Start With Yourself

You say you want to “make the world a better place”, but what you really mean is: “I don’t want to change myself, I want to change the world to fit me.” Instead of saying “I want to make myself better”, you focus outward at your environment. Changing yourself is too specific, too difficult, so you look away and focus on something you probably will not be able to change, but can still talk about changing in order to feel better about yourself. But if you really wanted to make the world “a better place”, why not start with the people of whom it is composed? Why not start with yourself? After all, that’s the only variable that’s truly under your control; and if you can do that, if you can make yourself better, stronger, wiser, kinder, then you’ll be making the world better as a result.

June 2012