October 7th 2009 - How Small Is A Cigarette Butt?

Last month, an annual beach clean-up was held along the entire coast of California. It was held over a single day, and over 1 million pounds of trash was collected. It was estimated that 40% of the trash was comprised of cigarette butts. That's about 400,000 pounds of cigarette butts.

I bring this up not to beat up cigarette smokers, but to illustrate the power of the "One Small Step" concept. Each person that discarded his or her cigarette butt thought that it was such a small thing, that it would not make a difference. After reading the tally above, we can say that the cigarette butts certainly made a difference. It wasn't the individual act that made the difference. It was the fact that so many people, individually, decided to do the same, small act. All those individual consciousnesses doing something small, created a large, collective impact.

So many people decide not to do something that would be BENEFICIAL to the world, because they think their small act won't make a dent in the global scheme of things. That could not be further from the truth. Every action has an impact. Every cause has an effect. Often our actions have unseen consequences, and affect others in ways that we may never become aware of.

Next time you think that your small, positive action will not make an impact, do it anyway. Remember the cigarette butts. You don't know how connected we are. It is totally concealed from us. Your decision to take action could somehow impact 10 other people who were on the fence to take action, too. Your small action could be the grain of sand that tips the scale to create a massive, global change for the better.

Changing The World One Small Step At A Time,
Alan