I Choose Today to Be an Influencer and Imitator
I’ve been reading John Maxwell’s book Developing the Leader Within You, and he talks about how influence leaves a mark on our everyday lives. He shares this quote: “No one can understand that mysterious thing we call influence… yet… every one of us continually exerts influence, either to heal, to bless, to leave marks of beauty; or to wound, to hurt, to poison, to stain other lives.” Influence is powerful. It often works quietly, shaping our actions, decisions, and the way we interact with others—sometimes without us even realizing it. A recent trip to the grocery store reminded me just how real this is. My husband and I went to a specialty grocery store to buy a specific bread for an event. We ended up with ten packages of it in our cart. As we were checking out, the man in front of us stepped away from the register and came back with six packages of the very same bread. He laughed and said, “I saw how many you were buying, and I figured it must be really good!” He didn’t know us. We didn’t say a word to him about the bread. Yet in that moment, our simple action