How Do You Measure Your Impact?

Recently, I stumbled across this article I wrote for the Huffington Post over 10 years ago, 40 Ways to Find Joy in Your Everyday Life.

It was the first article I ever wrote that went viral, attracting 10s of thousands of views. It even spurred a movement!

A few folks who read the article found me on Facebook (this was back in the Facebook heyday) and suggested we start a daily Joy practice. We’d pick something off the list or invent a Joy activity of our own choosing, and we’d share with the others in the group what we’d done and how we felt each day.

I bonded so tightly with Lanita that Kiran and I ended up visiting with her in person in Boston a few years later!

Another participant, Khary, confessed to the group that he’d been suicidal at moments in the previous few months, but that this daily joy practice made him feel that life was worth living again.

Wow.

This was truly a life changing experience for me. Up until then, I often had wondered: Was it even worth contributing to HuffPo when most of my articles only got a few hundred views at best? What was my impact?

The answer: You never know. Keep writing because you just never know how you are impacting other people. 

If you could save one life with your book, would that be worth it? I think so.

Writing Tip of the Week: Envision Your Impact Differently

This week’s writing exercise is a meditation:

• Sit down in a quiet place. 
• Breathe for at least 2 minutes, just listening to the silence.
• Now, envision success. Not as 10,000 books sold or likes on Instagram. Envision it as positively impacting 2 people’s lives.
• See them. See each of them as real people with real problems - perhaps actual people you know. How does your book change their lives for the better? What messages do they take to heart and implement in their daily lives?

If you feel so inclined, hit “reply” and share with me.

Aloha,

MeiMei

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

~Poet Emily Dickinson