The Smallest Action is Better than the Greatest Intention

The words of the title of this post have been important ones for me over the years.  In a world that can be overwhelming in its size and complexity, I have often pushed myself out of apathy or inertia with this mantra.  Actions, even seemingly minute ones, can have a great impact if they are actually taken.  A challenge for me is often getting started or thinking through what the effect will be and wondering if it will make any difference?  When I have encountered the contrary voice in my mind reacting to my puny efforts to make myself or the world better...my response has been that an action, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant, has an effect, even if that effect is only to stop me from succumbing to cynicism.  Things don't often start big: a journey of ten thousand miles begins with a single step.

I do believe that action is cumulative and we would do well to remember that.  For me, a decade ago I aspired to vegetarianism but wasn't ready to take the plunge.  So I gave up beef thinking that if I could swear that off for the rest of my life the cumulative effect of that would be significant even if it seemed like less than I aspired to.  The Dalai Lama has a great example from his own personal life that I feel is similar.  For health reasons he can't be a vegetarian, so he rotates days where he eats meat and days that he will not eat meat.  Even though he can't be a vegetarian everyday, for half of his life he is avoiding eating meat and thus preserving animals' lives which is obviously much better than eating meat everyday.   This all isn't to say that you shouldn't do big things or set big goals.  The point is that all action doesn't have to be grand and that we should also pay attention to the little stuff which is important and can really add up.  Over time small actions are like compound interest and can pay big dividends over the course of a lifetime.  Think about walking...not a real profound from of exercise, but if you do it a little bit everyday over a number of years you will be much healthier overall.

I recently encountered a book that reenforces the justification of my mantra.  The topic of the book is about tipping points and how much is necessary to cause things to suddenly exponentially move and change.  The message of the book is that the human mind likes to think of the world in terms of incremental change which is linked to inputs, so that if we put a certain amount of effort into something there will be a corresponding result.  However, in many cases things don't work this way.  Often times things stay very stable until things reach a tipping point and at this point radical change occurs.  The book explores this phenomenon in detail and is called, no surprise: "The Tipping Point, How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell.

In terms of my smallest actions quote, the subtitle of the book says it all.  How can you ever know the results of all of those little actions that you take everyday? You could be saying hello to a stranger, eating one less bite of dessert, picking up a stray piece of litter, planting flowers in the neighborhood, or taking the stairs instead of the escalator.  The answer has always been that you can't know what the outcome of these small actions will be.  However with this idea of the tipping point, there is another reason to take action.  Now beyond encouraging yourself that you are doing something positive for yourself or others, no matter how small, you can also think that your positive actions are contributing toward a tipping point of some type.  Maybe your metabolism is kicked into a higher gear, the crime rates in your neighborhood drop or someone will see what you've done and be inspired...all because your small action helped push things over some tipping point.

So keep up the good work generating good karma in the world brave reader, no matter how small.  A little bit every day may push us across that magical line...the tipping point.

FBOW: We are all Interrelated

In the past three posts I related very briefly scientific research that promotes being more relaxed and calm and the positive effect it has on people's health and lives.  The importance of taking heed of this very new research on advice that is very old is that it is central to our happiness and the effect that we have on the world.  Something that I think is very true is that we are constantly creating the world that we live in.  Our actions and even our thoughts, which affect our feelings and perceptions, are constantly reinforcing or challenging the ways of the world.

I am always inspired by the first chapter of the Dhammapada which is appropriately entitled: Choices. It reads: We are what we think, all that we are arises with our thoughts.  With our thoughts we make the world.  Speak or act with an impure mind and trouble will follow you as the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.  ...Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow you as your shadow, unshakable.  

It is important to improve upon our own happiness first as a way to help others.  We live in a society that is not driven by humanistic values, but instead it is driven by values regarding productivity, consumption and monetary value.  These values encourage us to sacrifice our lives for material success and recognition of our accomplishment and station.  To challenge this assumption of our worth and look to what is fulfilling to us uniquely and personally is a monumental challenge.  What good is material success if we lose our body to ill health and our mind is constantly racked by stress?  We need to promote and find happiness for ourselves for our own good.  Then our lives will be worth something more than being one more cog in the macro economic machine.  

Human beings are intensely peer susceptible animals and as such what we choose to do with our life affects those around you.  If you choose to manage stress better, make more healthy choices or be more compassionate that will likely improve your personal relationships in your family or among your social circle.  This will have an impact on other people, even if we never know the extent to which we affected others. 

I once worked with a guy in college at a video store who was intensely hyper with a very short attention span and very fast mouth.  Working with him was always a bit of a chore and I thought that he must have thought I was boring because I wouldn't always entertain all of the random tangents he would talk about.  One day to my surprise he told me that he really enjoyed working with me because he was really calm and relaxed when I was around.  I was shocked because I didn't get that impression from him, but also because that was what he called relaxed.  Yikes.  

Too often we have big desires to change the world but we neglect to examine ourselves first.  We have the most power to affect change in ourselves and through those action (and thoughts) we do change the world.  Maybe not in the dramatic way we are used to seeing in movies, but maybe not being dramatic and flashy the change is deeper and actually more profound and lasting.   

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it well when he said that, "...all life is interrelated.  We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny...strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.  You can never what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way the world is made.  I didn't make it this way, but this is the interrelated structure of reality."

(By the way...FBOW stands for For Better Or Worse.)