Every Drop Creates the Ocean: Why Your Small Actions Matter

Ready to break free from the cycle of big ambitions followed by disappointment? The secret to lasting change might be smaller than you think.

When we look at where we are versus where we want to be, the gap often feels impossibly wide. We tell ourselves "if only I had more time, money, or resources" then change would be possible. But what if the real magic happens through tiny, consistent actions that compound over time?

Drawing from personal birthday reflections and journal rituals, Dr. BethAnne Kapansky-Wright shares how setting modest intentions and taking measurable steps creates sustainable transformation. These small actions—whether a brief gratitude practice, a moment of mindfulness, or a single act of kindness—aren't just placeholders until the "real change" happens; they ARE the change.

Key talking points include: 

• The importance of journaling about personal growth and setting intentions during milestone moments
• The trap of thinking we need "more" of something before we can make progress
• Little deeds of intention compound over time to create meaningful change
• Small steps are more sustainable than dramatic changes or grand gestures
• Starting with something that seems "too easy" can help build momentum
• Quality of intention matters more than quantity of action
• The power of being "one drop" that contributes to the ocean of positive change
• Setting 1-2 small, achievable goals is better than overwhelming yourself with too many changes

Remember: "Keep it simple, take actionable steps and see what grows from there. Little deeds of intention compound." When the world feels overwhelming, the answer isn't more overwhelm—it's simplifying, grounding, and taking action within your immediate sphere of influence.

Join us next week for an all-new episode of Your Heart Magic and more psychology, spirituality, storytelling, and heart wisdom.

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Your Heart Magic is a space where heart wisdom, spirituality, and psychology meet. Enjoy episodes centered on mental health, spirituality, personal growth, healing, and well-being. Featured as one of the best Heart Energy and Akashic Records Podcasts in 2024 by PlayerFM and Globally Ranked in the top 5% in Listen Notes.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright is a Licensed Psychologist, Spiritual Educator, and Akashic Records Reader. She is the author of Small Pearls Big Wisdom, the Award-Winning Lamentations of the Sea, its sequels, and several books of poetry. A psychologist with a mystic mind, she weaves perspectives from both worlds to offer holistic wisdom.

FIND DR. BETHANNE ONLINE:

BOOKS- www.bethannekw.com/books

FACEBOOK - www.facebook.com/drbethannekw

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Episode Transcript

Intro/Outro (00:13):
Aloha and welcome to your Heart Magic, an
illuminating space wherepsychology, spirituality and
heart wisdom meet.
Here's your host, dr BethannKapansky-Wright.
Author, psychologist andspiritual educator.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wri (00:32):
Aloha everybody.
Welcome to your Heart Magic.
This is Dr BethannKapansky-Wright, and today we
are talking about the idea ofsetting small intentions and
taking small, measurable stepsand how those add up over time
to help support us in creatingnew habits and patterns and

(00:54):
movement in our life.
And I chose this topic becauseit feels really close to my
heart this week.
I recently celebrated abirthday just this past weekend
and something that I will oftendo when I have any kind of a
milestone in my life which mightbe a birthday it could be a new
year.

(01:14):
Sometimes I might do this aroundcertain anniversaries or dates
that have meaning for me is Iwill take time in my journal to
really try and honor what havebeen the small wins this past
season, what have I learned, howhave I grown, what progress
have I made on the path, andalso look at where do I want to

(01:35):
be this time next year, wherewould I like to be a year from
now?
Where might I like to be sixmonths from now?
Where might I like to be threeor so months from now?
And I have fun Oracle cardspreads that I do around this
and obviously I have to putstickers in my journal to help

(01:55):
illustrate all of these thingsand I make a little ritual of it
and it's one of my ways of notonly doing self-care.
But for me, my journal is sucha treasure trove of ideas and
intentions and inspirations andwhere I feel so much of my
self-work happens and so much ofthe origins of my magic, my

(02:19):
heart magic, take place.
It's kind of a cauldron ofsorts of words and alchemy and
oracle cards and synchronicitiesand all sorts of things, and so
I really cherish that time andthis past weekend when I sat
down and looked at where do Iwant to be in a year from now.

(02:40):
I have some ideas in mind oflife changes I'd like to make,
but I don't have anything big onmy radar right now.
I don't have anything huge thatI'm trying to manifest.
I don't have any big lifetransitions that are planned.
I just laughed, I just realized, saying that that probably
means some big things willhappen this year that come out

(03:02):
of nowhere.
But that's life, right, wedon't have control over it.
And in terms of my personaldevelopment and personal growth,
there's absolutely things Iwant to work on.
I have creative projects that Iwant to work on, but I don't
have some huge thing of manifesta career change or change in
geography or anything like that.
It's more of pointing mycompass and the direction that I

(03:26):
want to go, being mindful ofhow do I want to get myself to
that direction and then reallythinking about what are the
small steps that I need to helptake me there.
And I often feel this is wherepeople get stuck and it's such a
pain point for a lot of peopleis we know where we want to go,
we know where we are now and wecannot figure out what we need

(03:49):
to bridge the gap, to getourselves from one space to
another.
And oftentimes I think we fallinto the trap of I don't have
enough or I need more, the lacktrap.
And it goes something like if Ihad more time to figure it out,
if I had more money, I could dothis.
If only I didn't have to X,then blank would be possible.

