#23 - Just one (4/7)

Is one enough? 

This questions came to my mind today. It was in relation to this blog. A friend commented that she had read it, and liked it, and wanted to give some other feedback. 

And I thought, wow, cool. I reached one person. 

But...is that enough?

To be honest, many of the times I blogged this year I didn't share it anywhere, so it was possible that no one read. 

I was OK with zero readers. I was just writing to keep the practice, not for any audience.

So if I'm OK with zero, then I should be happy with one. Right?

I remember when I was younger, I felt inspired to change the world. I wanted to help so many people. Like in the MILLIONS, or at least, ya know. A ton. 

But what if one person is enough?

If you're talking about completely changing or saving someone's life, is one enough for a lifetime? Most news outlets would call someone a hero for saving just one life. 

How about just making someone's day? Making him or her smile. Is once per life enough? I think most of us would agree it should be something like one person per day. Or is that selling ourselves short? Maybe it should be like 3 per day. 10 seems too many. That's just setting us up for failure. 

Going back to this blog, I still wonder whether one person feeling inspired is enough to make me feel like I'm having an impact. 

In today's day and age, we are told to value quantity over quality. More, more, more.

I wonder what happens if we reduce our expectations down...down...down until we get to one. 

Imagine writing or making these statements: 

I'm going to do one push-up today.
I'm going to make one person smile. 
I'm going to write one blog post this month. 
I'm going to eat one vegetable per day. 
I'm going to write one thank-you note to a friend.

You can make a list of your own. ("I'm going to get one like on this blog post.")

If we're honest with ourselves - actually, I'll speak personally, if I'm honest with myself, I'll admit that I feel like one is beneath me. 

I'm better than one. I can do way more than that. 

I'm not going to settle. 

I scoff.

One 'like'? Ew.  

And then consider: how many days have I gone where I can't make any of the above statements?

I didn't even eat one fresh vegetable.

I did zero push-ups. 

I didn't intentionally make one person laugh or smile. 

There are a lot of days where I haven't even done one. 

In fact, I've gone years without writing a thank-you note. 

It's difficult not to get caught up in the numbers. To want to reach more people. To do more reps. To sell more products. To have more of an impact. 

But maybe, just maybe, one is enough. 

I'll take the day I actually made one person laugh over the time I dreamed of filling an auditorium, or planned to inspire a million.