People who dare to care are often put down by others for dreaming for daring to believe that they can make a difference, but anyone who has read about the butterfly effect or found their life headed in a different direction from a chance encounter knows that big changes can happen due to small forces. All of us can save the world.
Take Aways:
Show up! Volunteer! Work for what matters to you!
Act in a positive manner and you will become a more positive person!
The reasoning behind the takeaways is below for those interested. I’d like to stress that there’s no one right way to get things done, this post is based on what works for me and what I’ve observed as traits of those whom I consider to be both professionally successful and personally happy and fulfilled.
Special thanks to #scio11 and @LibRoy for inspiring this post!
How can you save the world?
- Be kind to others in all your dealings with them, don’t take out your frustrations on others. (People in service professions are often vilified or dehumanized on a whim. It is amazing how much the quality and thoughtfulness of the service you receive improves when you are kind and thoughtful person.)
- When others ask for advice make the time to give it. It can be very uncomfortable to give advice because you may not want to unduly influence someone else’s choice but advice doesn’t have to reflect a single point of view. One technique is to go through all the options and consequences you can think of with a person, tell them that they have a choice and that you know they will make the one which is right for them. You might also ask if you can refer them to an expert, the important part is that people have the information to make the choice that’s right for them.
- If you can do something for someone else why not do it? If we want the world to be a better place then we need to make it so with our own actions, waiting around for someone else to fix all of our problems isn’t going to work. Every act of kindness counts, you never know what effect you’ll have on someone’s life. The person you inspire or help may be the Nobel Prize Winner, or the future parent of the next President or Prime Minister.
- Be prepared to put in a lot of effort! Most people who succeed have a string of unshared not-quite successes or failures, this is normal. You won’t always reach your goals on the first try, or even the second, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t keep trying. Learn from your rejections, mistakes, and failures, take a few days to step back and really contemplate other people’s criticisms and your future efforts will dramatically improve. At Brick and Click by one speaker who was working on an education grant had 6 rejections before her team found a funding agency willing to support their efforts. Persistence pays off!
Changing the world is hard work!
Big changes take time and effort to implement. Some problems are so big that your efforts may not be successful in your life time but provide the stepping stones for others to succeed. Immediate gratification is nice, recognition is nice, but the reason you work toward a more positive future should be to improve life for those around us and those yet to come. Being negative (which is different from venting) makes it impossible to enjoy life. Doing things to help others feels good and improves your quality of life even if you don’t always see the results first hand.