Gandhi said, ‘Everything you do in life will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it’. Philosophers can argue back and forth exactly what he meant, and he probably meant many things. One of those is that small actions can seem insignificant but they are what make up the big stuff. We saw this in Rule 55 about how you spend your day, but it counts in other ways too.

Essentially, you have to do what you believe in, even if you don’t believe it will make a difference. Suppose you think it’s really important to boycott companies that use child labour. Then you see some stunning product from one of those companies that you really want. It’s easy to tell yourself that this company has millions of customers, and just one purchase from you will make no difference in the grand scheme of things. Well, you may be right that it’s insignificant, but it’s still very important that you stick to your principles. The only thing that will persuade these companies to change their practices will be millions of insignificant boycotts like yours. If each person counts themselves out on the grounds of how miniscule their own influence is, the change will never happen.

Each action or decision is tiny in itself, but that’s how you build up the whole. Just as a butterfly flapping its wings in China can change the weather in New York,¹⁶ so each whole can only be the sum of its parts. That’s how democracy works. You may feel that your one vote will count for nothing, but millions of people just like you, all casting their insignificant votes, can bring governments down.

Sometimes you’re convinced that it really won’t make any difference to the whole. You just know that everyone else isn’t going to vote the same way as you, or just won’t go to the trouble of a boycott. And you may be right. But it’s still important to do what you believe should be done.

You may think that it doesn’t matter what you do because nobody is watching. This tiny, teensy insignificant thing will go entirely unnoticed, and no one will be any the wiser. But you’d be wrong. Someone is watching: you are. You also have to carry out these insignificant acts because it’s the only way to be true to yourself. You are defined by your choices and if you betray your own beliefs, you change yourself. If a thing is right, it’s right. So however insignificant the results of your choice, it’s still important that you make it.