The definition of impact is: the action of one object coming forcibly into contact with another. Now, there are two definitions, but out of both of those, I feel this was the best one. Take a moment to read it again. Impact.This is such a big word for only 6 letters. I can tell you so many stories about when I have been personally impacted by something, whether it was good or bad. See, life puts certain people, things, events, etc. into our lives to impact us. If we were never impacted by something, we may never have learned a new lesson, got a new perspective on a certain thing, or even used what impacted us to help impact others.I believe this generation needs to know what it means to positively impact.

Think back to a moment when you were positively impacted by someone or something. Now look at where you are now. Do you think that did not get you to where you are now? Think about it this way. Imagine you woke up and were already dreading the day, but when you were headed to class, someone said "Hey, I love that shirt!". You instantly have a smile on your face and the next decision you make was greatly affected by this one compliment. You were positively impacted. Most people feel like they need to make an impact and when this is usually great, they forget about making the small impacts. They focus on doing something so big that it impacts a huge variety of people all at once, when in all reality, they can do that too by just doing something so small such as buying another's coffee in a coffee shop, or even striking up a nice conversation with someone at the bus stop. Whatever it is, we must always remember to start small.

Impact has been such a big thing here at RA training. It has made me truly think about how I can personally make a great impact among other people including my residents. I have already envisioned all the great programs I would love to put on, etc. I just have to remember though, that the only way I can make a good impact, is if I am impacting myself. Impacting myself? What does that even mean? I will tell you. Even though others can easily impact us, we must challenge ourselves to impact ourselves. Everyone has heard of burnout. Right? We get burned out sometimes, it's normal and it's okay. What is not okay though is to just idle in burnout. We need to reach out and re-motivate ourselves! I was burned out at one point during one of my college years and I would purposely look up TED Talks and go to programs about academic achievement to get myself going again. This worked, not at first, but it eventually did. I was reaching out to making an impact on myself. It is sort of like the whole saying, "You must learn to love yourself before you can love others." This goes hand-in-hand with impact although it goes more towards being able to make great impacts.

Impact. Set a goal for yourself this semester, this year, this month, whatever, but set a goal to make an impact on someone or everyone. Strive for it. Making an impact will definitely leave you feeling wonderful. And always ask yourself, do I truly know what it means to make an impact?

SMTTT.