March 26, 2024 | Supreeya S
Are you someone who believes that you should focus on the big things in life? Do you skip over the small signs, signals, or moments?
If you do, you’re a believer of the “don’t sweat the small stuff” philosophy. It is the belief that you have to let go of little things that create stress. There’s always problems and fires to put out. There’s always things that go wrong. Ultimately, you get to control how you feel and how your day.
From this belief, you learn to relax, to reign in your untamed mind, and to learn that not everything is an emergency. All great stuff to learn.
That’s not an excuse to ignore small signs and moments. We get small moments everyday that serve as opportunities to create change.
When do you know you need to relax? And when do you need to pay attention to the small things?
Let go of things outside of your control, such as other people’s actions and emotions. Say someone cuts you in line for coffee. It happens. It’s not worth getting worked up over. It doesn’t impact your life.
But think about what can you do that’s within your control. The small things you do on a daily basis that could make or break you. Things that you can control. Things that you can do to improve your life. Showing up, saying kind words, putting in the extra work to refine the details, getting a healthy snack. It’s the small things. It’s not glamorous. But it adds up.
Not every small thing matters. The key is to decide what’s important. You get to decide what’s “small” i.e. irrelevant or unimportant. If it matters to you, then it’s worth sweating over. You don’t need to listen to others thinking you’re too worked up and telling you, “let it go, it’s nothing.”
Let’s build on the previous key idea. With the lens of what’s under your control, pick three categories in your life that are important to you.
You get to decide. You get to unapologetically pick what matters to you. Think about what makes you feel good? Is it your work? Health? Relationships? Spirituality? Travel?
Within each category, you can start to find opportunities to create change. Look for small opportunities. Five minute moments. Actions that take up to 15 minutes.
As a guide, here are a few things that you could do for your health and relationships.
Health
Health is usually a category that people start with. It is because taking care of your health creates trickle effects to other areas of your life. Think of your protein intake, sleep, hydration, daily movement. Starting with one thing is better than nothing.
Getting enough sleep helps your memory, ability to focus, and mood throughout the day. These things affect your performance at work and personal relationships. You can create these effects even with tiny shifts in your behavior. You could sleep 15 minutes earlier than you usually do. You could do a pre-sleep meditation to promote deeper sleep.
Relationship
The little things you do in your relationships can strengthen your bonds and create a more positive connection. Something such as expressing gratitude and taking notice of what other people do for you. It doesn’t take more than a minute to say a heart-felt thank you.
Thoughtful acts create special moments between you and your partner. Acts such as making a cup of coffee for them in the morning.
This isn’t meant to overwhelm you. It’s meant to empower you. Because if it’s true, then you can focus on small things to make an impact on your life.
Let’s embrace the little moments, the small actions, the tiny steps that take us closer to who we want to be. We can create magical moments from our small acts.