Be a Difference Maker.

Standing on the precipice of greatness is a little terrifying because, typically, you’re up there alone. Not many care to venture that far or up. It’s scary and exhilarating all at once. If successful, you can stay perched up there for quite awhile, enjoying the view. If you fall, well, it can be one heck of a drop.

Before your climb, you’re going to meet a lot of naysayers. They’ll tell you that your chances of reaching the peak are slim and that the road is difficult. This I always find interesting because the majority of naysayers have never traveled that road to the top. This makes their predictions of road conditions suspect. Even if we tune them out, we still have ourselves to contend with. Being our toughest critics and prophets of doom and destruction, we can make a pretty compelling case for taking the road around the base of the mountain. It may be slower, less scenic, and you’ll have lots of company but, provided you don’t encounter any pile ups (like, the recession, perhaps?), you may get to your destination. And if you do take that route, you may glance up a time or two or ten to the top of the mountain and see a handful of hearty souls ascending the mountain. You may even watch them stop and play a bit, enjoying the sunshine, or taking a nice long nap. It may make you wonder if you hadn’t chosen the wrong path. After all, you had the tools and aspirations to make that climb. What makes them so different from you?

The difference might be courage.

Zig Ziglar, sales master, writes that people with courage are Difference Makers. I like this because it gives purpose to what you’re trying to achieve. When you have purpose, your sites are set on something altogether different than the pitfalls that could be encountered en route to the top. And you know what? There will be obstacles. You’ll hit a spot that doesn’t seem to give way to going farther. You may even backslide. But if making a difference is the goal, even if you stumble, how is that failing? The real failure comes when you stop trying to make a difference. As Zig Ziglar writes, “you will never be really happy until you do something for someone else.”

That voice inside your head knows what it’s talkin’ about.

In the face of adversity, do you dig in your heels or crumble? Does that little voice inside your head tell you to keep going or to give in or up?

The other day, I caught a few minutes of a television show in which a couple was trying to sell a house. Their realtor urged them to lower their price, citing the property’s numerous disadvantages. The owners were enamored with their house, saw the “disadvantages” as a benefit to the “right buyer”, fired the realtor, and proceeded to sell it themselves for far more than the realtor had recommended. Life is a lot like this. You will always find someone who will gladly shoot holes in your plans or recommend a different course of action. How do you tell if you’re making the right decision? Listen to that little voice inside your head.

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to partner with a local businesswoman to purchase some land. Our plan was to develop the land, relocate each of our businesses to the new building, and rent out the rest. It was going to cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars, of which I would take out a loan, but everything about this deal flowed so there was no concern. The day we were to furnish the attorney with information to establish the new corporation, I sat in the early morning hours, sipping my coffee, excited about this new venture. From out of nowhere, that little voice inside my head awoke, telling me not to proceed. It was so strong and powerful that I could not ignore it. I called off the deal. Everyone involved asked, incredulously, ‘why’? I couldn’t explain it. I just couldn’t go through with it.

Some six months later, I learned the answer.

The woman who would have been my partner went ahead with the purchase. Because of new homes that had been built on the bluff above this land, she had been unable to clear the land for development. The property sat idle as she tried to find a way around the problem.

I think of the numerous times I heeded the advice of others. As I took different paths other than the ones the voice inside my head instructed, I cannot tell the opportunities missed. But living in fear of what our instincts tell us to do is no way to live. Will listening to the voice always have you avert disaster or, at the minimum, discomfort? It is likely, provided you fine tune your ability to listen. It is sometimes not easy to decipher the messages you receive. Sometimes they are as strong as the voice I heard on that fateful morning; other times, it is only a feeling that something isn’t quite right. Sometimes, it is futuristic. The outcome of the decision you make today may not reveal itself for years to come. Either way, the voice inside your head is a navigation system that has been refined over the evolution of humankind. You would be wise to pay attention.