What is the impact we’re having when we’re trying to make the impact we want to have?

How often do you hear or see the word ‘impact’? 

Today, it can feel like everything is about ‘impact’.

Making an impact, having an impact.

Whether it is in work, wanting work to be impactful or organisations wanting to have an impact. People have an impact in a room, on a group and on a stage, to note just a few. 

Yet, how clear are you on the impact you have or want to have? 

And what is the impact of trying to create the impact you want? 

What is the impact we’re having?

While it may not feel important or relevant, you cannot avoid having an impact. The literal definition for impact is the result of one thing coming into contact with another or the impression or influence of one thing on something else. 

So with that in mind, what is the impact you may be having even when we’re not thinking about it? 

What is the result of the things you do each day? 

What is the result of the months you spend at work, working towards something or not working towards something? 

Who is impacted? How? For how long? 

What is the impact of how you are to yourself and to others? 

Impact, like potential, is a neutral term, however how you perceive and feel about it, our relationship to it is not. 

How do you feel about the impact you’re noticing?

Knowing we’re always having an impact, what is the impact we want to have?

Creating the impact you want is about both being proactive and also responding to the world around you. To do either requires knowing what you want to work towards, what is the impact you want to create. 

For me, nothing captures this sense of impact better than Pericles’ quote: 

‘What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.’

Building on this, what if both are true? That is to say, what are the stone monuments you want to create and what do you want to weave into the lives of others? 

What is/ isn’t contributing to the impact we want to have? 

It is worth noting impact implies causation and attribution, so it is worth thinking, how much can you influence and contribute to the impact you want to have? 

What can you control in the pursuit of the impact you want? 

And conversely it is worth considering what the impact of things beyond you have on you and the impact you’re trying to create. 

For example, what is the impact of your environment on your efforts to create the impact you’re trying to create and how may you respond to this? Or what are the impacts of your habits on working towards creating the impact you want to have? 

What is the impact we’re having in pursuing that impact? 

Coming back to the Pericles quote and the idea you’re always having an impact, what is the impact you’re having in working towards what is engraved in stone monuments? 

What are we weaving into the lives of others as we work towards the thing that can sometimes feel more important? 

What is the impact we’re having right in front of us which we can almost always control more than the thing we’re trying to create? 

What if our true impact is what is left when the stone monuments are long gone (if they were ever there)? 

Knowing the impact you want to have, how does knowing you are always having an impact shape how you go about creating that impact? 

How can you create the impact you want to have even in the pursuit of that impact? How can you weave that impact into the lives of others so that the impact is there regardless of the stone monuments? 

What would it be like if we all knew the impact we wanted to have and the impact we are already having?

What would it be like if we all focused on the impact we’re having to create the impact we want as much as the impact we’re trying to create?