Our Biggest Changes Often Go unnoticed

​Some of the hardest changes to make in life are the changes you know very few people will ever notice.

It's one of life's great temptations, maybe the greatest, to make changes in life we think will impress the most people. We change our wardrobe, our hair, our house, our car, our weight, and on and on in an effort to make the world take notice - AND - in a day and age when it's easier than ever to showcase those changes.

But to what end?

As easy as it is for us to make changes that will be noticed, it's also easier than ever to see who is making changes more impressive than ours. And making changes can become a race to make the most noticeable impression all the way to the tragic finish line of our own depression.

Because the race to being most noticed always ends as a race one discovers is impossible to win.

I began a 3-day training yesterday. Two of the young women in our group talked about some changes they are making in their life that will better their chances to become foster parents. The more they described those changes the more impressed I was.

Awed, really.

But they are changes, that when these women walk into a room, no one will ever notice. No one will ever compliment. No one will ever tell them what impressive human beings they are.

We live in a world that too often celebrates the noticeable. We even have social media systems in place to measure, keep track of, and reward the most noticed. And there are certainly comparative systems in place outside of the social media world.

It's easy to notice the noticeable. That is, until you take the time to sit and share stories with the unnoticed.

Listening to these women talk about some of the changes and sacrifices they are making, no mansion or car or wardrobe could be more impressive to me. Their changes left me wondering if too many of us are investing in some misdirected changes.

Sometimes making a difference, making a difference in our lives and in the lives of people around us, isn't a high-profile endeavor. But I noticed something about these two women. They seemed content. Fulfilled.

There's no doubt their changes are challenging. Difficult. But the lack of applause isn't going to deter them, because they aren't driven by applause.

They are driven by difference.

A difference they want to feel and make.

We all could probably afford to make a few changes in our lives. I know I can. And really, some of the changes I most need to make are changes very few people will ever notice once I've made them.

And I suspect, that's exactly what stands in our way of making a lot of those changes.