The power of small change lies in how much easier small changes are to initiate and maintain, and how meaningful are the patterns they create.
Replace a soft drink with water at just one meal — say, lunch. With this small change, you will drink approximately forty more gallons of water per year, while not drinking forty gallons of carbonated sugar. You will also save up to fifty thousand calories and as much as five hundred dollars.
Walk to the next bus stop instead of the closest one. In one year, you will walk more than 150 miles more than if you had not changed your routine. This is the equivalent of walking from New York to Philadelphia and back each year. In ten years, you will have walked more than 1,500 miles.
Consciously say, "I love you," at the end of every phone conversation with a life partner, and it will reinforce the message for both of you, adding tens of thousands of endearments over the course of a relationship. Small change adds up!
— Larry Terkel, Susan Terkel in Small Change