At Art of Brill we talk about the importance of choosing to be positive: how it is great for you and for those around you. In any situation we can always have an impact…
Knowing this, we want our impact to be positive rather than negative.
You see, we are all connected. Jim Rohn famously said, “We are the average of the five people we spend most of our time with.” But what if we were to cast our nets a little further? What if the impact we have isn’t just on our nearest and dearest but the people our friends and family spend time with too? And what about their friends and families?
This is where the ripple effect comes in.
The ripple effect is the pièce de résistance when it comes to being your best self. The research* states that we have three degrees of influence on other people. Our impact goes further than those we have direct contact with, it can ripple through our social networks and connect us to people three degrees away from us.
By you choosing to be positive and being your best self, people you spend time with will catch how you are feeling and get an emotional uplift because of this.
Then those that you have direct contact with are feeling great and anyone they come into contact with also gets an emotional uplift.
Now because those people are feeling better, the people they come into direct contact with will feel good too. By this point these people probably don’t even know you exist but you have impacted them positively just because you have chosen to be in a good mood.
The impact you have is huge.
Here’s a word for you: spielzeug. It basically means plaything. It relates to the energy objects have. For example, your favourite mug or pair of trainers. Their energy is different, it personally connects us and helps them stand out compared to the rest. This energy can also be found in people. The energy they present is what draws you in. They stand out.
If we can learn to take on a positive attitude and step into being our best selves more often we develop a positive energy and other people will feel connected to us and start catching how we are feeling.
When Barack Obama spoke at a 2016 rally endorsing Hillary Clinton in her bid for President, he talked about his own campaign and the origins of the famous chant, “Fired up! Ready to go!” Obama talked about how part way through the exhausting campaign trail he found himself in Greenwood, South Carolina talking to just twenty people in the town hall due to an earlier promise he had made. There was a storm outside, he had driven for miles to get there, it wasn’t a great week in the polls, he was burnt out, it was the last place he wanted to be.
As he was about to speak he heard from the back of the room: “Fired up!”
Obama was startled, he was concerned it was a heckler, but in the next moment the rest of the room responded, “Ready to go!”
The voice from the back of the room shouted again, “Fired up!” And again, the room replied, “Ready to go!”
At first he found it all rather strange but as the chants continued and the energy in the room shifted and started to rise, Obama found himself feeling fired up and ready to go. That chant then became synonymous with his Presidential campaign and was used to get the crowds going.
Obama said: “One voice can change a room. And if one voice can change a room it can change a city. And if it can change a city, it can change a state. And if it can change a state, it can change a nation. And if it can change a nation, it can change the world.”
That is the ripple effect in action.
It all starts with one voice.
One person.
Let that person be you.
*Christakis, Nicholas A.; Fowler, James H. (2009). Connected:The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. Little, Brown and Co.