Your Efforts Ripple Through Time & Continue to Make a Difference

Lessons from a miracle movie and a Persian mystic.

Photo by SHOT on Unsplash

Do you sometimes want to make a difference but wonder if that’s even possible?

If so, take heart.

I'd like to share with you a powerful conversation. It’s from Cloud Atlas, a movie by the Wachowski Sisters (creators of the Matrix trilogy) and German director Tom Tykwer.

That this movie exists is almost a miracle. Here’s an incomplete list of the problems its makers faced both before and after production:

• The movie is based on a novel by David Mitchell who considered his book “unfilmable.”

• The movie follows plot lines across six (!) different eras. It's basically six movies for the price of one.

• The Wachowskis had a terrible time finding financing for the movie. Despite their previous commercial successes, they basically had to beg Warner Bros. for financing. The project was almost abandoned a number of times.

• The movie’s $128 million dollar budget was eventually provided by a ragtag crew of independent sources, including the Wachowskis themselves. It is one of the most expensive independently financed films of all times.

• It’s a 3-hour movie that received a mixed reception. On IMDb, you will find tons of 10/10 reviews for this movie— and many 1/10 ratings. True to form, it’s also included on various Best Film and Worst Film lists.

Full disclosure: I loved the movie.*

* It took me an hour warming up to it and I almost stopped watching it. To me, this movie is a revelation. A celebration of the interconnectedness of things. A harbinger of a new level of development. I think it received a mixed reception because it’s so avant-garde.

A powerful conversation from Cloud Atlas

This movie scene is set in 19th century San Francisco where Adam Ewing wants to join the fight against slavery.

Adam's father-in-law tries to talk him out of it, stating that there’s a “natural order to things” (ugh!) and that the abolitionists will never succeed. He concludes with a line that truly stings:

“No matter what you do it will never amount to anything more than a single drop in a limitless ocean.”

Ouch. But Adam's response is beyond perfect:

“What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?”

And that’s why you can make a difference. You are a “drop” in the ocean, an ocean that wouldn't be the same without you in it. Or, as the Persian mystic Rumi put it:

“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”

Your actions matter because you matter.

Unknown ripple effects throughout time

We don't know how something we do might affect something else.

"Cloud Atlas" shows that actions can have unexpected ripple effects. One sentence in a diary can impact a reader’s life a century later, which in turn might make a difference for yet another person in the future.

This is not a theory.

Take the example of cave paintings.

Neanderthal cave painters didn’t know that they would become extinct but that their art would endure. That their work would become the world’s oldest cave art and that in 2018, a publication called the New York Times would run an article called “Neanderthals, the World’s First Misunderstood Artists.”

Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius didn’t know that his private notes would be read by people in different millennia, providing them with inspiration long after his death. Even though Latin is a dead language, translations of his personal writings are now openly accessible worldwide, for instance, here.

Same with Anne Frank’s diary. I know an American who found solace in this book while going through a traumatic time — Anne Frank couldn’t have foreseen this individual effect when she started writing down her thoughts.

Of course, these are extreme examples because of their historical significance.

But anything can become significant to someone. Many things we know about the past come from people who lived a normal life. They might have created pots, minted coins or made tombstones — things archaeologists now pore over.

They were people like you and me, and their lives still create ripples through time.

Life is mysterious

You have likely touched the lives of people in ways you might never hear about.

For instance, I once facilitated a course that didn’t go so well in my estimation. I didn’t think the participants got a lot out of it or enjoyed it very much.

Months later I was at a meeting. Some course participants were also present. Unprompted, they mentioned how the course had impacted them in extremely positive ways.

One person even shared how something I had taught in passing had impacted their dealings with a foreign government (!!!).

Needless to say, I was beyond surprised and stunned.

A throwaway comment during something that I thought of as a failure had international ripple effects that I would have never known about had I not gone to that meeting. Talk about a learning experience.

And even though I got the praise, I wasn’t actually the one who came up with all of it. In my throwaway comment, I had referred to something someone had taught me, who in turn had learned it from someone else… ripple effect upon ripple effect upon ripple effect.

This has me wonder what amazing ripples in the ocean you have already set in place, maybe without even intending to.

With heartfelt appreciation,
A fellow drop in the ocean

P.S.: Are there specific ways in which you want to make a difference/impact?
If you want to explore receiving support with that, I invite you to check out my coaching offer here.