I was thinking the other day how even though tiny habits seem to have very little effect on big life outcomes, some of them very much do. In good and bad ways. They're kind of like a balloon that keeps blowing up little by little, but then pops one day.
JohnPaul texted a lot while driving. A simple little habit and had never had an incident, so all seemed fine. But he killed a little girl one day. He would have seen the merging car if he weren't on his phone.
Doug liked himself some orange soda. He had diabetes but wouldn't stop drinking the sugary drink. He would have had 25 more years of life except for the one day after he had a second soda his blood sugar spiked so high he fell asleep and never woke up.
Sarah told herself she should be cleaner. After maybe a good Saturday cleaning, she knew it would only take a few minutes each day to keep it tidy. But one day the guy she had started dating, and was very much into, showed up at her house for the first time with flowers. When she opened the door she saw who it was, but he also saw her house was a wreck. He ended it a couple days later. Oops.
Jennavive was a nurse, but not just as a job. She made it a point to read articles on modern medicine every day or so. It was as simple as signing up for a health newsletter email and scanning them. One day a little girl at the pool started having an allergic reaction and her throat closed up. Jennavive recognized the sunscreen bottle where the girl had been sitting and remembered from the newsletter it was one that had been recently recalled. But she also remembered the antidote to the reaction was simply to take her out of the sun. The girl survived.
You get my point. So pay attention to your little habits. They may not have any results now, but can have life-changing ones at a single, unannounced moment in the future. Take care, and let's try to do the right thing consistently.
Raw Spoon,
10-2-2020
