Early in May at the end of a Hidden Heroes presentation for a group of teenagers, I asked if anyone would like to commit with me to do one small thing each day for ourselves and one small thing for someone else, and then report in each day by email. Naomi and Rebecca Muller, Cheryl Wieler and Emily Post accepted the challenge.

The biggest impact the "one small thing" challenge had on me was to get me back to the gym after an absence of several months. The other "small things for me" were mainly things I have tended to procrastinate about; things like replacing burned out non-essential light bulbs, doing the laundry before it was absolutely necessary, replacing long-broken knobs on sliding doors in my house, making a little more effort cleaning my kitchen and office, that sort of thing.

I'm here to report that getting those little things done ended up putting a lot more spring in my step. It's as if I have been gathering all of those little undone things in a great big bag and dragging them behind me as I walk around slowing me down.

Although I did quite a few, Naomi, Rebecca, Cheryl and Emily were more successful than I when it came to doing things for others. I work alone in my home office and I live alone, so I didn't get as many opportunities as they did.

Many of their "for others" things were done for people in their family; most often they simply did everyday chores without being asked. They all agreed that things flowed a lot more smoothly when their parents didn't have to nag to get them done.

Two of the girls suggested that their parents may have begun to think that their nagging had finally begun to work, but they assured me, with a smile, that was definitely not the case.

There's no doubt in my mind that these girls are normally pretty caring people who naturally do small things for others and this project simply made them a little more aware of the things they normally do. It also gave them the incentive to do even more.

That said I was surprised when they reported that the most important lesson they learned was the power of doing small things for themselves. All four agreed that when they did those small things like taking time to sit in the sun and read, making themselves a little nicer lunch, tidying up their room, they became less stressed, a lot happier and better friends and daughters.

So the big lesson learned was when you are kind to yourself, you become less stressed and better able to be kind to others.

Now embracing the "Pay It Forward" approach, each of us is going to find three others who are willing to take the "Small Thing" challenge while we focus on finding at least one opportunity to compliment or thank someone else for small things they are doing. I've got one adult friend on the challenge. Want to join us?

The beat goes on.