(04:13):
And it's like we're looking forsomething that helps give us
this, this bungee cord, thistime warp, that if somehow we
had whatever it is that goesinto the blank in our lives that
we feel that we need in orderto create whatever change we
want, then all of a sudden weare somehow going to more

(04:35):
magically arrive at that changeor it's going to happen a lot
more easily for us and I'veoften found that just isn't so
that we can work with what wehave and take small steps that
help move us in the direction ofwhere we want to go, and
instead of having a time warp ora bungee cord or some shortcut

(04:57):
that allows us to get therequicker, it's really about
building a ladder based onintention and measurable steps
and continuing to put ourintention out there into the
Akashic field, the energy field,into our thought field, and
then aligning with thatintention and thinking.

(05:18):
What small step can I taketowards this today?
And I found this principle likethe older I get, the more I
realize how well this has beenserving me and my life.
So I want to share a piece ofwriting with you today from
Small Pearls, big Wisdom.
That speaks to the idea oflittle deeds, of intention

(05:38):
compound.
That is the title of it, andthis is applicable to anything
that we're trying to do in ourlife, whether it is to create
more good in the world or tomove ourselves towards some kind
of personal change that we'reworking on in our inner world or
our outer circumstances.
This is passage 339,.

(05:59):
Little Deeds of IntentionCompound.
Speak good words and do kindthings.
Offer this as medicine for aworld that needs healing balm.
We have the gift of choosingour thoughts and words, so why
not make them good ones thatencourage love and show
compassion for ourselves andothers?

(06:20):
Our small steps of courage andlittle deeds of intention
compound.
They offer the medicine of joy,transmutation and grace.
In a world that can feel heavyand lost, every kind-hearted
thought and endeavor contributesto the whole.
What might seem paltry to youmight mean the world to someone

(06:42):
else.
Share a smile, pick up a tinypiece of litter and do something
good for the earth.
Be mindful of an animal.
Think a tree for standing tall.
Do something warm-hearted for afellow human.
Walk on the earth withreverence, acknowledging all who
came before you.
Say a simple prayer.

(07:03):
Look up at the heart of the sky, breathe in peace and imagine
your energy leaving a trail ofgrace wherever you step.
Today, a life of devotion andbeauty is created when we take
the ordinary and make it sacredthrough our intentions of
goodness and care.
Insist on magic and see theworld open and possibilities and

(07:28):
color Whatever you do.
Do what you can Set anintention for light and make it
count.
Live your life in such a way asto leave no stone unturned for
love.
I really like the idea that whenwe can identify small

(07:48):
achievable steps, things that wecan do, it can add up to big
change.
And I think so many of us canoften feel really overwhelmed by
the velocity and speed thatlife moves and the amount of
challenges in the world aroundus.
Sometimes we get overwhelmed bythe amount of challenges within

(08:10):
ourselves and things that weare wanting to address and to
change in our own personal life.
So, whether it's in, like, themacrocosm of the world and
impacting change in a biggerscale, or in our communities, in
our family systems, ourrelationships, or whether it's
in that microcosm of bringing itinward and bringing it into our

(08:34):
heart and our inner work andour spiritual practices and
lifestyle practices and andhabits and all of that this idea
that small steps add up to biggains feel so tested, tried and
true to me, and I think there'ssomething about taking that and

(08:54):
identifying areas in our lifewhere we can apply it and making
it tangible and real for us.
That helps empower us to notonly create positive momentum in
our life, but to see over timethat those things do add up to a
bigger picture.
And I think that sometimes theanswer to hopelessness or

(09:18):
feeling overwhelmed by asituation or a challenge is just
coming back to start whereyou're at and do what you can,
and then we show up in the nextmoment and we do what we can,
and we show up the next day andwe do what we can.
And it's really served me wellover the years.

