I use the Calm Meditation app each day to get centered. One of the features of the Calm app is the quote they provide you when you’re completed with the day’s meditation. Today, Calm provided a quote from Beau Taplin which states: “Whoever said that small things don’t matter has never seen a small match start a wildfire.” This statement really rang true to me this morning when I began posting it on my favorite social networking sites. I try to find meaningful posts to share with my network. It’s just my way of contributing to my connections.
But this quote really got me. Small things can have wide-ranging impact in our lives. Think about the value in making small changes in your routine. What if you added just 10 minutes of cardio exercise into your morning routine? That would build to over 3,650 minutes over the year. What if you wrote one page in your journal each day? Again, that would be 365 pages or one or two books worth of writing. These small things can offer so much value with minimal input. I recently read a few books. One was a book called Mini Habits; the other was a book called The Power of Less. Both of these books speak to the difficulty with change and how to make change easier by doing small things. Focusing on small things each day will soon turn into big changes and those big changes will bring great value to your life.
Think about the most precious moments in your life. Most of these things started from small things. Your wedding day may have its roots from a smile across a room. The day you walked the stage to receive your diploma and degree, resulted from each assignment you began and completed one small piece at a time. More importantly is the impact of small things on relationships. Smiling at your partner in the morning. Giving your child a hug on the way out the door or giving your pet some love in the morning when you wake up. People remember the small things you do for them out of love, not the things you buy for them. They remember the hugs, the kisses, the sticky note left on the refrigerator, or even the quick text you send telling them you are on your way home and you can’t wait to see them. It is these small things that build a long-term relationship.
Our lives are composed of an infinite amount of small moments, each building on each other in a progression of memories, visual snapshots, and audio recordings all captured by our minds. Some remain vivid, while others fade away. Small things matter. The small things we do for ourselves and especially those small things we do for others. Focus on the small things and the big things will follow.
Until next time…
