Small Change ADDS UP!

By Carol Rickard, LCSW
Small Change ADDS UP!

I’d like to start by asking you a question: Do you save your pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters? In other words, do you save your loose change?

Ah ha, I thought so!

Did you hear about the young man who wrote a letter to the editor in his hometown, asking people to send him the loose change they found on the ground? He wanted to go to college, but had no money to do so. The letter got syndicated & he ended up with $15,637.23!!

My point in sharing this story is that no matter how small the change is: IT ALL ADDS UP!

This is important when it comes to recovery!

So many times I’ve worked with people who will set themselves up to fail before they even get started……

They’re aiming for the BIG CHANGE instead of focusing on all the small change adding up!

Some BIG CHANGES they take on:

  • Cleaning the whole house when nothing’s been done in weeks or months.
  • Going to the gym to start exercising.
  • Getting all the laundry done.
  • Sorting through weeks of mail in one sitting.

Each day make a goal of a small change!  Not a big one – just start with 1 small one. As you build up momentum you can add more small ones…..

This can be as simple as:

  • Spending 5 minutes walking either inside or outside.
  • Doing one load of laundry instead of the whole mess.
  • Working on the mail for 5, 10, 15 minutes at a time.
  • Going to a social function for just 1 hour.
  • Clean one small room or set the timer for 15-30 minutes of cleaning.

I promise if you start to make small changes in your daily life, they’ll add up to a bigger change over time. Just like all those pennies, nickels, dimes, & quarters add up!!

~ Take Control Of Stress ~
Posted in Mental Health

About Carol Rickard, LCSW

Carol L. Rickard, LCSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 30 years of experience specializing in stress management and wellness program development for healthcare and corporate settings. Known as "America's Workplace Wellbeing Authority" Carol specializes in creating practical, evidence-based training solutions for high-stress professionals. As founder and CEO of WellYOUniversity, LLC, Carol has trained thousands of healthcare workers, corporate teams, and organizational leaders. Her evidence-based approach, called SMARTheory™, transforms complex wellness concepts into immediately actionable tools that work during 12-hour shifts, high-pressure meetings, and real-world crises. A prolific author, Carol has written 25 books on stress and wellness, contributed weekly to Esperanza Magazine, and created "The WELL YOU Show", a nationally syndicated wellness show on Central New Jersey Network. She has been featured expert in national media outlets and speaks regularly at conferences, healthcare systems, and corporate events. Carol's expertise spans keynote presentations, comprehensive training programs, organizational wellness consulting, and crisis response training. Her clients consistently praise her ability to deliver practical strategies that participants can implement immediately, creating lasting change in both professional and personal settings.

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