(09:38):
To bring it back to thequestion of identifying target
issues or challenges in my lifeor things that I'm working
towards and really looking atwell, what can I do about that
right now?
And sometimes taking it downinto a very small micro step
that I can take.
I feel like sometimes forpeople, that's a part that can

(10:00):
be hard to do, because I thinksometimes people just think it's
too small and really fall intothis idea that it's not enough
and that they should be doingmore or that they should be
asking more of themselves.
And I think there's times thatwe might have a ton of
motivation, but if we are makinga effort towards something,

(10:21):
then hopefully what we want tocreate is something sustainable
and something that we cancontinue to do so that we're
building good habits into ourlife and building good mindsets
and integrating into our being.
This idea of this is the kindof person that I want to be, and
so these are things I justorganically do, and so if we're

(10:43):
thinking about being sustainable, then usually smaller is better
.
Big movements, big changes, bigefforts they're not always
sustainable for us, and there'stimes that we feel called to
some kind of big impact or bigchange, but on a day-to-day
basis, when we are looking athow do we take ordinary moments

(11:04):
in our lives, how do we justtake a ordinary week where
nothing extraordinary or big ishappening, and how do we move
our energy and impact changeunder those circumstances?
It's the small things thatcreate sustainability for
ourselves, and so I often thinkthat a really good place to

(11:25):
start is with picking just oneor two areas in our life whether
that's our internal world orsomething external outside of us
that we feel called to worktowards or change or want to set
a goal around, and then pickingone or two small things that we
can do with that, somethingthat you might almost say, oh,

(11:46):
that's too easy, I shouldchallenge myself, but let's say,
whatever that easy thing is,you're not already doing it or
you're not being consistent withit, and so that's a really good
place to start.
If it sounds too easy, then Ithink we're on the right track,
because we can always add inmore.
We can always say I'm going tomake an this week, write down

(12:08):
three to five things let's saythree every night on a little
scrap of paper, three thingsthat I'm grateful for, and I'm
going to start a gratitudepractice and I'm going to do

(12:30):
that for the next week or thenext 30 days, and we can always
add more to it.
We can always make it bigger,we can expand it, we can grow
from it.
But I think it's easier, oncewe've started momentum, to pick
up that momentum and keep goingthan it is to do too much too
fast, burn ourselves out andthen have to re-find our

(12:53):
motivation and our momentumagain.
This is why so many people,when they make resolutions and
the new year, find, after notfollowing through, that it's
really hard to get going again.
It's that impetus, the originof finding where is that energy
going to come from?
And there are some changes inour lives, some gestures that we

(13:13):
might make, grand gestures thatrequire a little bit more
rocket fuel to get ourselvesgoing and kick us into orbit and
then, once we get there, we cango a little bit more into
maintenance mode.
But I often think that withmost changes that we're trying
to make, it is really aboutsmall, measurable, achievable

(13:33):
things, and we build from there.
So in a world where everythinganymore feels like too much, too
big, too extreme, everythingfeels epic or huge or the most
amazing thing ever.
It's like the world itselffeels like this hyperbole of
exaggeration and our answer tothe too muchness of all of it

(13:58):
isn't not enough.
The answer to that extremityoften is to make it small, make
it simple, make it grounded,make it count and know that,
just because something might notproduce a quantity right away,
the quality of an intention isextremely powerful.
Quality of an intention isextremely powerful.

(14:19):
There's a quote in one of myfavorite movies, cloud Atlas,
where there is I'm going toparaphrase this a little bit
because I didn't write it downso I probably won't get it
exactly right but there's ascene at the end where a father
challenges his son and says likewhat do you think you're doing
with this?
What possible difference do youthink you're going to make?

(14:39):
You're just a drop in this vastocean and he says what is an
ocean?
But a multitude of drops, andI've always loved that right.
All of us is a drop thatcomposes this bigger whole and
even though we might not be ableto change the whole ocean, we
can change our drop.
We can make changes in ourimmediacy and we can start those

(15:02):
inside of ourselves.
So there's a lot of power inthat and my encouragement is to
simply pick one or two thingsand figure out one or two small
things that you can do, likeonce you found something that
you want to work on, pick one ortwo small things and see how it
feels and build from there.

(15:23):
Keep it simple, keep it small,keep it manageable.
Even something huge liketransmuting trauma or something
really heavy that somebody mightbe working on from a
psychological standpoint, we canstill find small ways each day
to show up for ourselves and toshow up for our wounds and to
show up for healing and to takeresponsibility for our

(15:47):
personhood and for our growthand for trying to create a
healthier mindset or moveourselves towards wellness in
some capacity.
We can always work on somethingin our spiritual walk, in our
relationships and spreadingkindness in the world.
There's always something.
So pick what calls to you.

(16:08):
Keep it simple, take actionablesteps and see what grows from
there.
Little deeds of intentioncompound.
Thank you so much for joiningme on the podcast today.
I will be back next week withan all new episode.
Have an amazing week and, asalways, be well, be loved, be
you and be magic.

Intro/Outro (16:38):
You've been listening to your Heart Magic
with dr bethann kapansky righttune in next week for a new
episode to support and empoweryour light.