I adore this quote. Brilliant and so very true. So many people have spoken on this topic, far more eloquently than I could, and so I am only going to go there just a little bit (I can't help myself).
People, you don't HAVE to think grand to make a difference. You don't need to be Gandhi. You don't need to be wealthy. You don't even need to have a whole lot of spare time. There are things you can do, right now, to make someone's day brighter.
Several times a year, I make up a monthly challenge calendar for my Thirty-One team, where there are different challenges daily that they are supposed to go do and then post to the group that they've done them. I change these up a ton every time I do it, but I always, ALWAYS have a pay-it-forward Friday on there, where they are challenged to pay for the car behind them in the drive-through for coffee or breakfast or whatever. It's simple, it's typically quite inexpensive, and how much brighter did it make YOUR day if someone has ever done that for you?! Best. Feeling. Ever. To be on the giving or receiving end of it. Simple things like that are exactly the kind of things you can do to make the world a better place, your own little corner of the world, anyway.
So pick something and do it. I dare you.
I'm not "hand-picking" these quotes...I just change them based on whatever comes out of the box. Consequently there are some I might love less than others. Some that might speak to me less than others. When that happens, I try to think about the quote for a few minutes, and figure out what I might learn from it. Call it a meditation, almost. This was one of those quotes for me. I think initially I couldn't figure out what difficulties I might have mastered, or how those might have, in fact, turned into opportunities. Maybe I was just not as smart as Winston Churchill and didn't totally understand it. Very possible.
In any case, I'm still pondering on this one. Maybe it'll speak to one of you in a more profound way than it did me. If not, well, we can't all be Churchill I guess.
I am ALL ABOUT motivational quotes. I buy them constantly. I hang them on my walls, put them out on my Facebook. I hoard them. I adore them. I found this great little cube thing at Target that had little quotes that kind of look like coasters, and you can change them out whenever to show a new quote in the window of the box. So I'll be posting those on a regular basis, when they strike me.
I particularly love this one today because things are very hectic...getting ready for travel this week, tons to get done, etc. and I am really attempting to approach the entire thing as something other than an obligation. I am BLESSED to be going on this trip. I am BLESSED to have a family I need to take care of in order to get everything set to go. I am BLESSED that I can financially afford to make all this happen. Looking at it that way is way more inspiring than looking at it as I have too much to do and I'm freakin stressed. Life isn't perfect. Life isn't even always great, but it's LIFE, it's mine, and I CHOOSE to see it how I want to see it.