Starting your own ripple effect may mean becoming entrepreneurial, someone who is self-inspired and self-driven. Within corporations, someone with this kind of initiative is called an intrapreneur.

Figure out why you are on this planet. What is your life purpose and gives you joy? Then organize everything else around it, integrating all aspects of your life.

Once when I was in Bali, Indonesia, something that impressed me was how the Balinese integrate family, work, community, nature and spirituality. All members participate in the family business. They decorate their neighborhoods with grateful offerings and palm fronds woven in creative ways. For spiritual events, the family closes up shop and climbs a ridiculous number of steps high to their place of worship, joining with the rest of the community (and hungry monkeys) in potluck. This doesn’t mean it’s a perfect life. When artisans have a dry period they get sent to the rice fields until their creativity comes back. And I’m not sure I would want to live with my mother-in-law, but it’s the concept I am trying to get across.  

Find a need or opportunity that you are uniquely qualified to address and focus on doing something about it. It’s not necessarily starting a business. It may be community activism, an initiative you want to take on in a corporation or taking lead on a project around your home. Start to arrange your life around that “thing” that brings you passion and joy.

It’s all about you as a source of creating the impact and adding energy to the universe. Our destinies are woven together like an intricate pattern, blending with more patterns. The complexity of the ripples fluctuate and change much as the pulsating of the heart. Here are six steps to creating your own ripple effect.

  1. DECIDE to do it.  Pick something doable for your first step.  
  2. Commit to having discipline. Show up. Do what you say.
  3. Focus your energy strategically. Set your intention and keep your goal in direct line of sight.
  4. Be prepared that you will find resistance in the process from others AND from yourself. Counter with positive self-talk. You are bringing your tender heart to the project.
  5. Do the work. Work is a practice. Be tenacious.
  6. You are 100% responsible for your reality. Take what you do seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously. Keep your humor.