i did it
Let's Build it Together
“If every one of the roughly 8 billion people on Earth did one good thing every day, it would trigger a massive, immediate, and compounding transformation of global society. The ripple effects would result in roughly 2.9 trillion good deeds per year, causing a shift from a frequently self-interested world to one based on collective well-being, increased trust, and improved mental and physical health.”
As a journalist, author, teacher, and traveler, I look at the chaos in the world and wish I could wave a magic wand and fix it.
I can’t. But WE can.
I’ve spent decades changing my own little corner of the world.
And I’ve learned something simple: Big change starts small.
One Good Thing. Every day. Send good into the world.
From experience, I know what you put out has a way of coming back,
It’s free. It’s simple. No guilt if you miss a day.
Just One Good Thing–when you can.
Let’s build momentum together.
#gailharrisonegoodthing
GAIL HARRIS BEGAN her 35-year career in journalism in high school, as a teen correspondent for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Marietta Daily Journal. Two jobs as a newspaper reporter later, she thought she would give television a try, and became one of the first anchorwomen in the USA in 1971 at WCTV in Tallahassee, FL. Her career as a political reporter took her to the statehouses of Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and Massachusetts, and ultimately led to a graduate degree at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Gail went on to become a correspondent for ABC News, Nightline, and for many years was a correspondent/host for PBS and host for NPR. Her work on the PBS special Hiroshima Remembered, which she hosted and co-produced, was recognized with a National Emmy Award in 1985.
Creator, host, and executive producer for the Body & Soul series on PBS, Gail also wrote the companion book, “Body & Soul: Your Guide to Health, Happiness, and Total Well-being.” Along the way, she discovered the power of a meditation practice in lowering stress, along with many other practical methods of using spiritual tools to empower and improve life.
Gail has been teaching and lecturing throughout her career, at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University, Simmons College, Emerson College, Boston University, Dominican University of California, and UNC-Asheville. She is also the author of a spiritual novel, Finders Seekers, which tells the story of a network correspondent who finds a better way of life after her promising TV career is sabotaged. “That’s the fun of fiction,” says Gail. “Finders Seekers isn’t my personal story, but it comes from two worlds I know well—TV news and spirituality.”
Gail is also certified in Reiki, Level II energy healing, and as an End-of-Life Doula by the Emberlight Center for Conscious Living and Dying in Asheville, NC.
Gail is now leading a movement to change the world with One Good Thing at a time. Her tips for doing that can be found on Instagram at #gailharrisonegoodthing.
Compounding Transformation
IN THE SPRING OF 1994, National Emmy Award-winning journalist Gail Harris began a meditation practice that changed her life.
Four years later, she created the Body & Soul series for PBS, which every week brought stories of holistic health and spirituality to millions of television viewers in the US and around the world. As the series host and author of the companion book, Gail wanted to know: Who are we, really, as humans? Why are we here? Is a rich and fulfilling life even possible, and if so, how do we create it for ourselves?
As journalists often do, Gail found a wide range of answers as she read hundreds of books, interviewed countless spiritual leaders and authors, and began — step by step — creating a happy and fulfilling life for herself.
Her passion for helping others find their way to happiness has now inspired a powerful and entertaining novel, Finders Seekers.
Why the One Good Thing Project? And why me?
I’ve had a daily meditation practice for the past 30-plus years. After I finish that time of quiet contemplation, I have often received flashes of inspiration that turned out to be my greatest guidance and a source of good ideas, even if I wasn’t quite sure at first what to do with any of them.
As I look at the state of the world now, it’s easy to fall into despair. What can I do, as one small person about to turn 75, not in politics, no longer on television or hosting for public radio–to help create a better world for my children and grandchildren (I have three) and all the children everywhere still to come?
So, it got my attention when the words One Good Thing hit me after one of my morning meditations. Hmmn, I thought, wonder what that means? And when I encountered those words later that night—albeit it in a different context— as I finished the book I had started several days earlier, it definitely felt like a cosmic wink. A tap on the shoulder, or at least a whisper in my ear.
My next step (of course) was to ask Google and ChatGPT, “What would happen if everyone everywhere did One Good Thing every day?” I was stunned by the strength and clarity that emerged from those three words.
What would happen? Well–
“If every one of the roughly 8 billion people on Earth did one good thing every day, it would trigger a massive, immediate, and compounding transformation of global society. The ripple effects would result in roughly 2.9 trillion good deeds per year, causing a shift from a frequently self-interested world to one based on collective well-being, increased trust, and improved mental and physical health.”
