Influence is the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways.
Sometimes a person who influences another doesn't intend to have any effect, but they do.
While growing up, my brothers (I'm the eldest of three boys) often chided me for being bossy. I suppose it was inevitable that I would be; firstborn children tend to be rule-followers (if you believe in the significance of birth order.)
I certainly fit the stereotype.
Control over our lives is something we all desire more of.
In a universe in which everything is mutually interdependent, none of us has absolute control over anything including, as of late, ourselves. Rather, what we all have in abundance is influence, the power of which seems to function linearly: the closer personally and physically others are to us, the greater our influence over them, and vice versa.
Even more interestingly, unlike our attempts to control, our attempts to influence don't require our conscious intent. This is why our ability to influence others is so much more important than our ability to control them; we're always exerting influence simply by being who we are, saying what we say, and doing what we do.
The only real choice we have in the matter is whether or not the influence we exert is good or bad.
Since my arrival to Eureka Springs, in June 2018, I would like to believe that I have taken the power of my influence and channeled it forward for good. In a loving and positive way, I created this site and I use it to foster joy. Here at www.iloveureka.com the following five core elements of life in Eureka Springs are heightened:
Cultivating Community.
Making Memories.
Curating Culture.
Spreading Joy and Love.
Living Well.
Like people everywhere, Eurekans perceive their world through experiences, socialization, belief systems, values, and cultural norms. These perceptions create thinking norms and subsequent feelings which lead to patterns of behavior.
Stop and think for a moment. What better service can you provide someone else than being a good example to them? In Eureka Springs, we take this concept one step further by being a good example to all of how a small town in America can flourish and thrive.
Eurekans communicate with life and others see it in nearly everything we do.
We do this not with conscious intention, which always seems contrived and has little power to encourage, but by simply becoming the examples we, too, want to see more of in this world.
Never before in my life can I recall I time when I thoroughly enjoyed "missing out."
By uprooting one's life from the big city, and relocating to small town USA, there is much that the townspeople here miss out on when it comes to those life experiences as seen through the eyes of city folk.
More times than you can imagine, a visitor here has said to me, "So you live here full time? Don't you miss all the things there is to do in a city?"
What I miss most are those influencers that I met along the way, that helped shape me into the man I am today; and therefore, without realizing it, helped me find Eureka Springs.
The beautiful people that have been on my life-path have influenced me in some unique way, and hopefully, they all feel that I have reciprocated. (in a good way, of course.)
Rodd Gray, a close personal friend, resides and has resided in Dallas, TX for quite some time. He is one of the most influential people I know in this world and he uses his power (to which he personally refers to as Orange Power) to continue to influence life forward with only good intentions and love. (note: orange is his favorite color.)🧡
This article, here, in the Dallas Voice explains the scope of this man's powerful influence.
Everyone's life-condition tends towards the average of those around them. If I'm up and you're down, we'll each tend to pull one another toward our own inner states, usually both moving toward the mean between them. It makes sense.
Rodd, despite the ups and downs life has dished out to him, has an exceptionally resilient mindset that is wired like a rigid magnet, pulling others only up with him despite what's going on in his world.
In my eyes, Rodd is already a living, breathing Eurekan. He lives every day, in Dallas, by being a good example of a truly good person and so like a magnet, Eureka is pulling him here.
Drawn from the big city to Eureka Springs, Rodd is considering the gotahold leap. To leave his beloved Dallas after so long, and come to a place where there is so much joy.
It is my hope that, as this article is so titled, in writing this blog-post about influence that Eureka is soon blessed with this joyous person as it's newest resident.
By simply being the man he is every day, he brings much to Eureka Springs and (my prediction) not soon after his arrival here - EVERYONE in town will know his name, his face and, of course, his influence.
Eureka is a truly mysterious place on Earth (for many reasons) and I've heard it often said,
"If Eureka wants you, she WILL have you . . . and if she doesn't, you will most certainly know that, too."
If you live your life somewhere in the world like a good-hearted Eurekan, and then if you find yourself one day discovering and visiting Eureka Springs, AR, you too may find it very difficult to pull away from the magnetic energy and influence that will continue to guide you back to this place again and again and again . . .until she has you.
Live well friends. Do something with your influence.
Spread joy and love.❤
Comments