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.”