Make a difference, make it positive

MAKE A DIFFERENCE, MAKE IT POSITIVE

  “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” — Jane Goodall

A quote that caught my attention through the article ‘The Nature of Mindsets’ written by Ash Buchanana. Reference:

Ash Buchanan (2017) The nature of mindsets, Medium. Benefit Mindset. Available at: https://medium.com/benefit-mindset/the-nature-of-mindsets-18afba2ac890.

The importance of mindset has been really brought to attention in Philosophy classes, getting us to think about who we are and what our mindset is. These are some of my favourite lessons really highlighting the importance of looking inward on ourselves and our values.

Though through first year I do remember being told the difference between fixed and growth, the article ‘The nature of mindsets’ (Buchanan, 2017) highlighted a third mindset, Benefit. A quick explanation of each:

Fixed: you know what you know, avoiding failure, perfectionist and believes you’re born with ‘the gift’

Growth: focus is about improving and developing, enjoying learning, and seeing different viewpoints

Benefit: aims to fulfil potential, and aims to contribute to society and environment – acknowledgment that actions have impacts.

I think I have a growth mindset, I’m working towards having a benefit mindset, and to become more conscious of my impacts on the environments around me. I want to start taking a few minuets out of each day, to reflect on the day, how I’ve learnt, how I’ve grown, and how it may have impacted the people and environment around me. This wont be perfect straight away, it’s a process and a habit, it’s a chance to learn more about yourself and grow.

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” — Jane Goodall

This quote at the beginning made me write this blog post as I think its so impactful. You can feel so small sometimes in such a busy world, this quote makes you feel as though you are important, and you have a space, purpose, and impact on this earth. On the days you feel you’re at your worse, its guaranteed you’ve had an impact on others. You should take this as a narrative, you get to decide, when you smiled at that stranger walking past, when you held the door for someone, these are small things but all conscious actions that impacted someone else’s world. You created a positive difference, even though it was small, it was still a positive difference. Now, imagine what you can curate with design, creating a landscape that can encourage these actions to play out, encouraging strangers to interact,  you can create thousands of opportunities for a positive difference.

I hope this inspires others as much as it did for me, I hope we all strive for positive difference and take every opportunity to learn more!