Put anyone else’s name behind this quote and it would be just another flowery motivational sentiment. Yet Helen Keller stands as a testament to personal achievement. Few of us have been deaf and blind from infancy. Few of us have had our writings published in over 50 languages. Few of us have inspired films that won three Oscars. Few of us have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and similar honorary distinctions from numerous foreign countries. Few of us have met the President, much less every President in office during our adult life. And few of us could count cultural icons like Mark Twain and William James among our close friends. So when she writes about the inspiration for achievement, those of us who seek to live out God’s full potential in our lives listen. And when we discover that she penned those words in college at the age of 23 (read full text), even before any of the aforementioned achievements, we understand more deeply the power of the optimism she practiced.

Your thoughts? What areas in your day could use a fresh dose of optimism?

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Admittedly, I can be mesmerized by the significant—a towering and majestic mountain, an electrifying thunderstorm, a devastating natural disaster. The remarkable, by definition, demands attention. So too with personal achievement. I lend more attention to the dramatic—becoming an IronMan, doubling my income, starring in a major motion picture—you name it. The dramatic may, however, overshadow the value of incremental change, for no meaningful achievement is possible without it. Over the duration of its flight, a guided missile makes frequent infinitesimal course corrections to reach its target. Like a butterfly effect, those seemingly insignificant changes breathe life into something much bigger. That’s leverage. And it’s the best kind because it’s easier to make a tiny change today than a big one tomorrow.

Your thoughts? What tiny changes could you make today to yield a big difference in your future?

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