Revolutionaries: What's your message?

I hated history in school. Hate is a strong word, I know, but I just didn't see why we needed to know about the past. As a kid I had no idea how strong the connection with the past was to the future. Time is interconnected, just like people are. 

For fun, I like to research people. Change-makers. Positive deviants. Risk Takers. People motivated by the idea that change IS possible. 

Martin Luther King Jr, Malala, Gloria Steinem, Rosa Parks, Ghandi, Susan B. Anthony, Mary Ellen Copeland, David Suzuki, the Wright brothers, Tommy Douglas

People who set things in motion for widespread change. 

People who believed so strongly in something.

People personally motivated by the need for large scale change. 

Before they did that thing, you know the thing that changed everything, they were just like us. Normal, ordinary, not famous. "Regular" people, who you wouldn't be able to pick out in a crowd. 

What is it that made them different, that motivated them to speak up? What about their message, their delivery, made people pay attention?

Can you imagine what life in North America would be like if Susan B. Anthony hadn't rallied people to start a movement that gave women the right to vote in the US. Sure, someone else may have stepped up, but it might have taken longer, or yielded different results. 

You may not be Martin Luther King Jr, or Susan B. Anthony, but you most likely have a message that the world needs to hear. Maybe not even the world - maybe it's your community, your school, your family, your church. Maybe you want to speak up for people who are marginalized, the treatment of animals, the culture of your community/workplace, the way society treat our environment, food production, or children's rights...whatever is is, whether you perceive it as "big" or "small"–it's important. 

Don't ever, ever think that your voice doesn't matter. It does. You have gifts, superpowers that are unique to you. 

When we speak up, who knows what can happen? Change only begins when we mindfully, deliberately set it in motion. When it's fuelled by passion, so strong that you can feel it in every part of our body and soul, chances are you have something that some people will resonate with, and want to join you in. 

What's your message? 

 Whatever your thoughts are about Steve Jobs, or Apple–this is a powerful quote (one of my favourites):  

"Here’s to the crazy ones — the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."    ~Steve Jobs

"If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito."  ~Anita Roddick