The other day, I noticed a Huffington Post piece about busyness in my Facebook feed. It was penned by Adora Svitak, a young woman who, in addition to being a published author, speaker, and activist, at the age of 13 gave a TED talk about what adults can learn from kids that has been viewed over 3 million times.

As someone who seems to be driven to make an impact, as I read her piece I was curious how she reconciled that drive with the sense of also wanting some white space on her calendar, especially because so many people who work on social good and non-profit causes seem to have a sense that they need to be self-sacrificing in order to truly effect change.

So I asked her…and with her permission, I’m happy to share her wise answer here:

“I try to reframe what having an impact means. I think it’s often an equally valid choice to have an impact on the life of one person close to you, or on yourself–so sometimes I allot me time with the awareness that it’s not necessarily taking a step back from changing the world, it’s enabling me to eventually do that better.”