Accomplishments...do you have the ability?

The TRUTH is…every accomplishment must start with the decision to try!

Without some form of commitment, without a start, without some form of plan in mind, how can we expect to accomplish anything in life. This quote by influential figures like?John F. Kennedy?and?Gail Devers?emphasizes that the first step towards any achievement begins when we decide to make an initial effort – to simply try without overthinking it. It highlights how all progress in life flows from driving past hesitation and excuses and getting started.??

Once you start, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication will actually get you there. Do you need talent? Will you need knowledge? How about inspiration? The answer to all of these will be yes, depending on what you are trying to accomplish. If you desire to invent a cure for cancer, you may need some knowledge of medicine, chemistry, and biology. You may be inspired by the sickness of a loved one. You might have been researching and experimenting for years. But all these mean little if you never take the first step, make a commitment, and determine to try. But are all these things necessary?

Ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things with just the motivation to try to make a difference. Often without a plan, without thinking. Here are a few examples:

• Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and became a national symbol whose courage we still recognize today. Tired from a full day’s work, she boarded a Montgomery bus on December 1, 1955, and forever became one of the inspirational people who changed the world.
• Candy Lightner stood up against drunk driving and started a movement that is recognized for the tremendous impact it had. After her 13-year-old daughter was killed by a repeat DWI offender,?she founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in her home on March 7, 1980.
• Todd Beamer and the passengers of Flight 93: Fought back against 9/11 terrorists: they worked quickly and courageously to reclaim control and keep the plane from reaching the target intended by the terrorists.
• Malala Yousafzai fought for better education for women. After being shot in the head for speaking out for what she believed, she refused to hide in fear, instead, using her voice to start the Malala Fund, a charity dedicated to ensuring every girl has the opportunity to go to school. At 17, she became?the youngest person to ever receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Irena Sendler, a member of Zegota, the codename given for the Polish Council to Aid Jews, along with two dozen other members saved more than 2,500 children during WW2, smuggling them out of the Ghetto by posing as an inspector of sanitary conditions during a typhoid outbreak.
• Anne Frank’s dream?was to become a world-famous writer. During World War II, Anne and her family hid from the Nazi Army behind a bookcase in her father’s workshop. Anne kept a diary that documented her family’s daily life during that time. She died in 1945 before realizing this dream. The Diary of Anne Frank was eventually published and when it hit bookshelves, it became one of the best-selling books of all time.
• Albert Einstein may not be considered my many as “ordinary” but had?a very humble upbringing as the child of an engineer and salesman. As a young child, he excelled in math but also loved music and philosophy. Einstein went on to become one of the greatest minds in history. He made numerous groundbreaking discoveries, notably developing the theory of relativity.?
• Harriet Tubman only knew the life of an enslaved person. Born into slavery, she had very few options in life. That didn’t stop Tubman from becoming a symbol of freedom, bravery, and equality. Tubman and her brothers escaped slavery in 1849, but that’s just the beginning of her story. Tubman went on thirteen missions rescuing 70 enslaved people using the Underground Railroad. Later, she served as a spy for the Union Army during the American Civil War.?
• Stanislav Petrov, a 44-year-old Lieutenant Colonel in the Soviet Union’s Air Defense Forces, single-handedly saved the world from what would have been the end of modern-day civilization. So, if you were thinking, what else could it be if not a nuclear apocalypse, you’re right. At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s early warning system indicated that the United States had launched five nuclear missiles at the Soviet Union. Petrov was the duty officer at the command center that day and was tasked with determining whether the alert was accurate. He decided to trust his gut and not report the false alarm. Consequently, he averted a nuclear war between the two superpowers.
• Lois Gibbs is an environmental activist and health advocate best known for her successful campaign to shut down the Love Canal toxic waste site in Niagara Falls, New York. Her story began in 1978 when she and her family moved into a home in the Love Canal neighborhood.?

You have perhaps heard of some of these names but not all of them. They represent an incredible number of people from around the world and all walks of life that did not necessarily set out to accomplish anything special or extraordinary but helped to change the world. They remind us that anyone has the power to make a lasting difference!

Are you ordinary? Is there something you want to accomplish? Ordinary people can do extraordinary things! Are you one of them? The TRUTH is that you have the ability!