Impact

[00:00:00] **Aurooba Ahmed:** Well, hello. This is The Daily Five with Aurooba, that's me, where we reflect on creating our best lives a little bit every day. Here we go.

[00:00:16] Today I want to ponder the idea of impact with you. We live in a world where somehow implicitly we've been trained that the greatest impact is created by people with millions of followers, dollars, and customers. Impact is one of those words that has lost much of its meaning because it is used so much by people in every industry and arena.

[00:00:42] What is impact? The dictionary defines it, among other things, as having a strong effect on someone or something. Notice that there is no mention of quantity there. It doesn't have to be an effect on, say, 100 people before it becomes impact. Impact begins with one something or one someone. The other implicit myth we are all fed, somehow, is that if your work and what you have to say is truly impactful, then it'll draw a lot of people.

[00:01:16] That something so impactful can't stay small by definition. That is also false. In season one of The Daily Five, I talk about some of the people who have had the most impact on my life. Some of them being my teachers in grade school, whose impact has been so lasting, so permanent, that I can draw a straight line from something they taught me to a lot of the things that make me who I am today.

[00:01:43] They had no Twitter followings. They weren't famous. They did touch a lot of lives because they were, in fact, teachers. But they weren't known. I couldn't just say their name right now and everyone else would know or be able to Google them. But through me and the people they taught, their impact is huge, even if they don't really know it.

[00:02:04] Ms. Tasneem, Mrs. Harrison, Mr. Carter, Ms. Tee, Professor Carrington, the five teachers in my life that made me think, made me believe I could write. Encouraged it. Helped me refine it sometimes as I literally kicked and screamed. Or, you know, sat with a pout and refused to do my work. And then they had to fail me, so that I would learn. And then, of course, undo the fail. And they affect the writing and speaking I do every day. With the exception of the professor, who is, in fact, a published author, the rest of them were not famous. Not then, and certainly not now. I checked. Impact is matterful. Impact is not defined by the number of people you reach, but by the depth of the impression you leave.

[00:02:54] So maybe impact is about touching lives, however few or many. It's about creating a ripple effect that goes beyond ourselves. and our immediate circle. To make a significant impact doesn't always mean to make a loud noise. Sometimes it's the quiet, consistent actions that make the biggest difference.

[00:03:18] Sometimes, getting back up again and again daily is the thing that makes the impact, not the initial bang that might fizzle out. You know, I go to work every day and Every day, I try to be a little bit better. I am not better every day. I often fail, but I try. And I do get better over the long term. I am better now than I was three months ago.

[00:03:49] And three months ago, I was better than I was six months ago. Every day, I try to be a better wife. And I'm not better every day, but over the long term, I can absolutely assure you, I am a better wife now than I was when I first got married. And I know that makes an impact on my work life, on my marriage, it matters.

[00:04:17] It's not there for the whole world. Most people don't even know what I'm doing. I know it matters. And there is an impact. And sometimes, if we think about it like that, that can be enough. And that can be nice too.

[00:04:39] Thanks for listening. Same time tomorrow?