Death by a thousand papercuts. Small actions. Big changes

You can listen to the audio version of this post below.

This is a part of the October blog challenge. You can find the other posts here.

Death by a thousand papercuts. Unknown

It is one of my favourite sayings. I scoured the internet, but I could not find who said it first, although death by a thousand cuts was an actual execution method. I know, I know - it’s morbid. But it is also an excellent example of what I want to write about today. That is how often big change is composed of a series of small actions, small decisions, small thoughts.

We often think of dramatic changes that happen in a flash - with one grand gesture or action. But some of the most profound changes can happen in increments with small consistent actions. And I think that can be good news for those of us who want to make changes in our lives, but feel as if we have limited bandwidth to take big actions.

There are so many places that we can see the impact of small changes:

Every book is written one word at a time.

Every marathon is run one step at a time.

Every habit is built one day at a time.

And when I think of incremental changes, I think of my nephew. I can hardly believe is 6 years old when it feels like just yesterday he was a tiny baby. I think of  the palm trees in my garden that I can remember being planted from seeds. Of my hair that is longer now than it has ever been from being half this length a few years ago when I started my sisterlocs.

Sometimes the changes that we want to make in life seem enormous. The goals seem outrageous. Sometimes we feel as if we can’t get our arms around them, or figure out where to begin. And the size of these goals and changes can seem so intimidating, that we don’t ever begin. 

But every big goal can be achieved by a series of small steps or tasks. And once we can understand that, then instead of looking for the big actions that will lead to big change, we can find small actions that will accumulate over time.

We can write a chapter or a blog post, or even a paragraph. I came across this amazing community a few years ago where the founder wrote her novel in 10 minutes a day. 

We can make small changes in our diet or exercise routine. (And if you want to know more about that, check out my friend Emily’s website. She is an amazing nutritionist, who can guide you through simple changes to make for a healthier lifestyle!)

We can read a chapter or page each day if we want to read more.

We can write a 2 sentence journal or gratitude journal with 1 thing we are grateful for.

We can send an encouraging message to a friend, to let them know we are thinking of them. 

We can advocate for ourselves by asking for what we want when ordering food.

We can have one small plant pot with the herbs we use most in our cooking. 

We can drink one more glass of water each day.

We can turn our cellphone off for one hour.

Some years ago, I visited the Grand Canyon, and I took the photo above this post. The river running through it is the Colorado River which carved the canyon by its steady persistence. This is a definitely display of slow and steady leading to enormous change. 

What small change will you make today?

And I send you big love from a small island.