Your Life Matters: How to Make a Meaningful Difference

I always become irritated when people say, “When you consider the vastness of the universe, we’re all so inconsequential.”  Or they say something to that effect.  That’s ridiculous.  The reality is that, notwithstanding the vastness of the universe, your life matters.  You impact other people, animals and the earth every day.  That’s a big deal.  So, it’s important to use your life to make a meaningful, positive difference to the world.

Realize that you don’t have to do anything grand to have a positive impact on others.  After all, if you ask folks to name the one person who has had the biggest impact on their life, they aren’t going to cite a politician or a celebrity.  Instead, they’ll likely name a parent, teacher or friend. 

The reality is that you have the power to be a force for good in this world. If you so choose, you absolutely can make a profound and positive difference to others. So, you do matter. 

Below are ways that you can use this very important life that you’ve been given to make a meaningful difference in the world. 

Choose to Live by Your Values

The problem in our world isn’t that people don’t have values.  Most people have very sound values.  Most folks value acting with integrity.  And most folks believe in being compassionate and kind.  The problem is that for most people, their values are flexible. 

To make a difference in the world, it’s not enough to just have good values.  To make a meaningful difference in the world, you have to consistently live by those good values. 

For instance, I know lots of folks who will tell you that they value kindness.  But those same folks behave kindly only if they’ve had a good night’s sleep, and all is going well in their world.  If they’re tired or are having a bad day, they’ll be mean to other people.

To make an actual difference in the world, you can’t just live by your values when it’s convenient, or it feels good.  Rather, you need to live by your values All the Time.  If you do so, your life truly will be a force for good in the world.

Help Others

There’s a saying that “cleanliness is next to godliness.”  I’d agree.  But I’d also say that “helpfulness is next to godliness.” 

In fact, one of the most important qualities that you can develop is to be helpful.  You never want to be the person who is sitting on the couch while others are doing all the work.  Rather, you want to be the kind of person who always lends a helping hand.

Unfortunately, in today’s society, people scorn being helpful.  Or rather, they’re picky about who they’ll help.  For example, some folks have the idea that we should only help those who have the right citizenship.  Some believe they should only help those who practice the “right” religion.  And others believe that they should only help those to whom they are biologically related.  All of those ideas are misguided.

If you want to make a meaningful difference in this world, choose to be indiscriminately helpful.  Help the individuals who are in front of you.  And equally help folks on the other side of the world who you feel called to assist. 

Helpfulness is a positive energy that we bring to our families and to the world.  We all know this to be true.  For instance, if you’ve ever been in a home in which no one is helpful, you’ll find that there’s a negative energy.  Everyone is out for #1.

By contrast, in households where everyone helps with doing the laundry, washing the dishes, cooking or vacuuming the floors, the energy is entirely different.  There is a positive hum in the house.  Everyone is happy because there’s a solidarity that comes from folks helping one another.

The same holds true globally.  The more helpful you are, the more positive the world is.  Just imagine what our world would be like if we were less concerned with taking our little patches of earth and more concerned with how we can best help other human beings.

Be Generous with Encouragement

We live in a highly critical world.  Sadly, most people are very comfortable with criticizing others.  And yet it pains those same people to pay a compliment.  It obviously should be the converse.

After living for several decades on this earth, I can say with confidence that the way you can have the greatest positive impact on this earth is to be an encourager.  Realize that words are not small things.  To the contrary.  Words can change lives.  In fact, an encouraging word can change the entire direction of another person’s life for the better.

In my own life, I’ve had people say the right words to me at the right time.  High school teachers.  My friends’ parents.  College professors.  Workplace supervisors.  I’ve been lucky to have people who have pointed out my qualities to me when I couldn’t see them myself.  And that encouragement has been life changing.

As a result, I now try to be an encourager for others.  When I see someone do something well, I don’t keep my positive thoughts to myself.  Instead, I readily pay that person a compliment. 

The reality is that everyone is going through life feeling confident in some ways, and feeling insecure in others.  As a result, every last one of us needs encouragement. 

So, don’t be stingy with your encouraging words!  Encourage freely!  If you encourage and compliment others at every opportunity, you’ll be surprised by how you end up changing the lives of others for the better.

Use Your Talents for Good

Your job while on this earth is to use your unique talents and skills to make the world a better place.  So, during your life, your challenge is to (1) figure out what you’re good at, and (2) find a way to use what you’re good at to benefit others.

