“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room. -African Proverb”

I love this quote!!!! What a visual it paints!

There are times when I sit down to write an article and I have no idea what I am going to write. I prefer to write when I’m inspired, but I also want to be consistent with my articles, so it’s kind of a tug-of-war between myself.

Sometimes the thing that gets in my way is because I tell myself that writing an article is a lot of work for no payoff. I can see the stats, and I can see how many clicks I get on each article. I know I don’t have the biggest audience yet, but I have to remind myself why I am doing this.

I want to make a difference in our world. I want my stories to inspire others. I want to make the world a better place.

I haven’t written a song in well over a year. I seriously cannot even think about what the last I wrote was. I haven’t been inspired enough to write music, and I could never be one of these people who are paid to sit in a room for two hours to write a song. I want my art to mean something, and I didn’t get into art for the money haha.

When I write music, or when I tell a joke, all I care about is if it affects one single person. That means I have done my job. I have purpose.

I have become so inspired by so many people who really do not know how much they have inspired me. I am certain that Trent Tomlinson has no idea how much his music means to me. I bet I’m his biggest fan. He hasn’t had a song make an impact on the Billboard Country charts since 2011 and that song “A Man Without A Woman” peaked at 59. It’s still one of my favourite songs.

Sure he’s had success as a songwriter, writing Brett Young’s number one “In Case You Didn’t Know,” and Parmalee’s “Close Your Eyes”, but when I mention him as one of my musical heroes, most have no clue who he is.

Now I don’t know him from Adam, and I have no way of knowing what he is like as a person, but I can tell you his music speaks to me on a level that I can’t explain. He made a huge impact on me musically and he doesn’t even know it.

With that knowledge, I can always find the inspiration to write this blog. Somebody will read this post and it will inspire them to make a difference somewhere in their life.

I’m not a religious man anymore (and I will write about my experience with religion someday) but I remember being very touched by the movie Evan Almighty. Yes, it wasn’t anywhere near the quality of movie of it’s prequel Bruce Almighty, but the message stuck with me.

Spoiler alert, but Evan Almighty stars Steve Carrel as his character from the previous Jim Carrey film, Evan Baxter. Evan is a congressman with the campaign slogan “change the world.” Morgan Freeman’s portrayal of God appears to him and tells him to build an Ark.

The film recreates the story of Noah from the bible, and ends with God explaining the way we change the world is through ARK, or one Act of Random Kindness at a time.

I don’t need religion to tell me that being a good human being is crucial to a better world. I just know that. I was raised on those morals.

Now I am very critical of people who do good deeds just to make themselves feel better. For example, if you give a homeless man food, but you record yourself doing it so you can post it on your Instagram, you’re not doing a good deed to do a good deed; you’re showboating.

If you really want to be a good person, you should be doing good deeds without people knowing. I love when I hear stories through the grapevine about people doing selfless acts just because they are good humans. Can you imagine a world if we all did those things on a daily basis?

Small things go a long way. When my fiancee was pregnant, we went out for breakfast and somebody paid for our meal. I don’t know who did it, and I probably never will. But that person helped us strangers out and it inspired me to do the same down the road.

The world runs on energy, and putting good energy out into the world brings you into a new vibration. Some call that karma, and I believe karma is a true genuine force. I’ve seen it work.

Now I’m not going to write all the times I’ve done something for somebody for no reason, but I am going to write a few examples that everybody can do today. Yes today. After reading this, you can do one of these things in the next couple of days and start making a difference in our world.

• Pay for someone’s coffee in a drive thru line
• Shovel your neighbour’s driveway/sidewalk
• Buy a children’s toy and drop it off on a stranger’s doorstep
• Smile as you walk by somebody on the street
• Compliment a stranger on their outfit
• Stop and assist somebody with car trouble if you happen to be driving by
• Leave a $20 bill under a stranger’s door mat
• Buy a book that changed your life and leave it in a free library with a note
• Ask a homeless person what they would want from Subway and buy it for them
• Pet a stray cat if it will let you
• Offer to pay for somebody’s items when they are at the counter counting change
• Help an acquaintance move without expecting something in return
• At a bus/train stop, ask to hear a stranger’s story or struggles and offer advice
• Buy a co-worker a coffee

These are all small little things we can do to help out our fellow humans. A little can go a long way.

Once you put out that energy, it is up to the receiver to do with it what they will. If you pay for someone’s meal and they happen to be arrogant people who didn’t deserve it, and they don’t pay it forward, that’s on them. Not on you. You really have no way of knowing.

However, that little act could be exactly what somebody needs. It could be someone’s life saving solace.

I’ve heard stories of people who survived suicide attempts who said, if just one person smiled at them before they took the pills, they would’ve changed their mind. Isn’t that sad?

We unfortunately live in a world so conflicted in division when we really need more unity. Religion. Citizenships. Politics. Borders. Cultures. So many things divide us, but at our cores we are all the same; human.

You do not have to go out of your way to make a difference, you just have to be kind. That’s it. That’s all. I intend to believe this world is more beautiful than we think it is, and if we all just loved a little more, we could live in that utopia.

Nobody is gonna save you, but people can make you feel stronger every day. A better you starts with spreading joy.