Creating positive change to transform our world

31Oct.2017

Let us live life, not as it is, but as it should be

I believe that if given the opportunity, most of us would like to help make this world a better place. Most of us would like to see more justice in the world and less injustice, more tolerance and less intolerance, more compassion, peace, love, and understanding. What we (as a society) have yet to understand however, is that the best way to do this is to teach our children how to be like this, and the best way to teach them is to show them. I say this, because as a society, we are not teaching our children the things that will enable change like this to happen, and we are not being proactive and showing them by our example. We teach our kids multivariate calculus, but not how to balance a checkbook or use a credit card responsibly. We teach our kids how to sing together, but not how to communicate authentically and with integrity. We teach our children how to hit a ball, but fail to tell them it is wrong to hit others, and we spend more time teaching our children how to drive a car, than how to be good parents. The question we really should be asking ourselves is: are we teaching our children the right things in school? To make matters worse, we have the audacity to complain about teenage pregnancy, drug use, high crime rates, and the fact that too many people are in jail or on welfare. The sad truth is, we are so concerned about sending our kids to school to get a good education so they can get a good job in order to make a good money, that we have forgotten what matters most – which is to teach them how to become good people. If we want to change as a society for the better, then we have to change what we teach our children in school. In addition to math, science, and history, we should also teach them tolerance, compassion, and understanding. In addition to physics, language, and art, we should also teach them to respect all life, how to act responsibly, and how to be of service to others without being selfish or greedy. We should teach our children the values of integrity, sharing, and fairness, and at the most basic level, we should teach our children how to love instead of how to hate.

If we truly want to make this world a better place, this is something we must do. We must reframe the paradigm of how people and society act towards each other, and in the greater sense, change how we view our responsibility as caretakers and guardians of the future in a way that empowers us to create the outcome we desire. We have the ability, the power, and the duty to do this, for ourselves and for our children. The best part is that if we start now, we can, in just one generation, transform our world.

You can become an agent for change

Fortunately, change is happening in every country, and in every corner of the globe. People and governments are beginning to take responsibility for their actions. They are beginning to understand that selfishness and greed have real consequences that are far reaching and affect not just themselves, but also the Earth and all living things. The self-centric behaviors that were so readily accepted in years past are not being tolerated as much today, as people are beginning to see themselves as a part of something much larger than their local community – they are beginning to see themselves as part of a larger global community.

People and countries are changing right before our eyes, and we must do everything possible to ensure that our world continues to change for the better. As Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Gandhi wisely did not say, ‘Try to change the world’, or, ‘Do something to change the world’; instead, he said, “Be the change”. He said this because he understood that before we can make a change on the outside, we first must make a change on the inside. Change has to start with us. This is how permanent and lasting change is created. If Gandhi had said, ‘Go change the hearts and minds of others’, India today might still be an English Colony. However, by being the change he wished to see in the world, Gandhi successfully inspired, motivated, and empowered change for an entire country.

What Gandhi did for his country, we can do for ours. This means that as individuals, we can make a powerful choice: we can either be spectators to change, or we can become an agent for change. If we are a spectator to change, we will have to accept whatever circumstances life gives us, but if we choose to become an agent for change, we give ourselves permission to create the circumstances of our life. In other words, if we become an agent of change, we empower ourselves to shape not only our destiny, but the world’s.