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The Power of Little Things to Make a Big Difference

A fragment from a large cardboard box lies in the middle of one of two eastbound lanes on the interstate highway. One after another, advancing cars swerve to avoid it. A car comes to a stop on the shoulder, and the driver waits for a safe break in the flow of traffic to approach the piece of cardboard and drag it off the roadway. The driver then returns to the stopped car, and drives off.

Why would this person take the time to stop and do something that no one would ever even know about?

All of the five dreamcrafting macroskills are equally critical to success; none can be neglected without placing the mission in serious jeopardy. But in closing, we come to the one most likely among all five to be neglected—and not because it is particularly difficult, but rather because it is particularly easy. In a rare inversion of the law of diminishing returns, this fifth macroskill represents a case of augmenting returns. If the four preceding macroskills have been applied with any success, then the hardest part of the job is done; what remains is to apply some of the same principles and techniques on a smaller scale, in a simpler context, and reap benefits that are often proportionately much greater. Many will fail to do so, primarily on the (incorrect) assumption that anything this simple can’t possibly be too important.

It is very simple. And it’s very important.

Fractals: Little Aspirations within the Big Aspiration

Fractal geometry is the study of physical or geometrical structures in which, among other characteristics, certain elements of shape recur within the same structure at different scales. In a geometric pattern, for example, this might mean that if you amplify a small section in one corner of the pattern, it looks identical to the whole pattern, and if you further magnify a portion of the small section, this too appears identical to the whole pattern, and so on. The principle can be found in nature, as when the branching pattern of a tree resembles that of the veins of a single leaf. Nor does the progression end there; under a microscope, a single vein from a leaf exhibits a similar branching structure in extreme miniature. Interesting similarities exist too between the movement of electrons around the nucleus within an atom and the movement of planets around the sun within the solar system.

An aspirational field works its large-scale magic by bringing otherwise random and unconnected elements of day-to-day living into alignment along the axis of a single overarching Big Dream. But within many of these unconnected elements may lie opportunities for improvements on a smaller scale. Not every single iron filing, so to speak, will have snapped into perfect alignment under the influence of the original magnetic field. There will almost certainly be ways to apply some of the dreamcrafting techniques to many of the little problems and tasks that we encounter day to day, in order to bring them into greater alignment with the Big Dream. Macroskill Five is the “application” of some of these dreamcrafting principles and techniques on a miniature scale—not to create additional mission objectives, but on the contrary, to bring more elements of life into direct alignment with the single objective of the Big Dream. As the journey toward success proceeds along the aspirational field, it is the equivalent of pausing to stoop and give individual iron filings a little twist, to bring them, too, into alignment.

Health-conscious people who study the link between fitness and nutrition are conditioning themselves to think holistically, rather than mechanistically. The holistic perspective seeks to better understand the interconnectedness of things, the often unpredictable way everything affects everything else. The word ecology refers to the interrelationship between organisms and their environment. Again and again we hear of ecological disasters created when well-intentioned people introduce this kind of insect or animal or bird into that part of the world to “help nature along” in some way, and the whole ecosystem is thrown seriously off balance as a result. Emerging out of the science of fractals and chaos theory is a fuller understanding of how, for example, the smallest change in a local weather system on one side of the world can trigger massive weather changes on the other. Little things make big differences.

The Application macroskill introduces a more holistic perspective. The guiding principle behind this macroskill is deceptively simple: Whenever practical, take the initiative to make something better in the world around you. The principle can apply to issues as seemingly mundane as “replace any burnt-out light bulbs you encounter around the house” or “pick up every piece of litter you see,” to “repair your relationship with your estranged teenager” or “build an extension to the house that will serve as a home office dedicated to the pursuit of your big dream.”

The principle may strike some as rather dumb and pointless—or worse, insipidly “goody-goody” and even somehow vaguely subservient. How in blazes does “put a fresh roll of toilet paper in place any time you encounter an empty dispenser,” for example, or “straighten a crooked picture on the wall,” have anything to do with achieving one’s Big Dream?

