The Silent Majority

I have lost count of how many times I have had people say to me “I am just an ordinary person. What can I do that could change the world?”  And so I really started to think about these people.  Like the single mother with two kids, struggling to provide for her family.  Like the little old couple who live on their meager pension and still give a little bit here and there but wish they could do more.  Or what about the socially conscious college kids who are so busy at school but wish they could do more?

What if each of them could cause a little ripple in the sea of humanity?  And what if enough of this silent majority in playing their small part were part of a Tsunami of change that swept over humanity?  THAT is when The Shift happens.

We still need the Big Thinkers to Act on the Big Ideas but there is also plenty of room for The Silent Majority to Act.  They only need to know what to do, how to do it and preferably it should not hurt them financially.  In fact, my belief is that the best Little Ideas are those that can help both the giver and the receiver financially as well as spiritually and emotionally.

The Tipping Point

I discovered this idea about putting together a book of Little Ideas that would inspire ordinary people everywhere to take simple ordinary actions every day that would give their lives more meaning.  And when combined with all the other ordinary actions taken by people all over the world could have a profound effect on our planet and humanity.

Shortly after I started working on this idea and keeping a blog on it I discovered the book The Tipping Point which has served to confirm my belief that if enough people tap into these Little Ideas we could reach The Tipping Point of The Shift everyone is talking about.

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point says “We need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that sometimes big changes follow from small events, and that sometimes these changes can happen very quickly.”  In fact he goes on to say “change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment.”  Mr Gladwell refers to a number of studies and a lot of scientific research in his book and in one case while referring to two studies he writes, “...little things can, apparently, make as much of a difference as big things.”

Actually, if you really think about it, this Little Idea philosophy is quite radical in a world where we have been encouraged to Think Big or as one slogan says Go Big or Go Home.  In fact this thinking is not that new because I remember reading a book at least ten years ago that was published in 1959 called The Magic of Thinking Big. 

While the Big Thinkers have served us well I think there is a vast majority that do not have the resources or maybe even the inclination to follow through even if they did think big.  In my next post I will write about these people – The Silent Majority – who I believe will be the Real Force, The Tipping Point of humanity towards The Shift.