Small idea, big impact

A Deaf Awareness Month-themed roundup

Hi friends,

Continuing the hearing loss theme for Deaf Awareness Month, I wanted to talk a little about a very simple idea that has had a profound impact on my life.

(I’ve mentioned this before, but doing so again because I’ve found I need frequent and consistent reminders to absorb anything.)

The idea is this: Something is better than nothing.

Five minutes of exercise is better than zero.

Eating one vegetable is better than eating none.

Writing 200 words is better than writing no words at all.

Etc. Etc.

We know this, logically, yet it’s hard to feel good about ourselves for eating a single carrot. Or to pat ourselves on the back for writing a crappy paragraph.

It’s hard to celebrate the small daily “wins” of life in the face of much bigger and more glaring failures. Not to mention the pervasive horrors of the outside world.

It’s much easier to flog ourselves for all the things we don’t do than to acknowledge the very real and very countable things that we do do.

But—spoiler!—we must acknowledg…