One could argue just as strenuously that physical exercises, like chin-ups, are equally dumb and pointless; they represent a whole lot of hard work that doesn’t actually accomplish anything. Those who understand the power of exercise to both prolong and enhance life, however, see things differently. A fitness buff may perform dozens of chin-ups or sit-ups at a time, recognizing that every repetition (“rep”) contributes to raising his or her fitness level ever so slightly. The effect of a single chin-up performed in isolation is almost negligible; it’s the reps that produce the measurable and visible effect on fitness levels. In other words, though the effect of each may be small (and this is the key), they all add up.

Those who approach physical health in a holistic way may not be able to pinpoint a particular aspect of their lifestyle that’s directly responsible for one particular aspect of their health; they simply accept that it’s all connected, each element affecting all the others. In the same way, dreamcrafters who apply the principle of “making things better” at multiple levels in their lives may later find it difficult to pinpoint precisely what single factor was most responsible for making their lives seem so much richer and more fulfilling. “Keeping personality out of it” at the nightly dinner table, for example, is application on a very small scale; but its potential for transforming family relationships for years to come is huge. (“You’re so lucky to have such caring children,” elderly parents are sometimes told, usually by observers who remain unaware that luck had virtually nothing to do with it.) Little improvements in one area will often make a big difference in others, and almost always in entirely unpredictable ways.

An elderly parent who lives to see his or her grown-up son or daughter awarded some great honor might say, “If I had not undertaken that fitness program years ago, I would not have been around to experience this greatest thrill of my life.” “The greatest thrill for me,” says the honored son or daughter, “is that my parent was alive to see this. It just made it so much more meaningful for me, since this was the parent who inspired me to pursue this dream in the first place and kept encouraging me every step of the way.” Two lives enriched beyond measure in unpredictable ways by “pointless” exercise, in the great interconnectedness of things.

The Application macroskill is shorthand for “Now keep doing it, often.” Most of the principles and techniques related to the preceding macroskills will have been applied once, to the Big Dream; now we move into “reps”—repeated application in smaller “exercises” designed not to improve physical fitness, in this case, but to improve alignment. The big aspiration remains your mission; the little aspirations within it become the small adjustments you make to elements in the world around you to bring them into closer alignment with your mission, your vision of success, your values—your Big Dream.

In a fable a centipede is asked how he manages to walk so smoothly despite having to coordinate so many pairs of feet. “You know,” says the centipede, “I’ve never really thought about it.”And from that day forward, he is never able to walk properly again. Those natural-born dreamcrafters for whom the macroskills come intuitively also do not have to think about it. They just go through life contentedly emptying things that need emptying, and mending things that need mending, and straightening things that need straightening, and refilling things that need refilling, without ever worrying about whether—or how—any of this relates to their Big Dream. If they did think about it (and perhaps, as with the centipede, it’s better if they don’t), their thinking might be something along these lines: “My life is a story, and I’m the main character. I have a vision of where the story is going, which is my Big Dream in life. My home is a part of the story; it’s the ‘setting.’ I have a vision of what this ‘dreamcrafter’s home’ should be like: the kitchen door shouldn’t squeak, and there shouldn’t be a sneaker in the middle of the floor, and the people who live here should all get along with each other. When I do things to make my vision of my home a reality, it feels like I’m making it line up with my Big Dream. When I see something in my town that isn’t quite right, or even anyplace I go, if it’s something I can easily fix, I do it. It just keeps things around me more in line with the way I feel they ought to be. I’m getting better and better at turning my vision of the way things ought to be into a reality.”

It all adds up.

The Unpredictability Factor

Most television weather reports provide a five-day forecast. If you were to keep a record, you’d almost certainly discover that even when the forecast for day one was consistently accurate, the forecast for day five would turn out to be wrong more often than not. Even despite technological advances yet to come, most experts now agree that accurate long-range weather predictions will forever be impos- sible. Because of the way everything affects everything else, there will always be too many variables to compute.

But even if we’re never able to predict what the weather will be six weeks from today, we do know with certainty that six weeks from today a weather system will be affecting us. Something is going to happen, definitely; we just don’t know for sure yet what it is. Similarly, what we choose to do—and not do—every moment of our lives will have a direct effect on how many other things happen or do not happen; that’s a certainty. We just often cannot predict what that effect will be.

