The Butterfly Effect

Welcome to A New Life podcast with Pamela Jean, where it's all about empowering women to empower more women. Get ready, friends, to create a new life. And here is your host, Pamela Jean. Hello, my friends. Welcome to this week's episode of A New Life podcast. This is Pamela Jean. I'm your host. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. Okay. I want to tell you a little bit about myself when I was a little girl. I grew up in northwest Iowa. I lived out in the country, and I loved being outdoors, absolutely loved being outdoors. I spent more time outside in the summertime until the minute the sun rose, until it was too dark to stay outside. I absolutely loved it. When I was a kid growing up, there were always butterflies everywhere. And that's so sad, because there's not as many as what they used to. There used to be, I can remember the yellow ones and the white ones that were just all throughout the garden, and then the monarchs. It was just always so, so pretty. And when I heard the idea, when I first learned of the butterfly effect years ago, it brought me back to that little butterfly that would be just working its way through our garden, through all the flowers, and I would always try to catch them, which, of course, I never could. But anyway, it was always a goal of mine. But the butterfly effect is what I wanted to talk to you about today. And it's an idea of where the tiny flapping of the butterfly's wings send pulses throughout the universe. And just from the flapping of the butterfly wings, it changes things. It affects everything else around it. And that doesn't even seem possible, but scientifically, it absolutely is true. And I wanted to talk about how the butterfly effect, how we are truly the butterfly effect in our own lives and what we can do each day to have that ripple effect, if you will, the flapping of the wings effect that impacts everything big and small. And every decision that you have made, like every decision you made 10 years ago, has had an impact in where your life is today. Even though some of your choices and decisions may seem like they were small at the time, they impact you today. Like if back in high school, you just didn't show up for school and you ended up getting failing a grade and then had to go to summer school and didn't qualify to get into the college of your choice because you had. Your transcripts were awful and your GPA wasn't what was required for the entrance of a college. Well, that's your decision. That's how one decision impacts the future of your life. And the butterfly effect is so similar to that. It's the choices that you make, the things that you choose to do every single day can have an impact on your life. Not only today, but tomorrow, but bigger than that, it has an impact on the people around you. And that's what's so awesome. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. How can you apply the butterfly effect to your life? And I'm going to go through, I don't know, nine or ten or so different points on what you can do. The first one is random acts of kindness. You know, small little acts of kindness like helping a neighbor, complimenting a stranger can create such a positive ripple effect. Your kindness might inspire someone to be kind to creating that chain reaction of positive, positive energy and positive impact in the world. I think there are so many people that just need someone to be kind. You know, the world is a pretty rough place right now. There's a lot going on. There's such divisions not only in our country but all over the world. There's incredible division. And I think if we are just listening to the news and consuming things that are so negative or being consumed by social media, people just need someone to be kind, someone to look them in the eye and say hello or I love your sweater, your hair is pretty, I like those shoes just to be nice to them. Kindness, just a random act of kindness. What's so great about this butterfly effect is it doesn't cost you anything. If you're thinking, gosh, I don't have the money to do kind things, you don't need money. It's not about money. In fact, if you don't even use money to use the butterfly effect for the well being of the world, that's even better. The next one is, well, I want to challenge you to random acts of kindness today. Please see how many random acts of kindness that you can do today and what you can do for the rest of the week. Share those with me. I'd love for you to email me what you've done or post on my social media what you've done. That would be amazing. I would love to get that feedback from you. The next one is to make mindful choices. Be conscious of your choices, even the minor ones, just the little things that you can do that will make an impact in the world and an impact in your future. You know, going back to my introduction on not choosing to go to class and getting a low GPA in high school, that is a decision and a choice that will affect you for the rest of your life. So make mindful choices, even if they're minor ones, even if it is just super, super small and min, it will make an impact in the world around you. Having a positive attitude. Oh my gosh, you have. We've all been around the Debbie Downers, right? Gosh, we all know. In fact, you probably have someone in your mind right now that is so negative all the time that they're hard to be around. It might be a family member, maybe it's your spouse, maybe it is your friend or your co worker. They suck the energy out of you. Your attitude and energy influences the people around you. It is just true. That is a fact. A positive attitude can