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| What Moves You? |
We move out of old houses, old neighborhoods, old territories and move into new houses, new neighborhoods, and new territories time after time. Change is inevitable. We don't like change and sometimes we don't anticipate it. We fight change most times. Others move into new relationships, implement new business ideas and form new alliances.
Anatole France said it better:
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.
The word move has various meanings, we shall focus on just these two:
- Take action
- Provoke a strong feeling, esp. of sorrow or sympathy, anger
Anybody can either be frustrated or fascinated by what they see in their daily lives; only a few take action or are provoked to compassion. Mostly compassion ultimately compels one into taking action.
- How to be moved
A 'seeing eye' will sometimes not see, and a 'hearing ear' does not always hear.
To see, or hear -- you must feel after you see and again listen to what you hear.
Many people walk past beggars on the street daily without as much as a look. I am guilty of that a number of times. Only a few notice the despair on their faces, even fewer care to ask why they are on the streets, and only a select few decide to buy them a decent meal.
Is it the loss of hope, the orphans, the abortions, poverty of the mind, poor living conditions, wasted resources, the lack of morals, youth wasting their lives, disintegrating family values, faulty leadership, propaganda in the media... what cry captures your listening ear, what situation gets you really angry and provokes you to action?
- How to move towards what moves you
It is not about you
You being born was not the grandest event on earth. It is what you do for others that makes your life really count.
Forget yourself
No one who is selfish ever went out of his way to help others. You have to be selfless. Think about others more than you do about yourself.
What do you have in your hand?
Start with what is in your hand. You don't need millions of money to give a smile or to speak out against the ills in the society.
Is there any building that starts with the roof being put up first? You start with the foundation and gradually add the supports.
For anything to succeed, you start small; not big. Mother Theresa believed that sometimes we feel what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.
Most times we see the vast ocean, we don't remember the drops of water that make up the ocean. Just as there are no small drops, no contribution is small. Start with what you have and grow from there.
You might fail
The key word here is might. Until you start, you will not know if the probability has a chance to materialize. When you do fail, it will be after you have started and that will not be a failure. Choose to fail forward and pick up the lessons as you go.
Don't listen to dissenting voices
"You can't." "Others have tried and failed."
When dissenting voices speak against you, ask yourself two questions
- Do they feel as strongly as you do?
- Have any of them taken action yet?
Most times people criticize what they don't understand.
Learn from others
There are those who have tried and failed forward. Borrow their wisdom. Connect with them through books, seminars, one on one. Do whatever it takes to learn the rules of the trade and then follow them.
Leo Tolstoy said
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.The truth is moving has an action-reaction effect. The decision to move will require you to stretch - the change to be effected without must start from within - and it is a process. A process of forming a character able to effect the change you desire.
If you don't yet know what moves you, you owe it to yourself to make it a lifelong pursuit, until you do. You won't come up empty.
If you know what moves you, then start moving towards what moves you.
If you have already started moving, keep moving and share your insights with others.
Do you know what moves you? How else can we move "towards what moves us." Please share your views in the comment section below.
photo credit: NazareneMissionsInternational via photo pin cc
Mark 8
New Living Translation (NLT)
18 ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’