Wow.
Ok, so how do you go about making that happen? I’ve been sitting with this for a while and it’s taken some time to emerge, but here’s a rough outline.
As it turns out, the mechanism is what I have been doing for many years, and what has created a magical life for myself and others who do this work. It’s pretty simple, really: making a conscious effort to beam love and goodwill to everyone I encounter.
So…what if we all took that simple idea and applied it to doing One Good Thing every day. To smiling at the person who brings you coffee. To assisting someone across the street. To thanking the cashier at the supermarket for working on a holiday, which meant you could run in for the ice cream you’d forgotten to buy for your dinner party. Or writing a check of whatever size to a cause you believe in and want to support. Your One Good Thing can be large or small. What matters is that you do it.
This grandmother says—from personal experience: when you smile at a stranger, when you exert yourself to help someone else, the gift of that action is beamed to them, to be sure, but even more—that good thought, that good energy comes back to you. And when it becomes your daily, ongoing practice, your life becomes magical.
But…how to get the word out? I decided to start with Instagram, #gailharrisonegoodthing, along with this website which is for anyone who would like to go deeper.
Here’s what I hope and believe: We can do this. We CAN change the world…together. Let’s get going.
What Next?
Find more good ideas at Gail’s Instagram:
#gailharrisonegoodthing
Take your first step towards doing One Good Thing
You could smile at the person who brings you coffee. Assist someone across the street. Thank the cashier at the supermarket for working on a holiday, which meant you could run in for the ice cream you’d forgotten to buy for your dinner party. Or write a check of whatever size to a cause you believe in and want to support. Your One Good Thing can be large or small. What matters is that you do it.
BOOKS BY GAIL
Finders Seekers
Network TV correspondent Shannon Tyler didn’t have time to consider life’s biggest questions… until scheming colleagues and a management change send her promising career into a nose dive. Shannon retreats first to London and then the Cotswolds to start over, where she is rocked by flashes of another lifetime and a puzzling but powerful connection to her charismatic landlord. As her life seems to fall apart again, a desperate Shannon has to let go of everything she thought was true in her search to discover who she really is. Reconnecting with the mysterious teacher she met on assignment reveals profound insights and spiritual tools to rekindle her intuitive abilities, claim her power, and provide the road map for the life she was born to live.
Finders Seekers weaves a riveting personal story around guidance on how to find your voice and claim your power in life. In the Age of Empowerment this is more than a story of awakening; it’s a road map to an empowered lifestyle.
PURCHASE KINDLE VERSION
Body & Soul
A companion volume to the national award-winning PBS series of the same name, Body & Soul features the health wisdom of bestselling authors Andrew Weil, Christiane Northrup, Larry Dossey, Jon and Myla Kabat-Zinn, and many other leading teachers, healers, and authors. The book contains extended interviews with the experts along with the personal stories of otherwise ordinary individuals who have managed to achieve physical, emotional, and spiritual health in a variety of ways. Photos of these practices throughout.
Gail’s Body & Soul series was awarded a coveted “Freddie” in 2001 when it won first place for Integrative Medicine in the TimeInc. International Health and Medical Media competition.
Blog and Articles
Gail Harris
Finding the Gifts
OK, I admit it. I am an incorrigible optimist. My continuing belief is that not only is the glass half...
Gail Harris
Lessons from a Bug
I was getting ready for work when I heard a persistent flapping noise from the next room and finally went...
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Anything and everything that strikes you in the moment as a way to connect with and uplift someone else. It can be as simple as a smile or as profound as offering guidance to a young person (after asking first if they’d like to hear it!) from your hard-won wisdom from a life well lived. If it makes you smile and helps someone else feel better, it’s a yes.
You’ll know it when you feel it. When you pause from your own busy life, however briefly, to consider how you might be helpful to someone else, perhaps by noticing something good about them or actively offering assistance–you are contributing to good in the world. It all counts.
No. If you feel so moved, sure, if you have time and think they’d like to hear it. But you can also just beam love and good wishes to them and move on. Don’t be too surprised if they look up, startled, and then smile back. I’ve been doing this in airports for years and it always makes me chuckle!
Seconds, moments, whatever feels right to you at the time. You might be surprised how just pausing to appreciate and uplift someone else with a smile or quick comment can light them up and even lead to a lovely and unexpected conversation–which also nourishes you.