Friday with Heidi: Your little bit…

I am writing to you from Dingle in Ireland.

I’ve been here since Monday afternoon when, this view was presented to us on our way from the airport.

This is Inch beach. It’s over 5 miles long, you can drive onto the sand and, on a day like Monday, it looks like it could be somewhere in America.

Ireland at it’s most glorious!

On Tuesday my pink-haired friend Gilly and I employed a local guide to take us hill walking. He arrived to collect us at 9am and said that because the mist and cloud was so low, he didn’t want to take us up a hill that we’d not see a view from.

Instead he took us on a tour around the Dingle peninsula and stopped at various points of interest to show us the history of the place. It was fascinating and emotionally challenging and we both agreed that we felt we’d had a much better day than if we’d gone walking with him.

On our tour we passed through a town where Mossie (our guide) told us he did some poetry reading, singing and Irish language teaching. He mentioned it in passing and referred to it as where he did “his little bit“.

It’s a common enough phrase, but I found it rattling around my head and contemplating what a difference his ‘little bit’ makes for the greater good.

I have said on many occasions that what we do at FastTrack Fit Camp may just have an impact on one person (our little bit) but the effect it has on all the people they touch ripples out like a pebble plopped in a pond and that’s the true power of doing our ‘little bit’.

I think we can find ourselves thinking at times that we do is inconsequential and has no meaning. We may compare ourselves to others who seem to be making bigger impacts in the world. I know I can find myself in that space at times.

But thinking of what your ‘little bit’ is, can be very rewarding and help you see that we’re all minute parts of the big picture.

• You might think that you’re ‘just a mum’, but you don’t know yet what impression this will have on your children and who they become and what they achieve. Someone has to be the mum to the next Primer Minister or Duchess of Sussex or world changing inventor.
• You might think that you’re just a micro-business earning enough to pay your bills and keep a roof over your head. But your business is helping someone else get what they need professionally and easily. Someone needs what you offer and your ‘little bit’ is to supply it.
• You could be forgiven for thinking that your efforts in the gym or at Fit Camp are for you and no one else. But your participation, your effort and your approach is inspiring someone else to do the same for them. Don’t underestimate the circular nature of inspiration. We have Fit Campers inspired by people fitter than they are as something to work towards and we have fitter campers watching newer or people challenged with injury or limitation just get on with the workout as well as they can thinking that their dedication and commitment is worthy of note.
• And I write Friday with Heidi each week hoping that it helps someone to see things slightly differently. It may not touch you each week. You may not read it each week, but the comments I get about how it’s made my readers think about their health, their lives and their situation is enough for me to know that my ‘little bit’ is good enough and causing enough ripples.

My challenge to you this week is to think about what your ‘little bit’ is.

What chain of events are impacted by your contribution to the little world you’ve created for yourself?

And how does that make you feel?

I’m off to spend my last morning in DIngle. If you’ve never been I highly recommend it. From the local gin distillery, to the resident wild bottle-nose dolphin called Funghi (been here 35 years!) and the fabulous scenery and island trips it’s a fabulous way to spend some peaceful time in Ireland.

I have taken many photos, but I’ll leave you with this one I took yesterday of one of the many pods of wild dolphin we saw swimming alongside our boat our a trip out to the Blasket Islands.

Their appearance yesterday was their ‘little bit’ to make my day just perfect.

Have a great weekend!