Think Again the Next Time You Feel That One Person Cannot Make a Difference

Have you heard the story about the boy and the starfish? No? Well, it goes a little something like this:

One day an old man was walking along the beach, and he noticed a boy at the shore picking up a starfish and throwing it back into the sea.  He went up to the boy and asked “What are you doing?”. The boy said, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.” Upon hearing this, the old man said, “But, young man, do you realize there are thousands of starfish along the shore? You can’t possibly help them all?” The boy looked down,  picked up another starfish and threw it back into the water and he replied, “But I made a huge difference to that one.”

Next time you feel like the little things you do don’t matter, remember this story. Even if you only save one life, that life is of infinite value. There truly are no small good deeds. In the words of Jane Goodall, “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

If we look at the whole world and all the things that need fixing in it, we will become discouraged. No one person can fix all there is to fix, especially not all at once. But if we all just keep chipping away at it, it will get better.

You don’t need to save the whole world by yourself, but if you do good things, help others, live kindly, you will make a difference. Who knows? You might even inspire someone to follow along.

Just like the boy and the starfish, he couldn’t save all the starfish in the world. But he made all the difference in the world to those starfishes he saved.

“To make a difference in someone’s life, you do not have to be brilliant, rich, beautiful, or perfect. You just have to care.” ~ Mandy Hale