Do You Need to Do Impressive Things to Make a Difference in the World?
No. You just need to do the best and be the best you can.
I’m a big fan of audiobooks. When I recently came across Chris Hadfield’s An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth and saw he was also the narrator, I had to download it.
If you’re unfamiliar with Colonel Chris Hadfield, he’s a Canadian Astronaut who’s been to space 3 times, the last as commander of the International Space Station (ISS). He’s also an excellent singer, songwriter, and guitar player who performed from the ISS with Barenaked Ladies a song he wrote. He’s also an engineer, fighter pilot, fiction author, and used his time on the ISS to help educate the world about what space travel truly looks like.
Col. Hadfield is a dynamic speaker, and his reading of his own book gives it that much more gravitas. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it – and the many lessons he’s learned and the trials he went through to become probably the most famous Canadian astronaut.
In case it’s not obvious, this is someone that I greatly admire and deeply respect.
His life approach is different from mine, but still very much resonates with me. One of the key takeaways I’ve gotten from his book is the idea that you need not be impressive or do impressive things to make a difference in the world.
So, what do you need? You need quiet competence and an open mind.
I’m going to paraphrase one way that Col. Hadfield shares for this in his book that I think is relevant to all.
Choose to be a minus-one, a zero, or a plus-one
Most people believe that to make a difference in the world – big, small, or in between – they need to stand out. It requires tremendous excellence and other matters of impressiveness. They want to be a plus-one.
This, however, presents numerous problems. There are times when being the loudest voice in a room doesn’t make you stand out – it makes you stick out like a sore thumb. You risk coming across as arrogant, a know-it-all, and thus alienating people. Clearly, not the way to make a difference in the world.
Col. Hadfield shares a concept that I think presents a far better approach. It’s much more realistic, and it can open doors and lead to paths that can make a difference in the world.
Be a zero, rather than a minus-one. Let me put that into context. A minus-one is a person who detracts from doing something. They get in the way, cause problems, and negatively impact those around them. A minus-one is often someone who is trying to make a good impression but instead makes a bad one.
A zero, on the other hand, is going for quiet competence. They aim not to detract from a group or situation. A zero strives to avoid having a negative impact by doing what needs doing to the best of their ability. They work hard, give their best, do their best, and strive to achieve excellence by not causing issues for others.
Being a zero is not a zero-effort idea. Rather, it’s giving your best and doing your best without trying to be showy, impressive, or seeking validation from others.
From zero, what you do can make you a plus-one along the way. Because as a zero, you are competent.
How can I make a difference in the world?
There are two reasons I write my blogs. The first is a form of catharsis. My head is full of ideas, philosophies, fictional stories and characters, traumas, happy and sad experiences, and everything in between. I’m an overthinker, overanalyzer, and have fought clinical depression on and off for most of my life.
The first reason I write my blogs is to get ideas out of my head and put them somewhere I can examine them in specific and greater detail.
The second reason is because I know I’m not alone in this. Most people have a lot going on in their heads. And everyone copes with that differently. Some people do primal scream therapy, some smoke and drink, some people repress, and on and on.
By sharing my thoughts with you, the idea is that you can see you’re not alone, either. Together, we can look at these ideas and decide if they resonate the same way.
Maybe they do – and you take what I share to heart and use it for yourself. Maybe they don’t – but you still see something that helps you find a different approach from mine that helps you.
And that’s the primary reason why I write and share these. To help. I’m striving to make myself a better person, to grow, evolve, and learn all the time. Then, I’m sharing what I learn because I want to help everyone be a better person, to grow, evolve, and learn all the time.
This is one way I want to make a difference in the world. It’s not flashy, it’s not loud. It might reach a very small few. But if even one person takes something away from this that helps them do and be better – that is what I strive for.
The butterfly effect and making a difference in the world
Are you familiar with the butterfly effect? If not, allow me to share this summary of the concept. It comes from chaos theory and postulates that the beating of the wings of a butterfly in California can cause a typhoon in Japan. A seemingly insignificant thing leads to a big thing.
This can be negative or positive. For example, let’s say you’re a welder. As a welder, you’re employed to weld parts together that will become part of a spacecraft.
As a welder, you might give your best and do your best. Or you might not. If your attention drifts, and you do a weld that’s only 80% of your best, you might let it go.
Nothing may come of this. Or it’s possible that your half-assed weld fails when the spacecraft reenters the atmosphere, causing it to disintegrate. One seemingly insignificant thing led to a big thing.
The butterfly effect in and of itself isn’t negative. It can utterly be positive. Let’s say, for example, you hold the door open for a person struggling to get through it. They say “Thank you”, you say “You’re welcome. Have a good day” and think nothing further of it.
What you didn’t know was, prior to your action, that person had given up on the human race. They were seriously considering suicide. Your random act of holding the door and wishing them a good day restored their faith in humanity. They continue on, and months later help someone else in the same way.
Or maybe they do something utterly significant and make a difference in the world that impacts millions positively.
Does this seem far-fetched? It’s not. And sometimes you make a difference in the world by simply making someone else’s day better.
What you do matters – you matter
Returning to Col. Hadfield’s minus one, zero, plus one concept – what you do, no matter how big or small, matters to the world at large.
When you work to do your best and be your best, that doesn’t mean you’re superbly excellent. Maybe you are – but that’s not important. What’s important is that you are not half-assing your way through life, actively making choices and decisions, and striving. It means you’re being a competent, conscientious human, being.
Everything you do matters. It might matter only to and for you – but it still matters. You are worthy and deserving of making a difference in the world – even if it’s not big, not obvious, or only impacts you directly.
Too many people striving to make a plus-one impact on people and the world are actually a minus one. That’s why being a zero is utterly worthwhile.
One of my daily affirmations (yes, ugh, affirmations. Cheesy – but frankly, effective) is this:
I give my best. I do my best. The thoughts and feelings of others are outside of my control.
What that means is that I can’t worry about the impression that I make on anyone else – or what I might cause them to think or feel, so long as I’m doing and giving my best. If that makes me a zero or a plus one – that’s fantastic. I strive to not be a minus one.
Thank you for letting me share this with you. And thank you, Col. Hadfield, for striving to be a zero – because you have been a plus-one in and to my life.
In what ways do you strive to make a difference in the world?
This is the six-hundred and thirteenth (613) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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