overnight. New doors can open after years of knocking. You also may never truly know the full extent of your impact so have other reasons to do what you do. Just the idea of healing the hologram of existence in itself is a noble ideal and holding that thought-form makes an impact.

© Egan Sanders, 2007

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