As Gandhi said, “if you want to change the world, start with yourself.” People have ideas about how to make the world a better place, but often need other people to change first.
It would be nice to see other people change, but the only person we have control over is ourselves.
To make the world a better place, each individual needs to live in line with their nature. This means discovering our purpose, figuring out how we can live it and then working towards it. Too often, people live against their nature which contributes to dissatisfaction and encourages bad behaviour.
While you might have the best intentions to make the world a better place, if you focus too much on what is outside of yourself, you will never put the resources into what you can change.
Let’s talk about how living in line with our purpose can make the world a better place.
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We can change the world if we are willing to change ourselves.
I have to admit, I used to be a colossal pessimist, and while I never had hostile intentions, I think that I contributed to making the world a worse place. I say this because I had a lot of negative energy, and I was also pushing it out, even if it was only with my words and how I expressed things to other people.
When we are dissatisfied with our lives, we are less caring about the good that we can do for ourselves or the people around us. If you hate your job, you are less likely to put the effort in, which will result in bad outcomes. At the same time, if you don’t love what you are doing, you aren’t looking for optimizations that make the work easier for yourself or others.
On top of this, when you are disappointed with the way your life has turned out, you are more likely to eat poorly or throw your garbage on the ground. If you aren’t happy, you have less time for respect. Often the way we treat the world around us is a reflection of how we are treating ourselves.
If we don’t care about ourselves or our situation, it will be challenging to care about the things around us that seem even less important to us.
If you want to change the world, start with yourself.
Mahatma Gandhi
On the other hand, when we discover our purpose or feel like we are working towards our goals, we feel more respect for ourselves. Which in turn translates into us doing what we can to improve our lives and the lives of the people around us. Put another way, if you are in a good mood, you are more likely to be nice to someone who accidentally bumps into you on the street.
A lot of what we do each day gets amplified by the people we interact with, so if we do good, that is reflected in the people we meet. If they are positive, they will also reflect positively on the people around them, further spreading it.
It is easy to say that what we do doesn’t matter, but the truth is that it does matter a lot because it is contagious.
The most important thing you can do to make the world a better place is to align with your nature and focus your energies on doing the ‘right things.’ However, to do that, you need to be willing to change yourself, and the best way to change yourself is by realizing and setting goals and then working towards them.
When we have clearly defined goals, it is easy to know what we need to do. When we are doing what we need to do, our energy increases, and we feel empowered.
The closer we get to fulfilling our potential, the more significant our impact on the world around us will be.
Finding your purpose makes the world a better place.
To make the world a better place, you need to find your purpose and work towards it. You could say, “what about the people who have bad or destructive purposes?” And while I must admit that some people like that exist, most people have good intentions and genuinely want to make the world better.
Now what it means to make the world a better place is subjective to everyone; there are many lists that people have created that have some suggestions. But none of those lists are specific to you and what you can do to change the world.
No doubt, you are probably already using less water and turning off the lights when you aren’t using them. At the same time, if you are into it, you volunteer and likely treat people with respect.
And while that advice is helpful and will make things better, it won’t necessarily make you feel better about what you are doing with your life. In addition, finding your purpose might sound deceiving; I’m not suggesting you quit your job and move to Thailand to be a yoga instructor. Instead, think of it more as a hobby that keeps you motivated and focused.
For some people that might be dedicating more time to their family, kids certainly give our lives purpose.
For others, like myself, I always have the desire to be working on something. I like to be productive and get stuff done. And while some might consider that a waste of time, it may have been in the past.
Now that I have a goal or a purpose to work towards, I get much more satisfaction out of it.
Now don’t get too hung up on what you are supposed to do; your purpose can always change, as you may discover your skills are better suited to something else. At the same time, don’t change things up too much; while our interests ebb and flow, we will never reach our full potential if we switch up our focus too much.
When we are working towards something that matters to us, that behaviour has to start somewhere, often, we have a realization about a need or a desire to do something significant. And while it might seem to only matter to us, it is likely to have value to the rest of the world if we follow through with it.
In the end, that is how we make the world a better place cause when each of us follows our purpose, and everything comes together in harmony.
It all starts with you, but it can make a huge difference.
I can’t be sure what it was that changed things for me, but something just clicked at some point, a little over ten months ago. With that epiphany, I realized that I needed to change something in my life. At first, it was my health; I knew that I needed to take better care of myself. But once that became a routine, it was easier for me to start thinking of something else, and that something else was this website.
What is most important is that any change we wish to make needs to start with us; we can’t wait for the world to change in our favour cause that will never happen. Sure we might find better circumstances or timing, but that is never as important as getting started in the first place. Once we start moving, we are on our way.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Laozi
There is a compounding effect; if you do something today and tomorrow, it will be easier to do it the next day. Also, if you do it every day for a week, it will be easier to do it the following week. What matters, though, is consistency and sticking with what we believe in.
If we give up too soon or change our minds, we will stop too early and not achieve our goals.
We can never be sure about what will come out of our efforts, but we can be sure that nothing will come if we don’t try. Anything significant will take time, but many of us are used to getting things quickly, so we have forgotten how getting what we want takes time. But don’t take that the wrong way; getting what you want doesn’t necessarily mean that someone else has to lose.
Instead, when we work towards our purpose or what matters to us, others also benefit from our efforts.
A better world is possible.
So often, we get caught up in what is wrong or what needs to change, and we lose sight of everything that is working well. The best way to work well is to align our efforts towards what we truly believe is essential and worthwhile. Some of our efforts will indeed be in vain, but if we believe in self-improvement, our failures will help lead us to later successes.
More importantly, when we feel joy or satisfaction in what we are doing, we are encouraged to do it more. But even better, when we love what we are doing, it makes the people around us feel better too, as they can see it in us, which encourages them to improve their lives.
While we can’t expect everyone to live their lives with purpose, the more people who do, the better things will get.
If you can live the life you want to live, that will serve as encouragement for others, and they too will encourage others.
The truth is that if we are all working towards living our lives with purpose and meaning, then the world will become a better place. The more people living the right way, the better everything will become. A better world is possible, but it needs to start with you.