01/05/2026
I was recently reminded of the “Starfish Story.”
If you haven’t heard it, it goes something like this…
After a storm, thousands of starfish are washed up along a beach. A man is walking along and notices a young boy picking them up one by one and throwing them back into the ocean.
As he gets closer, he asks, “Why are you doing that?”
The boy replies, “When the sun gets high, they’ll die unless I throw them back.”
The man looks up and down the beach and says, “But there are thousands of them… you can’t possibly make a difference.”
The boy bends down, picks up another starfish, throws it into the ocean and says,
“It made a difference to that one.”
It’s a lovely simple story that I’ve always found it surprisingly powerful.
In the past, I’ve taken obvious lessons from it - that small actions matter, that kindness counts, that even when things feel overwhelming we can still make a difference.
All true.
But looking at it through an ontological lens, what stands out to me now is something slightly different.
It’s the way of being of the boy.
He isn’t overwhelmed by the scale of the problem.
He isn’t paralysed by what he can’t control.
He isn’t caught in the narrative that “it won’t make a difference.”
He’s simply acting from a mood of ambition - where making a difference is possible.
And that’s what shifts everything.
Because two people can stand on the same beach, see the same situation… and live in completely different worlds and see different possibilities.
One sees futility/resignation.
The other sees possibility/ambition.
From an ontological perspective, that difference isn’t about the circumstances - it’s about the lens through which those circumstances are observed.
And that lens shapes our actions.
For me, this story is a subtle but powerful mood shifter.
When I notice myself drifting into overwhelm or resignation - that sense of “what’s the point?” this story brings me back toward a mood of ambition.
It shifts me towards something more open, more present, more willing to engage.
I find myself a little kinder.
A little more patient.
A little more available to the person in front of me.
Not because I think I can change everything - but because I can make a difference somewhere.
And perhaps that’s the invitation.
Not to solve everything.
Not to fix the world.
But to notice the mood we’re in and the way of being we’re living from.
Because from there, something as small as one interaction, one conversation, one moment of presence……might make more of a difference than we realise.
What mood are you living from right now?
If this resonates, I’m always open to a conversation.
Wheelbeing brings together my two passions: cycling and wellbeing. Based on Victoria’s Surf Coast, I blend movement, nature, and ontological coaching to create space for meaningful change - supporting people to slow down, see differently, and live consciously in life and at work.
