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Randy saw his co-worker coming down the hall, and he ducked into the restroom. Her mother had recently died, and he had intended to send a sympathy card but never got around to it. Best just to avoid her until she recovered from her loss, he thought. During lunch, Randy checked his bank balance online. Rats! He was overdrawn again. He had intended to transfer funds from his savings the day before, but he forgot about it. Randy arrived home at six o’clock at night and found a note on the kitchen table from his wife. She wanted a divorce. He stared at her handwriting on the page, and a deep feeling of emptiness started to creep into his heart. He had intended to tell her how much he loved her . . . but he just never got around to it.
Intention without action is useless. You can be filled with good intentions, but nobody knows it until you do something. Randy had no proof to show his wife that he really did love her, because his actions didn’t reflect his feelings.
Your assignment today is to openly display your intentions. That does not mean simply talking about the things you want to do. It means getting out there and doing them. Don’t get caught in the trap of good intentions. They are useless and will do nothing to help you achieve your dreams. Intentions are not real until you take action.
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A little bit makes a difference. If you ever feel overwhelmed by the tasks in front of you, know that taking any action, no matter how small, will make a difference. Pick up a piece of trash if you see it on the sidewalk. Put your loose change in the can for muscular dystrophy at the grocery store check-out line. Plant some flowers in your front yard. Help your kids with their homework. When lots of people do little things, great things will be achieved. It is much worse to stand by and do nothing. Every little thing you do has a ripple effect on the rest of the world. You are more powerful than you think.
Give what you can give today; do what you are capable of doing today; help the people you can help today. Don’t give up because you can’t save the world. No one can accomplish great things alone. It takes time and action—continual action—to exact real change.
It is a mistake to do nothing, but it is never a mistake to do even a little bit. Do what you can today, and when you go to sleep tonight, congratulate yourself on taking action. When you wake up tomorrow morning, do it again. You can reach your dreams through a series of small steps, but you can’t get there by doing nothing.
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You will have an opportunity for the next few days to consider humility as it relates to your success. Humility sounds like a bad word to many people. It’s a little too close to humiliation. In actuality, humility is not the same thing as humiliation. Humiliation happens when you are in a state of public disgrace or shame. Humility is a personality trait of being humble or modest.
We talked about humility in relation to pride back on Day 334 and discussed its positive and negative connotations. Now you will have a chance to look at how humility can be a useful tool for success.
Humility doesn’t put you at a lower station than those around you. It also doesn’t mean that you do not consider yourself worthy of success. William Temple described it beautifully in the quote above. Humility is freedom from thinking about yourself at all.
As you move toward success, you will travel the road faster if you turn your attention outward to those around you rather than becoming self-absorbed. You have worked through lots of exercises in this book to allow your talents to emerge and to reveal your personal gifts. You know you have the ability to achieve your dreams. Now is the time to look around and find ways to make a difference in this world. It may sound kind of funny, but you are not the centerpiece of this endeavor. Stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about what you can do for those around you. Then success will be yours.
