Small Changes, Big Impact: What the Butterfly Effect Teaches Us About Growth

A butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, and weeks later, there's a tornado in Texas. In this episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins takes the butterfly effect out of chaos theory and into everyday life, making the case that small, seemingly insignificant actions can create an outsized impact over time.

Julie explores why we underestimate small moves — sending the email, making the introduction, saying yes to the coffee chat — because they never feel like the beginning of something big in the moment. She unpacks why real change is usually compounding rather than dramatic, and why the small habit or brave post you dismiss as "too small to matter" might be exactly the one that changes everything.

In this episode:

• What the butterfly effect actually is, and where it comes from
• Why we underestimate the power of small actions
• How small moves compound into real change over time
• This week's Brave Move + free Thought Leadership Assessment

Transcript

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A butterfly is going to flap its wings in Brazil, and weeks later, there's a tornado in Texas. And that's the idea behind the butterfly effect. A small, seemingly insignificant change in one place can ripple out onto something massive somewhere else later on. And it came out of chaos theory from a meteorologist noticing that tiny differences in starting conditions could completely change a weather forecast. And today, I wanna bring the idea out of the weather models into our life, and stay with me, because by the end of this episode, I want you to see how one small move can make this week completely different. And I know we're wrapping up the week, and we're going to be starting the weekend, but we all need to look at how little, tiny things have big impact. And if you're listening to this episode because you found me or because someone shared this episode with you, I wanna welcome you to Brave Moves. I am so happy that you're here. This is my daily-ish podcast, and it takes two seconds for you to subscribe or follow me. The app where you're listening also is going to be a great place for you to continue to get these episodes, and it will mean the world to me if you subscribe. Also, you can go to goconfidentlycoaching.com where you can find additional resources. And this episode today is just not for you, but it's also for me, because sometimes we need the reminder of these little things and the inspiration that can make a difference when we need it. Now, here's why the butterfly effect is so easy to dismiss in our own lives. Small actions don't feel like they matter in the moment. Sending the email, making the introduction, saying yes to the coffee chat. None of these feels like a tornado in the making, but impact isn't always proportional to the effort. Sometimes, you know, the smallest input is the one that changes everything downstream, and you rarely get to see the connection until you look backwards. Now, this is also why so many of us stay stuck, because we're not seeing that connection. This week is I was trying to help a nonprofit that I work with complete an application, and they're doing such phenomenal work. However The biggest challenge that we had was trying to log in to one of the portals where you can submit a grant, and boy, did we try. D- we were logging in, and there's so many different portals 'cause this is a federal government grant, and you have to go to the one place to sign up, the other to submit, but then the other one to log in, and all of them were giving me an error message. And I spent hours with the team trying to log in and trying to figure out why it wasn't working, and we called the g- helpline, and I spent another five hours with the helpline. And ultimately, although the application was due at midnight, we were burning the midnight oil and trying to figure out how we can get it done. And I started to feel very discouraged until I thought, "You know what? I'm gonna call the helpline again," and I did. We called the helpline, with the CEO, and there was a nice woman where I very calmly explained everything that we've been doing and going through, and she was thinking out of the box, and she said, "Well, why don't you just set up another email that has nothing to do with the organization and log in to the portal that way? And then once you're in the portal, you can just change the email from that email to the organization's email, and there you go." Now, it seemed like such a simple solution. I didn't think it was going to work, and of course, I thought, "Why didn't someone think of this already?" We had people in the room. We had been talking to their customer service for a long time, and nobody had come up with a solution. But you know what? It worked, and we were able to submit the application in time. Now, here's the lesson and why this made me think of the butterfly effect. This woman who works for the federal government and is on answering calls from a help center line i- at 10 o'clock at night, midnight, who knows how long she's working, she took the time to think for me and to listen, and when she did that, it opened the door for us and this organization to apply for much-needed funding. And as we submitted the application, I thought the work that this organization does not only impacts the lives of the people they serve, but the families and the communities, and that woman in the customer service doesn't realize how life-changing the work that she was doing tonight can be. Because the organization that I work with deals with violence, and they do violence intervention, so of course, it's a matter of life and death. And sometimes we don't realize how the effect of the thing that we are doing today is going to have a ripple effect and maybe change somebody's life. And I don't mean to be dramatic, but I think that there's always a moment where things change, and it's very important that we understand that real change happens when little things come to pass. And maybe in your life, it could be a small habit, or it could be the smile that you give to somebody else, or maybe the way that you stay curious on your walks. And to be honest, there are so many times in which we are rushing through life and not having these honest conversations that have the power and potential to reshape our relationships or to reshape how someone thinks or the trajectory of someone's actions because we showed up. So remember that small changes compound. They just don't announce themselves where they're compounding. So your brave move for the week, my friend, pick one small action that you've been dismissing that is too small to matter. Maybe it is smiling when you go to the grocery store or perhaps giving a little bit of extra tip to that waiter or waitress that served you. You never know how one simple thing can change, and that's what it's all about, my friend. So make sure that you remember that there are no small moves, only big hearts, and I hope that your brave move is to go confidently every day with simple actions in the direction of your dreams and continue to impact the lives of the world. I'm so grateful that you're here. I love you so much.