As I write this note, the actual title at the top of the page is The Little Things, but by the time I will be publishing this note I may either have changed the title completely or added some more words to the title. This is because in my recently published book, Sitting At The Edge, I had a chapter titled The Little Things. So, getting an appropriate title for this note was a little bit difficult for me.

As I study the scriptures, read the biographies of men, study successful people, I realize that there is a common thread in people who have enduring successes. There seems to be this thin line we can find among those we would term really great. Not great in terms of material acquisition only but great as in deserving our highest respect. These people value little things. They seem to do instinctively the little things that most of us tend to ignore or place little or no value in.

Now, for clarification, I am not saying this is just the factor that made them great. I wish I knew what the one thing is that makes people great, but I don’t. One does not have to look too far to see that two people may appear to have the same set of qualities, loving, caring, hardworking, focused, tenacious, etc. One attains greatness, in a manner of speaking, the other is just okay. I wish I knew why that happens, but like I said in one of my notes, life is like that.

So, please, I am not making any promises that if you practice what I am about to share then you will suddenly have a 100% lift in your income generating ability. But I strongly believe that practicing it would make the world a better place for us. I believe the highest question one can ask themselves is, “What can I do to make the world a little bit better than it is?” And we change the world by changing ourselves.

As I begin to value the art of being still, meditating, and learning to be silent, it begins to dawn on me that it is not the big things that really separate us at the end of the day. When the final whistle blows it’s not going to be about whether you had great dreams or if you practiced goal setting or how comprehensive your résumé was. Neither is it going to be about who drove the most expensive car, or who worked at the best company or who had the highest number of degrees.

When the final whistle blows the question will be about who did those little things that don’t carry any points. I don’t know about you but back then in school as an engineering student I did a GNS course, “Use of Library.” It was a zero credit course but you were not graduating if you failed that course. I think that is really what life is about. Some things may not carry any point but nonetheless, very important.

Things like saying, “I’m sorry,” “Thank you,” “I love you,” etc. Things like keeping up with your promises, helping the elderly get into the bus, getting your neighbour’s clothes out of the line when it’s about to rain. Things like forwarding a good mail you received from a friend so it can add value to some other people, placing a comment to encourage the writer of a good note you just read, refraining from using insulting words on your president even when he is obviously doing something wrong. These little things might not carry any points but when the final whistle blows, believe me, you are not graduating if you fail in these courses.

When we say the world is getting worse and worse, what do we really mean? Planes fly faster than the speed of sound, man pays a visit to the moon every now and then, we can calculate the distance from the stars to the earth, you can have a teleconference meeting with someone at the other end of the world right from the comfort of your home, production lines are automated and there is no human interference, cars are already driving themselves. Yet we say the world is getting worse, why?

I believe it’s because the little things that really matter the most are almost no longer there. Parents leave the home before the child wakes up and returns after the child is asleep. Teachers are rated as high-performing while less and less kids are able to complete high school. There are more relationship experts yet the divorce rate is higher than ever before. Young people no longer stand up for the elderly to sit when in a bus. And like Sam Adeyemi would say, “We missed it. We missed it by a very long pole.”

We missed it when we no longer placed value on the little things that really matter the most. We missed it when we started desiring to be like the Joneses next door. We missed it when we started looking for changes outside rather than on the inside of us. We missed it when we thought the teachers were responsible for our children. We missed it when we thought that because the children can’t vote therefore they had no voice.

Today, we are paying dearly because we missed it. Just when we thought technology was everything, we finally realize that there is more to life than technology. Technology may make life easier but values make life better. Having the right set of values makes life better. Valuing the little things that seemingly go unnoticed until the final whistle is blown is what would really make the world a better place for all of us.

There’s no use climbing the ladder only to realize at the top of the ladder that it is leaning against the wrong wall. Time, once spent, can never be recovered. Words, once spoken, can never be taken back. Before we spend that time, before we say those words, let’s be sure that we will not regret it. Because these little things, they matter the most.

Mute Efe,
+234-803-874-9796

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