Act as if what you do makes a difference

I saw this quote on Instagram a while back which I made a screenshot of:

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. (It does.)"  William James

It made me think.

This is something I've always done in my life.  For some reason, despite whatever the world says, I have always seen myself as important. I've always acted like what I do makes a difference and I believe it. Perhaps I am deluded at sometimes? Perhaps egocentric, thinking that people notice me all the time? Perhaps I've got an over-inflated sense of my own importance? I am one of those people that worries and is paranoid about what people think about me. Sometimes to my detriment.  But I've always felt that what I do matters.

Every piece of music, every lesson, every thing be it a bad or good one. I still shudder and cringe over horrible things I have said or done over the years, when I've made someone feel bad. I think of my GCSE music teacher who was a really good guy, trying his hardest and how mean we were to him, how arrogant about our own sense of importance. I still think sadly of my German teacher in year 9-10 who was SUCH a good guy and an excellent educator but because he sweated a lot and was over enthusiastic and trying to be funny, he was unpopular with students and we were mean to him. He always told me that I should do German A'level and I always said that I wouldn't to him.  I always worry that people like me made him leave because I didn't support him like I should have done.  I was never disrespectful or disruptive but I didn't show my support. And yet, at the end of my GCSE's, it was one of the subjects I most wanted to do. I still regret my teenage ways and wish I could say thank you to them and always worry about how I might have affected them.

In the whole dialogue around Climate change, plastic reduction, Zero-waste, reducing my carbon footprint, not once have I felt that what I am trying to do isn't making a difference.  Various people, in the dialogues I have had with them, have made reference the fact that it doesn't seem worth it because it won't make a difference, because other people aren't doing it, because the government aren't making changes, because a large faction of society are too selfish to do anything.  This has always surprised me. I've NEVER felt that what I am trying to achieve is futile, that it doesn't make a difference.  Every little victory, every little piece of something I refuse, reuse or recycle gives me a little glow of happiness, makes me feel a difference.  Even something as simple as having not bought milk or juice in plastic bottles since 1st April has used 70 glass bottles which means, had I bought the equivalent from the supermarket, that makes 70 less plastic bottles, Turning the lights off in the dining hall at school when the morning breakfast club leaves them on, means a whole lot of electricity saving when the hall is not used for an hour first thing in the morning. Little actions DO make a difference.

Never let anyone tell you that something you are doing with good intentions, for a good reason will not make a difference.  Somewhere, somehow, it is making a difference, even if you don't see the outcome. I'm paraphrasing Jesus when he said something like "Many drops make an ocean" but your little drops all contribute to that ocean.

Think of Greta Thunberg.  She didn't think that her actions wouldn't make a difference.  They have and they have inspired millions of people world-wide to stand up for the environment today. To say, We matter, our actions WILL have an impact because we think that it will make a difference.

Do everything you do like you are making a difference and you surely will.
xx