We are poor at estimating the impact something has in our life and the lives of those around us. We overestimate what we can accomplish in a short time frame and underestimate what we can accomplish in a long time frame.

These two truisms together show us that our prediction ability is in most areas severely lacking. We can never see the forwarded consequences of a smile or a kind word and don’t usually take the time to recognize that by going for a walk today will lead us to greater health and fitness in the long term. We are quick to say that what will just one smile do or one fatty dessert do to our health and happiness but as Anne Dillard said "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing... Each day is the same, so you remember the series afterward as a blurred and powerful pattern.”