Hello Dear,
This article is based on a small idea which has been surfacing into my mind for around the past six months. So, here goes.
It is #NotJust Big Things.
Yes, that should be fairly obvious, right? Indeed, we all know that life is #NotJust about the big things, but also about - in fact, a lot about - the little things as well. But wait, here is what could be little bit of a counterintuitive idea.
What if little things are #NotJust merely important? What if little things are even more important than the big things?
Is this really so? Without directly addressing this question, let us explore why it may be more important to be faithful in the little things than in the big things.
1) The Power of Compounding
Yes, life compounds. #NotJust every waking hour, but every second, even when we are fast asleep. It is said that we don’t decide our future, but that we decide our habits which in turn decide our future, our destiny. The miracle of compounding over time is powerfully illustrated by the following simple and marvellous exponential equations1.
And this applies #NotJust to skills and our expertise in fields such as work and sports, but also to our character. I have realized that:
Our moral compass too is like a muscle: it grows with use, withers with disuse and deteriorates with abuse.
Thus, the more courage we are able to call forth and summon from inside our being, the more courageous we become. The more truthfulness we practise, the more truthful we become. The more kindly and compassionately we behave, the more kind and compassionate we become. Yes…
Little things compound into big things2.
2) What are Big Things but Lots of Little Things?
Millions of droplets do an ocean make. We know that all too well. But it seems that we tend to forget that the big achievements and accomplishments are but lots of small wins bonded together, like small beads in a necklace, or flowers in a garden.
Yes, I am reminded of what one of my school teachers told us, around 30 years ago. He asked us: who is a scholar? Here is his answer, which seemed both unremarkable and surprising to us. It was the kind of answer which contained a lot of wisdom, but did not impress people, since, for the curious mind which loved and tended to get impressed by sophistication, it seemed to be too simple to be true. So, who is a scholar, according to my high school teacher?
A scholar is someone who knows a lot about little things.
Yes, not about the big things, but about the little things. And those little things could be subatomic particles, as well as the microexpressions on someone’s face, or the whispers of the heart which are left unsaid, unexpressed and unnoticed.
[A related idea here is reductionism3]
Speaking of character, I think it is fair to say that there are a few fundamental virtues which form the foundation of all other virtues. According to some schools of thought, humility is the foundation of everything good and every other virtue, and pride is the root of all evil, of every other vice.
Either way, maybe we could say that our character is nothing but an aggregation of our numerous little instances of our attitudes, thoughts, words and actions towards the diverse facets of life - repeated over and over?
Indeed, this point is quite similar to the previous one. There is a subtle point of difference though. While compounding is about the process of becoming, here, we are speaking of the state of being.
3) Can We Prepare Better for Little Things Than for Big Things?
I initially wrote that we can prepare better for little things than for big things…but when I began to think of it, I have come to doubt it. I don’t know. But yes, there are quite a many little things which it seems we can get right with much more likelihood, as compared to big things. Such as keeping a smiling face or being courteous. Or doing our bit well or putting in the effort, as compared to making it big or achieving the desired outcomes.
4) Little Things Predict Big Things
What resonates most in my mind when I write this are the words of Jesus Christ, regarding faithfulness.
“He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” - The Holy Bible
What Jesus is essentially saying here is that little things have very high predictive power. The way we behave in little things help the world predict how we are likely to behave when it comes to the big things. This means that if we are ready to cheat or cut corners for a little - either to get a little reward or to avoid a little pain, we are also likely to cheat for much. It means that if we are able to hold our own and stay true to ourselves in little things, then we are much more likely to be able to resist temptations much bigger and thus avoid the trenches of evil much deeper.
Here is an earlier One Doubt Please article on this theme.
In this regard, here is one very interesting question which I have been thinking of for the past six or seven months.
Which act is more honourable and worthy of respect and admiration? Courage in staying true to one’s principles and thus refusing to make what would appear to most people as a small compromise? Or courage in living by one’s principles and thus refusing to make an evidently much bigger compromise and handshake with the forces of evil?
Even more so…
Which is easier to do? Being courageous in little things, or in big things?
From my experience, I have realized that sometimes, the big things, where the consequences can be much bigger, present us with decisions which are absolutely easy and crystal-clear. After all, if the spiritual implications of making a moral compromise are way too dishonourable for us to accept, if the difference between right and wrong and good and evil are absolutely clear-cut, the choices become absolutely easy. Isn’t it? This can be so, even if and especially if, the material consequences of our choices are going to be much more extreme in their severity.
On the contrary, when it comes to what is commonly regarded as the little things, where the lines between right and wrong are not so evident or clear, where the consequences of either choice are perceived to be not severe either, the price of doing the right thing could be the mounting sense of self-doubt we may face, where we are hounded by the thought as to whether we are being too stubborn in standing up for something which most people think is not even worth standing for! Yes, precisely because the matter seems to be of no consequence, to be too inconsequential, the choice between obeying our voice of conscience and submitting to the clamour and convenience of conformity might become a particularly excruciating one. 😊
This brings us to the fifth and final reason we offer today, as to why little things may be more important than the big things.
5) How Little Things Become Big Things
Life can be a brutal teacher. And it often #NotJust can be, it is a cruel teacher. The sooner we understand that life is painful, the less painful life will be and become for us4. If and when we lose perspective and fail to see the larger picture, a fairly unsettling setback might be all that we need, to reclaim our sanity and regain our sense of balance. To realize what really matters in life.
And when we do, we will realize that what we regarded as the big things were nothing at all. Probably, they were fleeting and passing, like riches, power, fame and glory. When we are pushed against the wall, when we see our life pass in front of us, when we experience how much more difficult life could get, we get the vision to see that the little things, after all, were the really big things.
The ability to love and forgive. The blessing of being loved and cared for. The grace of a grateful heart and a resolute spirit. The gift of a pure heart and a clear conscience. The taste for beauty, for goodness and for the inner eye to behold the miracles of life, the miracle that is life.
What we once thought were trivialities, that which we took for granted, may very well become the most important - or the only important - things in life.
“To laugh often and much: To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded.” - quote which it seems is often misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson
Perhaps, one illustration of how the little things may become - or are indeed are - the most important things of life, is a 2011 book by Bronnie Ware, titled "The Top Five Regrets of the Dying"5.
So, here are the common themes which surfaced again and again, in the author’s conversations with patients under palliative care, awaiting the end of their lives on this earth. Here is what they said they were their regrets or anything they would do differently.
I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Not Quite the Big Things, is it? Except that they are the little things which reveal themselves to be the really big things?
Let me close with the words of Mother Teresa, an ode to the holiness of ordinariness.
Holiness does not consist in doing extraordinary things. It consists in accepting, with a smile, what Jesus sends us. It consists in accepting and following the will of God.
And indeed, speaking of little things and big things, we may do well to remember that:
Life is #NotJust Things.
Woah, I just discovered what seems to be a promising book (wonder whether I would live to read it ever): The Philosophy of Things, published more than 100 years ago, in 1922.
Fine then, let us stop here. Does this article make any sense? I wonder! Please let me know. Thank you! And consider sharing it with someone, if you find some value in it. It could be a little thing which you can do for me? 😊😊
Footnotes
Continuous Improvement: How It Works and How to Master It, by James Clear, author of Atomic Habits
Here is a book on the wonder of compounding, which I read last year: The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy.
Reductionism, at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
It is with this message that The Road Less Travelled, the 1978 classic by M. Scott Peck opens.