WHY THIS EXISTS

A few years ago I made a small decision.

Whenever someone asked me how I was, I decided I'd give them a genuinely positive answer. Whether I felt it or not.

Not "not bad."

Not "can't complain."

Something like "wonderful."

I felt like a bit of an idiot the first few times. But people smiled. Some of them laughed. A few asked what I was so happy about, and I didn't really have an answer beyond “nothing, I just decided to say it.”

So I kept going. I started saying hello to people I'd normally walk straight past. Smiling first, instead of waiting to see if they would. The bloke at the servo. The woman walking her dog. Whoever was next to me in the lift.

Most of the time, I got something back. A smile. A nod. Sometimes an actual conversation with a total stranger that had no business happening on a Tuesday morning.

And here's the bit I didn't expect. I stopped pretending to feel wonderful. I started actually feeling it.

I hadn't changed my job, my house, my problems, or anything that was actually wrong in my life. I'd changed one small thing about how I showed up in it. And the world started showing up differently for me in return.

The other thing I've come to think about a lot: you never know what someone is carrying, or what's ahead of them. A smile is a small thing to give. It might be the last kind thing somebody sees. You'll never know either way, and that's exactly why you give it.

That's it. That's the whole discovery. Nothing complicated, nothing you need to buy or download or sign up for. Just one small, deliberate, positive thing, done today, and then again tomorrow.

I started Today's 1% because I think most people already want the world to be a little better. They're just waiting for permission to start with something small.

You don't need to fix your whole life today.

You just need your 1%.

Dave Harrison

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

One small thing, today.

The app gives you one a day, keeps the ones you've done, and asks nothing else of you.