The Challenge: Living A Bigger Life

It’s January again, and we’ve come full circle, to the start of another cycle, and another chapter.

Just like an empty chalkboard with bullet points to be filled, the beginnings of new phases are always exciting. They ignite a hidden fire in our hearts; there is anticipation of growth, of potential to live a life less ordinary, and the certainty that it will be a year of abundance.

My mind is full of different resolutions that I want to make, and I’m convinced that there is nothing I cannot achieve, if I put my heart to it.

Everyone sets their goals and objectives according to their personal values and desires.

Some aim for their first car, an upgrade to their house, or hope to do a Masters overseas. Others may plan a year-long trip around the world, to graze in the fields of Africa’s safaris, make a home by the sandy beaches in the Caribbean, or maybe do social work in an orphanage in the Philippines.

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No goal is too little or too big, nor too insignificant or too deep – each person follows their own standards in life, because they hope for a brighter future, a better status, or a wider experience.

Essentially we all wish to become bigger, better people in our hearts and souls.

The little boy who walks 5 kilometers from the slum where he lives to the village school every day is striving for education, hoping it brings him out of the depths of poverty. The journalist who has taken a year off from work to be a missionary in the poorest parts of Asia is searching for something more meaningful than just a bank account with plenty of money. The girl who has moved across the world for love is risking the comforts of a financially-secure job and the proximity of family and friends, praying hard that she finds happiness in her re-location. And the woman who gave up her stable but boring office job to pursue life as a freelance writer is seeking an intangible substance to assure her that life can be lived doing what you love.

We wish to improve our lives because humans innately have the desire to grow and progress.

My friend Jess from Feast with Me shared her motto for this year – “Strive for Progress, Not Perfection.”

It is a motto we can all use, I believe. Because we constantly need to be better, and progress, from our current states, to somewhere larger, bigger than where we are right now.

One of my goals this year is to reach people through my writing.

(Maybe writers & bloggers will understand this better).

Have you ever wondered about whose lives you’ve touched?

Who reads your writing? Who thinks about what you’ve done? Who sits in appreciation of having received some inspiration, no matter how little or much, from the work you’ve created?

I’ve wondered, many times.

I like to think that somewhere in the furthest corners of the Internet, someone stumbles across my writing, reads it, and gets changed in some way, no matter how small or insignificant. Or perhaps someone lays eyes on my recipes and cooks dinner, bringing her family together over a home-cooked meal. Or maybe, just re-igniting someone’s love for literature, such as Nicole does at Eat This Poem.

I imagine and hope that some bits of my soul gets poured out into my words, whose readers take away, changed forever because they’ve found in these words, something which is theirs to keep.

With the advancement of technology and the increasingly easy availability of the Internet, as well as wider acceptance of social media and blogging, everyone’s ability to be an influence (good or bad) has increased dramatically. Our thoughts, once limited to just our friends and families, can now be shared, liked, tweeted, pinned, digged, or stumbled upon, by anyone with access to the web.

The world is now literally at our fingertips.

Every word we type on our blogs, each post on Facebook, or each tweet may cause a “Butterfly Effect”, in which a small change in one place may result in large changes elsewhere. A “like” on a post or picture may cause it to travel in instances from Zimbabwe to the North Pole. A piece of news hits every corner of the world even before it’s printed and sold on newsstands. This is the power we have, thanks to technology.

I’d like to propose living a bigger life.

Will you accept the challenge?

Not just me, but all of us, even if you do not write.

In the things that we do, in the thoughts we think, and the posts we write, and the words we speak.

Let our words be edifying, and help to build those who read them. May our words be sources of compassion and kindness and love. May we inspire through our humility and strength, through tough times or good.

This is my challenge to you. Will you accept it?