Most individuals drift through life with casual disregard for their impact on their environment, loved ones, friends, colleagues and random strangers, at work and at home. In other words, will you be a supporter or a negative Nelly? Every action has a reaction. They're centered on what you decide your legacy will be. Your impact and your legacy are not centered around what other people think, however. Once you wake up and understand what your impact is and realize that you have more impact than you think, you can also get hung up on what other people think about you. There’s an old saying: you get what you give. Based on what you want your environment to reflect, your influence will matter a great deal. You can be intentional about your influence and your impact. You have the ability to become responsible for your actions and be intentional about your path. The impression you leave on this life and others is your legacy. You can choose your legacy on this earth.

You can choose what your impact is on others.

You have family, friends, co-workers, peers and random people you come into contact with all the time. You do not need to be famous or wealthy or write a book to be influential. When you wake up and realize that you have more impact than you think, you also have a choice: Will you have a positive impact or a negative impact? You have a great deal of power over your environment and your influence on this world. We have become so convinced of our own powerlessness that we don’t stop to think that what we do shapes the very world around us every single day. We take rash stances or engage in impulsive acts from a reactionary state. We dish out our opinions on social media in thoughtless disregard to the ripples that they cause. We do things without considering the repercussions or even realizing that our actions and words matter. It’s a huge shame that our impact on others is largely unconscious. This is due to the fact that other drivers are not considering their impact on you. Consider your morning commute to work in an urban area: most likely, some of that commute was negative. This is particularly prevalent when we are not face-to-face with others. We don’t consider whether we are making a positive difference or a negative impression. We typically go about our daily routines without considering our impact.

I am focusing on definition number two: to have a strong effect on someone or something.

To have an effect or affect on someone