A driver pressed for time orders coffee “to go,” and is holding the cup in one hand as a large obstruction in the road suddenly comes into view, requiring a sharp swerve that sends steaming coffee flying, scalding the other hand, which in pain reflexively lets go of the steering wheel for a moment, allowing the vehicle to speed across the center line and directly into oncoming traffic. In the space of a heartbeat, lives are destroyed, families engulfed in tragedy. And grieving survivors are left to ask the same empty, painful question for years to come: “Why didn’t someone pull that obstruction, that piece of cardboard, off the road?”

This is a tough question. It implies, “How does it come to be that we are the kind of people who wouldn’t automatically see the usefulness of taking the time to eliminate a potentially deadly hazard for others?” Why would there even be the slightest hesitation? Isn’t this saying something very sad about human nature?

Perhaps the failure lies less with human nature than with human culture. Perhaps it represents a failure of education.Virtually nothing in our schooling teaches us to understand the great “interconnectedness” of all things. No one drills it into us that everything we do affects everything else, and in ways it is impossible to predict. Our cultural emphasis on “payoffs,” on “what’s in it for us/what’s in it for me?” conditions us all to make choices based solely on predictable benefits, predictable outcomes—the tangible, the measurable, the concrete. Anything for which the “payoff” is as imprecise as, “This will almost certainly lead to something good, though we cannot say for sure what it will be,” strikes most of us as “too vague, not worth doing.” Though the age-old nuggets of wisdom remind us that “we reap what we sow,” that “what goes around comes around,” still for most of us it takes an entire lifetime to eventually discover (the hard way) that these are literally, verifiably true. Thus, in its ignorance of how everything affects everything else, the planet’s dominant life form continues to be the only life form inflicting serious ecological injury to the planet.

The good news is that the fifth dreamcrafting macroskill is a powerful teacher. It teaches important lessons of “connectedness” that are typically not taught in school—lessons that can transform lives, that can even change the course of human history. Macroskill Five teaches these lessons not through theory but through practice, through direct experience. The individual dreamcrafter makes all kinds of little improvements that at first may seem unrelated to the Big Dream, and then later discovers how many of these improvements did contribute to achieving the Big Dream after all, though in ways it would have been utterly impossible to predict.

The bad news is that to arrive at this startling discovery, the dreamcrafter must begin by first making another leap of faith. There is no way to guarantee that “this” particular little improvement will be the one that brings the Big Dream closer in “that” particular way. It is all entirely unpredictable. It thus represents a leap of faith many will be unwilling to make. If there is one primary reason why pessimists generally make poor dreamcrafters, this is it. By definition, a leap of faith is optimism translated into action.

Every little improvement, even if seemingly unrelated to the Big Dream, can bring life into greater alignment in unpredictable ways.

Application Supreme

In Macroskill Five we use principles or techniques from the other four macroskills in order to make something better in the world around us. But one very special opportunity exists for us to apply the principle of application itself, so to speak. This is where the law of augmenting returns for dreamcrafters potentially achieves its most dramatic expression. This is where one particular “little thing” can make a difference so huge, it almost boggles the mind.

To understand the full implications of this special application, imagine paying a visit to a typical old-fashioned small-town zoo. Imagine pausing in front of the tiger cage.

Anyone who has had occasion to study tigers in the wild knows that a tiger raised in a cage usually looks quite different from its cousins in the jungle. It behaves quite differently as well, pacing endlessly back and forth within its enclosure. Here is an animal that gets all the food it needs hand delivered to its door every day; it has no fear of attack from other predators; it need never do battle with rivals for its territory or for mating privileges; it is protected from the elements; it is even supplied from time to time with prospective mates for breeding purposes. Why then is this creature so visibly unhappy? Because the one thing this tiger is not allowed to do is to “tiger.” All of its tigering is done for it by its keepers. It’s being virtually bored to death.

Young people cannot learn a great deal about tigers by observing a tiger in such a zoo; even the tiger itself has learned very little about tigers throughout its caged existence. In the wild, young tigers learn to hunt by watching their mothers hunt. They learn to protect their territory or raise their young by observing older, more experienced tigers doing these things, and by the trial and error of their own experience. A tiger raised in captivity receives no such education; released into the wild as a mature animal, it will almost certainly perish before long, because it has had no opportunity to master the fine points of tigering.

And what are the fine points of “humaning”? Or, to repeat a question from our Introduction, what if imagining possibilities and then realizing them turns out to be the distinctly human capacity, the one and only thing that sets our species apart?

