I love ESPN’s Top 10 Plays of the day. There is something about a few minutes of sports highlights that makes me want to lace up the shoes and put on the jersey again! Even though ESPN’s is my favorite Top 10 list, there are many others out there. Certainly, David Letterman made it famous with his comical late-night list, but did you know that God created the original Top 10 list a long time ago? It’s called the Ten Commandments.

At the end of 2011, I saw lots of Top 10 lists recapping various things from the past year. This prompted me to create my own list, but not like the others. My list focused on meaningful relationships that had made a significant impact on my life. I had exactly 365 days during the year to improve, grow, learn and get stretched. As I considered what changes had taken place in my life, I realized I hadn’t done it on my own. It took a host of other people investing in me and influencing me along the way.

So this past year, after realizing that it was the power of others that had made the most significant difference in my life, I developed my Top 10 list of people who had impacted my life in the past year. These were the people who had poured into me the things that God had poured into them. They had encouraged, educated and inspired me to grow in my walk with Christ and become more than I imagined!

It’s been said, “You can impress people from a distance, but you can only impact them close up.” It’s easy to impress, but hard to impact. That takes time, effort and intentionality. And what a blessing it will be for them and for me when I tell them how they changed my life. That won’t be the typical call or e-mail.

Through this process, I also was able to evaluate my own life and ask myself if I had lived in such a way as to make the Top 10 list of others. Had I been intentional about investing in others in a significant way? Was I doing everything I could to be a blessing to them?

As athletes and coaches, we understand that each of us has great capacity to impact and influence others. It’s time to aim for being a Top 10 in someone’s life. God placed us here to make a difference in the lives of others, just as they make a difference for us. So, what are you waiting for? Go and be used by God to be a difference-maker, and thank those who have invested in you!