How Much Good Can One Person Put Into a Year?
A Different Kind of New Year Question……………
At the start of a new year, we’re often encouraged to think bigger.
Bigger goals. Bigger plans. Bigger versions of ourselves.
But this year, instead of asking “What more can I achieve?”, I found myself wondering about something more useful:
How much good can one person put into the world in a year?
Not in a dramatic, headline-grabbing way, but through ordinary actions, repeated often. We’re surrounded by noise telling us that only the big stuff counts. Yet most of the good in the world doesn’t look flashy at all. It looks like people showing up after work, at weekends, when they’re tired, when it would be easier not to.
Some actions take an hour, some take courage, some take patience – all take time and effort.
I started jotting down things I knew friends and family had done in 2025, not achievements, just things people had chosen to get involved in.
What started as a short list quickly turned into something joyful and slightly bonkers.
From just ten people:
- Building schools in Nepal and Malawi
- Volunteering at animal rescues and firewalking for charity
- Walking around Britain to raise money for Dorset Air Ambulance
- Hitchhiking to Paris dressed as a mushroom for MND
- Running Santa Dashes for local hospices
- Coaching local football teams and becoming parent governors
- Making Christmas wreaths for food banks
- Selling homemade decorations to support hospices
- Walking a post box up lots of mountain!
- Baking beautiful cakes to surprise young adults through the YMCA.
And this was just ten people.
Imagine what the list would look like if you stretched it to fifty. Or a hundred. Or a whole community.
“But What Difference Does One Small Thing Make?”
This is usually the point where someone says, “But what difference does one small thing really make?”
And my answer is always the same. What if it made a difference to just one person?
One family. One charity. One place. That counts.
A Few Ways I’ve Chosen to Show Up in 2025
Some take only a few hours, others take much longer.
Looking After the Sea
Being a rep for Surfers Against Sewage has been a big part of my year. That’s looked like helping organise and support beach cleans, writing blogs, attending talks and conferences (including one on kelp at Brighton University), and being part of the team that helped organise Paddle Round the Pier.
If this sparks something, you can explore ways to get involved here:
Surfers Against Sewage
Giving Blood
Giving blood is one of the simplest ways I know to help. You sit, you donate, you carry on with your day — and a few weeks later, you get a text telling you which hospital your blood went to.
You can find out if you’re eligible and book an appointment here:
Give Blood – NHS Blood and Transplant
The Great Turkey Mission
The Great Turkey Mission is our annual Christmas fundraiser, now in its fifteenth year. It’s always a bit nerve-wracking because you never quite know how the crowdfunding will go. But whatever is raised helps.
It’s ten days of showing up, sharing progress and wearing turkey hats, all to support Safe in Sussex and Worthing Soup Kitchen.
You can read more about the campaign here:
The Great Turkey Mission
Brighton Sea Check
This year, I also started volunteering with Brighton Sea Check, learning the ropes of seawater testing.
It’s my small contribution to citizen science and to keeping an eye on the water we swim in year-round. With enough data collected over time, patterns emerge — and that’s when change can happen.
Find out more about the project here:
Brighton Sea Check
The Big Swim
Then there’s The Big Swim, my favourite day of the year.
A joyful, noisy, slightly bonkers event that brings women together to celebrate International Women’s Day while raising money for Surfers Against Sewage.
You can find out more about the event here:
The Big Swim
Random Acts of Kindness
And then there are the things that never get logged anywhere.
Paying for a coffee.
Leaving a small gift on a neighbour’s doorstep.
Checking in when someone goes quiet.
If you want ideas, here’s a simple list to dip into:
Everyday ways to be kind
They don’t change the world, but they absolutely change someone’s day.
A Question to Carry Forward?
I can’t fix everything I see on the news.
I can’t change the sadness or the mess of the wider world.
But I can do some good in the bit of the world I can reach.
And so can you.
So I’ll leave you with the question that started all of this:
How much good could one person put into the world this year, simply by saying yes to one thing?
Food for Thought!!