“Make a difference today for someone who’s fighting for their tomorrow” ~ Jim Kelly It’s funny to me how my entire life I’ve touted that I seem to just “not like people” and still the only thing that seems bring me down harder than anything is people not liking ME. That’s where I’ve been wrong all these years. It’s not about making people “like” me. It’s about me wanting to make a difference. Having this unrelenting desire to help people no matter the cost. But why? Every day we come into contact with people, some we know and some we don’t, that are literally fighting for tomorrow. And sometimes we let the human side of us take over and feel the need to PLEASE people rather than make a real difference in their lives. See to us sometimes those lines get crossed and the people on the receiving end of those thoughts see something much different. If we spend our lives trying to please people what happens is we get in this cycle of hurt. We try to please people, we don’t, we get hurt or offended, then the people we were trying to please also get hurt and offended that that’s all we cared about. Pleasing everybody is never going to happen. I hate to be that guy but it’s just the truth. What CAN happen is that we can recognize hurt people, people in need, people hiding behind the mask of their past and make a real and genuine effort to make a difference in their lives. The thing is that people that need a difference made in their lives usually aren’t looking to “prove” that you’ve pleased them. We get so caught up in having “give and take” relationships that sometimes we overlook that people in need just need to be GIVEN love and support and care and compassion without the feeling of “obligation” to give a return. That’s the craziest part of all this. Sometimes our what seems to be SELFLESS attitude becomes a SELFISH attitude. People in the literal fight for their tomorrow don’t need the feeling of obligation. THAT is how you make a difference. Reach out to, care about, and love others with no strings attached. Looking back through my life I start thinking about the people that made a real difference in my life. Every person that I can name never asked for anything in return. They saw a child, teenager, man, husband, father that needed something, a difference made, and they did it. No strings attached. I hope and pray every single day that I can do that for someone. And THAT should be something we all do. We should all strive every day to be difference makers. No questions asked and no strings attached. Today….make a difference in someone’s life because the truth is, they might be in the literal fight for their life.