We are not Powerless!

Marie Sola, Founder, Daughters of Change

We are not powerless!  No matter how overwhelming things may seem, we can always control how we respond and move through the world.

We live in a time that, although divisive, has the potential to be the leading edge of positive change.  Whether we choose to do this with grace, humility, creativity, and fearless passion, or with fear, anger, and frustration is completely up to us.  It is easy to get buried in an avalanche of opinions, fear mongering, and hopelessness.  Yet every one of us carries solutions for change inside of ourselves.  We do not have to become the next Nobel Peace Prize winner to affect change.  Each of us is a sum of the greater whole:  We all matter!  Everything we do matters!  Our small acts matter!

To quote the great Maya Angelou: “When you do nothing you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.”

The greatest change will come when each person changes how they move through the world – with respect, grace and understanding.  We must live in the solutions, not the problems, and be willing to listen to other people’s opinions – even when we do not agree with them.

One thing I know is when you lead with anger and fear you shut people down.  The only people that will listen are those who are angry, fearful, and already agree with you.  This perpetuates division. Pitting groups of US against groups of THEM has not worked historically.  Rather, it has brought about dire consequences. We can shift the paradigm by starting with ourselves. Before we can change the world, we need to change ourselves.  To make this happen, we need to take the time to self-reflect, and realize we are the solutions. How, and if, we decide to lead with our solutions matters as well.

When we lead with the positive, rather than dwelling on the negative, we live the solution and create change.  Instead of staying connected to the contrast we see around us, we can embrace it as the thing that showed us what we want to change.  Then we can acknowledge it as the seed of our solutions. “When something makes you angry and you want to change it, don’t let that anger drive your bus. Instead, turn it into the fuel to drive your solutions.”

As you consider how you move through the world in relation to change, I would like to share a few thoughts of mine about the world.

• Women will play a key role in changing the world – it’s all about balance (on many levels)
• Most people are good.
• When we create any context of “us against them” bad things happen.
• We make things far more complicated than they need to be.
• It is amazing that humans and everything making up the world even exist.
• Just because you can’t see, feel, or touch something it doesn’t mean it isn’t real.
• Anything really is possible; however, you must do more than just think about it.
• Most truths lay in the middle.
• If you are breathing there is hope, and when there is hope you can create change.
• No one person is better than any other.  Period! Amen!  We’re all just trying to get by and doing the best we can.
• Nobody else gets to tell you who and how you should be (this one got me into a lot of trouble over the years!)

Carry on fellow Daughters of Change. Here’s to a future we will be proud to have our children and grandchildren inherit! 

About Marie Sola:

Marie is a veteran of media and marketing, in sales, business development and management positions.  She also produced television programs, and public awareness campaigns that received local industry acclaim.

Marie worked internationally for the Young Presidents’ Organization, the premier Chief Executive Leadership organization in the world as Director of Integration.

Harnessing her abundant energy and calling on her breadth of experiences, Marie has brought her love of content creation and storytelling to Daughters of Change– a content driven platform and hub for the women and girls changing the world and the people and organizations who support them.  Daughters of Change has a mission of

• Telling the stories of the Daughters of Change who are leading and changing the world – each in their own unique way
• Connecting and supporting these women and girls
• Inspiring others to take action and set an example for future generations

Marie believes that everything is possible, and the best lessons in life are learned outside of the box! What you put out there is what you attract back – each day is an opportunity to blaze a new trail and set change in motion.  Most importantly, she is determined to have no regrets for not having tried when she meets her maker.