be infectious and it can lift up other people, encouraging them to approach life with the same optimism. Now, okay, let's be honest. Not every day is a perfect day, right? I mean, you may have, you know, been driving to work today and you spilled your coffee down the front of your white shirt. I mean, right? Well, that's why I don't wear white. Rarely do I wear white because no matter what I'm eating or dink or drinking, drinking my shirt guts wants to taste it first. So shirt eats first. I'm always spilling, so I, I don't like to wear white. But maybe that's where you're at. Or maybe your kids, you know, threw up in the car on the way to school and that's just not good. But here's the thing. You have a choice to make. Am I going to let the thing that just happened influence me negatively or am I going to move forward with the rest of my day with a positive attitude? If you make that conscious decision to move forward in positivity, you will impact everyone around you. You know, have you ever thought about laughing about the spilled coffee down the front of you or the ketchup on your shirt? I mean, come on, what are you going to do? You can either laugh about it or be mad about it. It can make you bring you joy or it can bring you anger. Which do you want to live with for the rest of your day? Because every single person that you meet will be affected by the choice that you make to be positive or negative. And nobody wants to be around negative people. In fact, whoever is the negative person in your life, when they text you and say, hey, you want to get together on Friday, you almost want to pretend you didn't read the text, right? I know, I know. You so choose positivity. It doesn't mean that everything in life is perfect. But you're choosing to find the good in everything. Therefore, you can step forward with positivity. Get some support, educate. Support education. Support the underprivileged children that need help, that don't have someone at home at night that can help them with homework, that don't have enough food. Support the educational community. I mean, teachers have such a hard job. I would not want to be a schoolteacher. I think that is just a love and a passion because I couldn't do that. It's not in my wheelhouse. So God bless those that are teachers, that are educators, but support them. Call your child's teacher and say, how can I help you today? How can I serve you today? If you plant a seed of positivity and kindness into that teacher, how do you think that's going to impact her ability to teach today? Think about that. I promise you that will make such, such a big difference. Think about other ways that you can make the world a better place. Let's say you're out at the park, okay? You're out at the park and someone has left trash near the playground. Pick the trash up. Go put it away. The butterfly effect that that is for everyone else is so powerful. Do you think the person who's thinking about dropping the trash on the ground and just watched you pick some up is going to do then and there? They may get the hint. Be positive and make every place that you leave better. Better than how you found it. Whether you're leaving a room, leave the room better than how you found it. Whether you're leaving the park or the playground or the grocery store or your job. Make your environment better than how you found it. Always offer emotional support to someone who's going through a tough time. You know, everyone you meet is dealing with something that you have no idea what's happening behind closed doors. Have you ever learned of something so sad and so horrific that you just didn't even know that they were dealing with it? Like, maybe someone lost their parents a couple years ago and you can't understand why they're sad all the time or withdrawn or introverted. And you just think, well, they're just stuck up, or they think they're better than I am, or they. Whatever. You don't know what they're going through. You don't know what they're going through. Being kind to someone and offering support and just saying, you know, you look like you're sad today. Is there anything you want to talk about? I just want you to know that you're a valued person in this world and I'm here for you if you need anything. Offer that emotional support that can create a beautiful, beautiful butterfly effect. Your empathy might be exactly what that person needs right now to inspire them to help others in needs once they get back on their feet. When you're stuck emotionally, it's hard to get unstuck, but if someone just reaches out to you and shows the empathy, that might be exactly what they need to get back on their feet. So think about how you could encourage other people. Whether it's through writing, whether it's through your online presence, if you have a social media following, or if you just are an average Joe that posts every once in a while. Posting something positive could be exactly what someone needs. It might be exactly what they're looking for. The sign that they need that day came from you to help change their life. So think about throwing that positivity in the world that can help empower people through your writing, through your teaching, through volunteering, whatever it is, find ways for you to impact other people. Because you don't know what your neighbor needs, you don't know what the person you meet on the street needs or the person at the office or whatever. So spread knowledge, empower people. Get involved in your community. My goodness. Think about the positive impact and the butterfly effect that you could have by simply getting involved in your community. If you look