I’ll concede that isn’t a simple task.  It may take years, even decades, to find your calling.   But that’s OK.  It isn’t a race. 

For example, the “Create A Great Life” website is my way of using my talents for good.  I set up this website in 2019 with the goal of simply spreading positive ideas in the world.  Six years later, I’m still writing posts. My hope is that through my writing, I’m providing some encouragement, inspiration and comfort to my readers.

So, remember that your life matters, and your skills matter!  So, don’t waste your precious gifts. Instead, use them to make the world so much better.

Help the Next Generation

Not one of us has achieved success in life on our own.  Rather, when we were young, we had adults who helped us to make our way in the world.  So, once we become adults, we also have an obligation to help the next generation.

For example, if you’re a parent, your job is to position your child for success.  That means that from the moment your child is born, until he or she graduates from college, you have a responsibility to both support and encourage that child.

Sadly, many parents don’t live up to that responsibility.  Instead, they wreak all kinds of havoc while their children are growing up and have zero regard for the effect of their behavior on their kids.  And as a result, they end up undermining their children’s success.

Here’s the tough truth about parenting: For the first 22 years of your child’s life, your life isn’t your own.  During those years, your job is to provide your child with a stable, pleasant, peaceful, wholesome home environment in which your child can thrive.  And your job is to work hard during those years so that you can provide your child with every educational opportunity possible. 

Then 22 years later, on the day after college graduation, your life is once again your own.  And thereafter, you can do whatever it is that you feel like doing with your life.  Join the Foreign Legion.  Become a circus performer.  Buy a motorcycle.  Have that mid-life crisis that you’ve been putting off for years.  But for those first 22 years of your child’s life, life simply isn’t about you.  It’s about positioning the next generation for success. 

And even if you don’t have children, realize that you still have a responsibility to help young people.  Children need encouragement from adults outside of their parents.  For example, when I was a young person, I had many wonderful adults who encouraged me.  I was blessed with aunts, uncles, teachers and members of my church who were kind enough to say the right words to me at the right time.  Those adults changed my life for the better.

The bottom line is this: The point of life isn’t merely to make ourselves happy.  We also have a responsibility to improve the future of humanity.  And that means helping the next generation.  So, make a meaningful difference in the world by changing the life of a young person for the better. 

Cultivate Peace and Understanding

We unfortunately live in a world in which aggression, violence and meanness are acceptable.  We condone war between countries.  We turn a blind eye to the domestic violence that occurs in our families.  Our politicians speak about other people using insulting, demeaning terms.  Even in our families, people can speak to each other unkindly. 

I could go on, but you get my point.  Society needs to change.

What we desperately need is a culture shift.  We need to reject those despicable behaviors, and instead, we need to choose to be peaceful.  At all times.  Even when we’re in a bad mood.  Even when we feel that life is unfair.  And even when we’re tired. 

Being a peaceful person takes commitment.  It’s a commitment that we can each make to not be aggressive or use harsh words, regardless of the situation that we’re in.  Now, I’ll concede that being peaceful takes self-control!  And emotional maturity.  But those are qualities that we need to develop if we want to be not only peaceful individuals, but exceptional individuals.

The question most folks then ask is this: How can I be peaceful, all the time?  Well, one approach is to walk away from difficult conversations.  There are countless arguments that I’ve had over the years that were a complete waste of time.  I would have been far better off walking away and choosing to live my life peacefully.

Another way to be peaceful is to realize that not everyone is going to agree with you.  So, stop insisting that other people do what you want them to do. And certainly stop insisting that others share your same points of view.  Instead, live your own life and focus on yourself.  And let others do the same.

But by far, the best way to be peaceful is to surround yourself with peaceful people!  Realize that difficult people aren’t worth the stress that they bring.  So, give yourself permission to stop dealing with them. I can assure you that it’s very easy to live a lovely, peaceful life if you eliminate the aggressive, argumentative people and fill your life with gentle, easy-going folks.

So, do whatever is necessary to become a peaceful person.  If you do so, you’ll bring peace to the world, something that is desperately needed in today.

Remember that your life matters!  Consider following the approaches above, so that you can have the most positive impact on the world with this one life that you’ve been given. (To read about how to have a well-lived life, click here.)