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The true measure of a person’s life is in direct proportion to the lasting impact and influence they have on others. John Wesley said, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
Every day there are opportunities large and small to do good and make a difference. It can be as simple as a smile to the clerk at the register, letting a car merge ahead of you in traffic, opening the door for someone, making a call to a neighbor, sending a handwritten letter to someone who has made an impact on your life, giving a generous tip to a waiter or waitress, thanking a spouse or parent for all they do, reaching out to someone you have had a disagreement with, giving a compliment – and the list goes on and on and on.
Never underestimate the power and far-reaching influence of doing good!
Achievement in all its forms, along with real financial success, is usually nothing more than a natural byproduct of doing good. And those who do all the good they can, by all the means they can – are those who not only accomplish the most, but are also the most happy, content, confident and energized people on the planet.
It is a healthy exercise to stop regularly and ask yourself how you did in the “do good” department. Did you make doing good part of your day? Did you strategically go out and strive to make a difference during your week or month? Were you conscious enough of the people around you to know how and when you could do something for them?
Doing good is more a mindset than it is a goal or a project – it is a way of living. Doing good, while making an enormous difference for those you serve, will in the end, do more for you than it will for those you may assist.
I have long said that it is easy to make a dollar, but it is a challenge to make a difference.
As we celebrate Christmas and the holiday season, all of us at Sutherland Institute wish to express our sincere gratitude for all you do to make our community great and America extraordinary. It is indeed the doers who make the difference and epitomize what Christmas is really all about. In the words of Him whose birth and life we celebrate – we should become “doers of the word and not hearers only.” To all the doers we say – thank you.
In the days ahead, remember to do all the good you can, in all the ways you can … as long as you ever can – and you will be able to look back in the years ahead at a life that had meaning while leaving a legacy that matters.
For Sutherland Institute, this is Boyd Matheson. Thanks for engaging – because principle matters.
Boyd C. Matheson is president of Sutherland Institute, a conservative think tank that advocates for a free market economy, civil society and community-driven solutions.
This post is an edited transcript of Principle Matters, a weekly radio commentary broadcast on several radio stations across the country. The podcast can be found below.
Receive this broadcast each week directly via iTunes by clicking here.
