Geneen Roth

I’ve been reminded recently …

of what someone once told me. I wish I could remember who it was, but anyway, what she said was: Everything counts.

So often in my life, I’ve thought: “Well, just this once, I’ll do it. And it won’t matter because I’ll do it another way later or tomorrow or next week." So often, I’ve chosen to make one small thing not count, and yet, one by one, small decisions add up and create a particular outcome. And not only one outcome, but a habitual way of doing and acting. I love this quote from Ernest Dimnet: "The happiness of most people we know is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things."

Yep. That makes sense. Turn it around and another way of saying it is that what I do today, how I talk to Matt, the plumber on the phone after I realize the Insinkerator is broken, matters. The everyday words, actions matter. Not because someone up there is keeping score but because they add up to a flow, a habit, a way of looking and being in the world that then affects every moment, every breath.

https://geneenroth.com/2018/05/09/ive-been-reminded-recently/