A few weeks ago I wrote about the importance of taking care of yourself. In that post I mentioned the phrase, “you can’t pour from an empty glass,” and how you need to make sure that you don’t give away all of your energy and time at the expense of yourself. This is very important to remember, but it’s also vital that you still take the time to spread some positivity in the world. It doesn’t necessarily need to take much effort to do it, which means that you don’t have to drain yourself.

Sometimes people think that in order to make a difference you have to do a lot. They look at people like Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., and countless of other individuals and they believe that they have to do something like them to make a difference in the world, but that’s just not true.

The other day one of my coworkers and I were talking about time travel. It wasn’t a serious conversation (especially because time travel probably isn’t real), but it got me thinking about how little effort it takes to change the course of the world. Whenever you watch movies or TV shows that focus on time traveling, they always talk about how important it is for you to not mess up anything. You are just supposed to observe because the smallest action can end up changing the course of history. When the person who invents the time machine tells their companion(s) this they always think that they’re crazy. They don’t really believe that some small act can end up changing the world too drastically, but it does. The friend constantly ends up not listening to the owner of the time machine, and they wind up participating in some act that ends up changing the world as they know it. When they return back home, both parties are surprised. The person who owns the machine is shocked that their buddy didn’t listen to them, and the individual who altered the future is shocked that what they did actually ended up having a significant change on their world.  The person could have just ended up accidentally bumping into somebody that passed by, but it wound up creating a ripple effect. When they came back to the present, they returned to a world that has just been ravaged by World War III, and it all could have been avoided if they had just followed directions to begin with.

You can apply that same theory in your life. Everything you do has a consequence. It doesn’t matter if it’s really big or really small. It’s going to make a difference. If you win the lottery your life is clearly going to change, but you choosing to eat a bagel for breakfast instead of a piece of fruit can end up making a difference as well. Likewise, what you do and say to others can change their life for better or worse. Telling somebody that you like their outfit or their hair may not seem like a lot to you, but it just might end up meaning the world to them.

It’s true that our society wouldn’t be the same without the Nelson Mandelas of the world, but it also wouldn’t be the same without you and the little acts of kindness that you choose to do for others. Positive thinker, a simple smile or a “hello” can end up making somebody’s day. You never know what someone’s going through in their personal life, but if they’re going through something bad then your kindness may be just what they need to make their day a little bit better. Not to mention, when you end up doing good things for others, it also makes you happier as well. If you don’t believe me then try it. Do some small act for someone and see how it makes you feel. I’d be willing to bet that you won’t feel lousy after doing it. Even if you don’t feel great after completing it (I’m sure that this won’t be the case though), you will at least be able to say that you made somebody’s day a little bit brighter just by expending very little energy.

Remember, “To make a difference in someone’s life, you don’t have to be brilliant, rich, beautiful, or perfect. You just have to care.” –Mandy Hale