Yesterday morning, I chose butterflies.

I chose to wake up early, meet a friend and drive to 30 minutes to hang out with one of my favourite writers/speakers/thinkers, Jon Acuff. Jon just wrote Do Over (which hit The New York Times Best Sellers list this week), and stopped through Toronto (okay, Burlington) to host a pre-work “Do Over Club”, where we had a chance to hear him speak and also share our own Do Over journey.

Jon Acuff with Lyndsay and myself.

Then I chose to stand up in front of him and a group of strangers and share my journey. I shared my desire to live a bigger story than the one we’re told to live. I shared this blog and the concept of choosing butterflies, trying to choose the option that gives us butterflies instead of the easy choice. I shared that I fear I’m not doing that, and that I want to live what I’m talking about. I shared that I’m trying.

And then Jon validated me. He told me he loved that, the visual of “choosing butterflies”. He said he could’ve chosen not to get up early and host a “Do Over Club” up off a service road all the way in Canada. So Jon being there was “butterfly moment” for him. To hear those words from someone I have the utmost respect for was incredibly powerful.

And Jon did this for every person that stood up. He encouraged, affirmed, celebrated each person.

Sometimes a “butterfly moment” is small. It’s getting out of bed way earlier than you want to. It’s waving to Jon as we drove in even if it felt a little silly. It’s Jon telling us how nice it was to see someone wave because he wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s putting my hand up when Jon asked, “anyone else?” It’s having a conversation with a stranger out our Do Overs. It’s saying your wildest next step possibility out loud for the first time to your kindred-spirit friend. All before 9am on a Thursday.

Those small butterfly moments have a butterfly effect.

“The butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state … can result in large differences in a later state.” Wikipedia

Yesterday morning, many small butterfly moments happened that will result in large differences later. And as Jon continues on his “Do Over Tour”, more butterfly moments will happen and more large differences will come out of those.

Big things happen when we choose butterflies. I’m more convinced of that than ever before.