at your calendar, I know we're all busy, everyone feels incredibly busy. But I want to ask you, how much time do you spend on social media? If you looked at your phone and looked at your history and it will tell you how much time you spend on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, do you? Are you trying to tell me that all that time you're spending on social media could not be used and something more constructive and positive by getting involved in your community. Support your local businesses, participate in local events, go do a food drive, go to the pet shelter, clean up a park, get involved in your community. As people see you get involved, you will inspire others to get involved. Therefore, the butterfly effect is in full motion right there. Invest in your personal development by becoming the best version of yourself that's going to allow you and inspire you to help others on their journey. Others will be inspired by you if you present yourself in such a positive way because you believe in you, you've done the hard work, you have a great relationship with yourself that is going to inspire others to do the same. They will reach out to you and say, oh my gosh, how did you do it? You know I know life isn't perfect and easy, but you're always so positive and happy. How, why, how is that? What is it that you're doing? And you can be an inspiration for other people because we're not here just to serve ourselves. We're not here just to serve ourselves. We are here to make this world a better place. The Butterfly effect can do exactly that. It starts with you. It starts with your personal development. To get over your own fears of communication, to reach out to other people, to not be so introverted. I'm honestly an introverted person. I'm. I'm pretty quiet. I don't usually. I know you don't know that from my podcast, but I don't usually say a whole lot in a crowd, but I want to be able to inspire people to be comfortable, to come up to me and to talk to me, and then I can't be introverted in those moments. I like to think of me as an in extroverted introvert. I'm not sure if that's even a thing, but I am actually quite introverted. You may not know that because I do. How are you introverted? You're on a podcast. Well, it's a little different podcasting because I'm passionate about the message, so it's easy for me to talk about it, but my personality is to be pretty quiet and reserved. That's just me. I always have been. You know, another thing that can really help with the Butterfly effect is to encourage creativity in yourself and others that can lead lead to innovations and new ideas that will have far reaching impacts in various areas of life, from art to culture to technology and science. You know, encourage that creativity, encourage people to go for the thing that they're contemplating on, the thing that they're thinking about doing, but they're just not sure if they can encourage people to explore, to get creative, to step outside of themselves. Remember that the Butterfly effect is not really about doing the big things. It's not about moving the mountains in the world or moving the mountain in your community, but it's really about those small choices, those small little actions and the consequences that come from every single action that we create in our lives. By being mindful of your choices, you can contribute more to a positive, impactful, beautiful, beautiful world. And it just happens one step at a time. You know, it's the choice that you make to be in a good mood versus a bad mood that's going to alter how you treat the next person you encounter. Now it's easy for us to get stuck with our own thoughts and with our own feelings. But to make that conscious choice of today, I'm going to impact someone uniquely special today. I'm going to create a butterfly effect around myself today and every day moving forward to help make this world a better place to be. We have that choice, friends. We do. We have the choice how you treat your coworkers, how you treat the people at the gym, how you treat the cashier at the grocery store or the security guard when you walk into the store, or the person you meet at Costco. Everywhere you meet someone, you have the opportunity to greet them with kindness and love. Make eye contact. They may not want to make eye contact with you. And that is okay. That is okay. But your act of kindness could be exactly what they need to do that in their own life or to be inspired to make changes in their own world. The more we come together in small ways as community and as fellow human beings that at the end of the day just want to love one another and be loved, we can create an incredible, incredible world. It doesn't take the big things. Don't think that you don't have enough. I'm not enough. I'm not powerful. I don't have a power of position to make these big changes in the world. That's not what it necessarily takes. Think of it as a grassroots type of movement where the butterfly effect is where you're going to make the biggest impact in the world. And think about it. The choices and decisions you make today are going to impact and have a lifelong impact. Ten years from now, it'll have impact of what you choose to do today, 20 years from now, a year from now. My friends, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate you spending time with me and listening to this message. I hope it has inspired you to create a butterfly effect in your life and make a positive change in the world. Make it a great day, my friends, and we'll talk soon. Thank you for joining us today on a New Life podcast. We will see you next time. Sam.