When the young people who learned very little about tigers at the zoo return to their homes, dinner awaits them. One or both of their parents went off earlier in the day to that mysterious place they call “work,” and brought home food for the table, which is provided daily. Their parents also provide the shelter of a home that protects them from the elements, and from the school bully. They know Mom or Dad drives a car, which provides transportation when required, but they do not know how this car comes to be in the garage, or how Mom or Dad were able to obtain such a car. If all of these things represent part of some Big Dream Mom and Dad once shared, their offspring typically know next to nothing about how this dream was turned into a reality. These young people are well-fed, well-clothed—virtually everything they need is provided. (One or both parents think of themselves precisely as good “providers.”) Why, then, are so many of these young people so visibly unhappy? With so many diversions to choose from, why do they so frequently complain of being bored?

Could it be because they are learning next to nothing about “humaning”? Could it feel to them as if they are living in a comfortable cage, well-cared-for and well-provided-for, but kept virtually in the dark about how to make dreams come true—the very essence of humanness?

For the disenfranchised, it does not feel like “a zoo out there”; it feels like a jungle out there, and a zoo in here. And the sheltered zoo dwellers live in terror that once they are released into the jungle, disaster will befall them. They may already have dreams of their own, but they have little or no idea about how one goes about making such dreams come true.

Are we teaching young people to become creators, or just consumers?

Historically, never has so much opportunity to imagine and realize possibilities been available to so many. We cannot take much of the credit for this happy situation; it is in large measure the product of dreamcrafters who preceded us, and who gave up much—often their very lives—to make it possible. What, now, are we prepared to give to those who follow us, so that they too can take full advantage of this great gift that has been bequeathed to us by those who came before?

Should we not, at the very least, devote ourselves to ensuring that they learn how it’s done? As we master the process of bringing our own lives into alignment, would failing to pass this crucial knowledge on to those around us not constitute our greatest failing of all? If we are looking for opportunities to make something better in the world around us, can there be any opportunities more worthy than this one?

The craft for this aspect of Macroskill Five involves applying the principles of Inclusion as before, but with one key difference. In Macroskill Four our efforts to get others involved were primarily to generate support and participation; now our purpose focuses on young people, in particular, and extends to letting them see how it’s done, letting them ask questions about it, letting them observe the results.

In earlier societies, parents or elders took care of passing on key survival skills directly to the young; in our society this responsibility is handled almost in its entirety by professional teachers within a school system that virtually everyone agrees is not working very well. Dreamcrafters find themselves in a unique position to give young people, by demonstration and by example, knowledge and inspiration they might not otherwise receive anywhere else. Macroskill Five affords abundant opportunities to help others understand how everything in life affects everything else, how Murphy’s Law leads to a distorted view of the world, how asking can be more powerful than telling, how Big Dreams can be realized by doing little things that all add up.

If achieving the Big Dream is the dreamcrafter’s greatest accomplishment in his or her lifetime, inspiring others to pursue their own dream must certainly be ranked a close second. Simply making the entire process visible and understandable to others is “application supreme”; it represents Macroskill Five put into practice in the most effective and most beneficial way possible.

Even in a rapidly changing world, some things remain constant. Is it naïve to be dreaming of optimistic possibilities with the specters of international terrorism and nuclear attack and biological warfare hanging over us? Look back across our history—the threat of annihilation by plague, by famine, by war has virtually always been there. These threats did not stop the dreamcrafters of earlier ages from imagining wondrous possibilities, nor from achieving them. We find ourselves with tremendous advantages that they lacked, thanks largely to their sacrifices; by their efforts, carrying on the tradition has been made easier for us.

Constant, too, is the value people of all eras place on an inspiring example. Ask people to tell you who had the most significant positive influence on their lives, and almost without exception they will tell you of someone who encouraged them to believe in their dream and helped them discover how to achieve it. By most people’s reckoning, it would seem, there can be no greater gift for an individual to pass on to another, or for a generation to pass on to another.

Making our dreams come true—it’s what we were designed and built to do. It’s what makes us unique. Dreamcrafting is just basic humaning.

If you’re not already doing it, wouldn’t right now be just about the best possible time to get started?

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