You can start making a difference today.

Yesterday, my mom gave me an awesome short book called “Change the World for Ten Bucks: 50 Ways to Make a Difference”

The book inspired me to do a bunch of things / make a bunch of changes that I’ve put off for a while:

• Donating blood: Us healthy people have more than enough of it so why not take some time to give? I’m going to schedule an appointment later today
• Registering as an organ donor: This is something I’ve been meaning to do but have put off. I’m going to try to do this online today.
• Set the thermostat one degree cooler in the winter, one degree hotter in the summer: Save energy and money! I typically set it at 21 degrees celsius, so I’ll now be setting it at 22 in the summer an 20 in the winter.
• Start buying fair-trade products when possible: The cost difference is almost negligible, but the impact is massive.
• Start using reusable shopping backs when getting groceries: This ultimately comes down to me being lazy and unwilling to cary a couple of reusable bags to the grocery store. That ends now.

In my opinion, these are all non-consequential changes that will not impact my day-to-day life, while allowing me to make more of a positivity difference in this world.

…

Here’s the running list of changes I’ve made each day since I started a few weeks ago:

11-Mar-17: Starting taking cold showers (for the last 60 seconds)

12-Mar-17: Set goal of learning one new song per week on the guitar

13-Mar-17: Started listening to Audiobooks at 3–4x the speed

14-Mar-17: Started keeping my shoes organized

15-Mar-17: Decided to learn to juggle, practicing a few min daily

16-Mar-17: Began reading 3 book summaries (~10 min each) daily

17-Mar-17: Limit eating out to bare minimum, learn new recipe weekly

18-Mar-17: Limit alcohol to a bare minimum

19-Mar-17: No more snoozing alarm clocks, no more than 7 hrs sleep/night

20-Mar-17: Build tracker for bills as a reminder

21-Mar-17: Limit TV usage to 2 hours per day

22-Mar-17: Saying people’s names when I say hello, brushing teeth with weak hand, do one charitable thing a day, stretch for 10 minutes a day, spend 15 minutes a day on personal improvement

23-Mar-17: Picking up one piece of litter a day

24-Mar-17: Drink 3L of water a day

25-Mar-17: Start keeping track of calories with myfitnesspal

26-Mar-17: Try a day without the internet next weekend

27-Mar-17: Start attending weekly Toastmasters sessions to become a better public speaker, start meditating 5 minutes daily, take one online course at all times, learn to play the game “Go”

28-Mar-17: Sketch one thing at least once a month for the rest of 2017

29-Mar-17: Find a mentor by the end of April (to chat with on a regular basis)

30-Mar-17: Make it to work on time everyday, and start posting on Medium in the mornings

31-Mar-17: Start volunteering at least once a month (look into options and find a place by April 7th)

1-Apr-17: Start quizzing myself in Chinese for 10 min daily using a flashcard app; start shampooing hair every other day (as opposed to every day)

2-Apr-17: Explore downtown Toronto by riding bike each weekend in spring, summer, and fall of 2017; Bike the 24km to my parent’s place uptown and back at least once this summer

3-Apr-17: Start donating blood, register as an organ donor, use less energy heating and cooling home, start buying some fair-trade products, start using reusable bags when grocery shopping