Making a Difference

Tom used to go for a walk every day on the beach. One day there he noticed a man who was leaning down to pick up something and then throw it into water.

When he got close he saw that person was picking up starfish that had washed up on the beach and he was picking them up one at a time and throwing them back in the water.

Tom got confused and approached that man and said, “Good evening, I was wondering what are you doing?”

Man smiled and replied, “I am throwing back starfish which were washed up on shore and if I don't throw them back into the ocean then they will die up here because of lack of oxygen.”

Tom replied, “I understand…”

Then a little while later he said, “But there must be thousands of starfish on this beach and you can’t possibly get all of them..

And this may be happening on hundreds of beaches.. then how does throwing some of these starfish back into the ocean can make a difference??”

Man smiled. He bent down and picked up yet another starfish, then threw it back into the ocean and then pointing toward that fish he replied, “It would make a difference to that one..!!”

Moral: We all have the opportunity to help create positive change but people tend to think that – How much difference can he make? We might not be able to change the entire world but at least you can change a small part of it for someone.

Most common reason we procrastinate is because we see the challenge before us as overwhelming and that a good way to counter that is to break the big challenge down into smaller pieces and then take those one at a time – like one starfish at a time.

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