When Feeling Insignificant, Focus on The Little Things!

We never know when our decisions, big or small, make huge impacts in the lives of others. When you perform to the best of your ability each day, and focus your attention on benefiting others first, your actions rarely go unnoticed.

Life Decisions Of Small Detail Have Great Meaning and Benefit To Others

Take for instance the story of a very hard working Scottish farmer, Mr Fleming. One day he was tilling his fields when he heard a loud cry for help from a nearby bog. In fear of serious danger coming to the person in need, the farmer immediately dropped his tools and ran to be of assistance.

A young boy was stuck in thick mud (similar to quicksand), and was slowly being consumed by the thick mud. The farmer quickly pried the young man out of the bog and brought him to safer land, saving his life.

A couple days later a fancy horse and buggy came by the farmers home carrying a very wealthy man. He wanted to thank the farmer for saving his son’s life, and needed to repay him  for his efforts. But, the farmer refused any payment, saying ” no payment is necessary, I would have done this for any man or woman”. After a short exchange of gratitude the farmer’s son appeared from behind their humble home, and instantly this brought clarity to the wealthy man. He explained to the farmer ” if you will not take any reward for saving my son’s life, allow me to take your son and educated him as if he were my own”. The farmer agreed to the offer, knowing that he would never be able to provide such an education to his son.

The two boys were raised to the highest form at the best schools, and the farmers son eventually became a doctor. Challenging times still lay ahead fell for the wealthy family though. Shortly after, the son who almost had his life taken by a muddy bog contracted polio. Fortunately for the family, Alexander Fleming (son of Scottish farmer), invented a treatment for polio called penicillin. This now twice saved wealthy son, turned out to be Winston Churchill, one of the world’s greatest leaders.

Now in hindsight we can all connect the dots from early interactions in life and follow the cause and effect for many things, but initially small actions seem insignificant and have little connection to others in life. The single most important decision in this story was of the Scottish farmer’s graciousness of not receiving any financial reward for saving the boy’s life. In turn, the great worldly events followed suit years later, only after a whole hearted connection took place.

Trust that your initial selfless, altruistic choices you make each day actually plant seeds that eventually sprout to great events in this world. 

What are some of your life experiences that seemed small at the time turned out to have massive impact on others?