If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way. – Napoleon Hill

What do you think of when you hear someone talk about doing “great things”?

Many people will think of making a global impact, or creating a multi-million dollar business, or saving someone’s life, or winning a Nobel prize.

While these things all are great, they are not the only ways we can make a difference in the world.

Consider for a moment that you’re stuck in traffic. You notice someone standing at the side of the road waiting to cross the street, but nobody is letting them by. They are elderly, by themselves, and walking with a cane.

Everyone is so preoccupied with their own commutes and stuck in their own heads that they keep on coasting through the crosswalk without a second thought.

But you notice them. You pull over, get out of the car, and escort them safely across the street.

What you’ve just performed is an act of greatness.

You are in the drive through getting your morning coffee. It’s a bright sunny day, and you’re in a good mood.

You decide to do something small and pay for the order of the car behind you in line.

What you don’t know is, it’s a frazzled parent who has just realized they forgot their wallet at home and were trying to figure out how to explain the situation to the barista at the pickup window.

What you’ve just performed is an act of greatness.

You see, every single day we are all faced with a variety of seemingly normal instances that give us the opportunity to do something great. You don’t need to do something newsworthy in order to make a difference in someone’s life.

In fact, small acts of kindness (greatness) are sometimes an even more effective way of creating change, because it is something everyone can relate to.

Anyone can escort an elderly person across the street. Anyone can take care of a stranger’s coffee order. Anyone can hold the door for a few extra seconds while their neighbor struggles with their groceries.

And when an onlooker sees something like this happen, they stop for a moment.

“Hmmm.”

Here you are taking a few extra moments out of your day to do something for a person you’ve never met, and will likely never speak to again. If you can do that, why can’t they?

Ah, but they can, they realize. Perhaps they always knew it, but they never really gave themselves permission to step into that role. The role of doing small things in a great way.

That is, until they saw YOU do it. They watched YOU create a ripple in the universe by expounding almost no energy at all. How is this possible?

It’s possible because all of us have the power to do our own tiny part every single day, and it may not seem like much at the time.

But, when tens, or hundreds, or even millions of us do one tiny thing on a daily basis for someone else, suddenly it’s not so trivial.

Suddenly, we’ve changed the world.