I have spent many days thinking about all the ways that the world could be improved.
But I am always brought back to the fact that in order to successfully improve the world around you, you should always start with yourself.
Yes, by improving your own capacities you will then be able to make an even bigger positive impact, but there is more to it than that.
When you become better you actually are making the world around you better but it’s in an indirect way which I believe is less fragile. It is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if only we would just do “this” then everything would be better. This is especially true of the younger generation who have grown up with the internet and TED talks. But social systems are complex with an almost indefinite amount of feedback loops that can give a litany of unintended consequences if you try to directly change them.
When you focus on yourself, your own abilities and capacities you can still make a meaningful impact in the world around you, but without all of the risk associated with making large societal changes.
Imagine with me for a moment. What if you took the time and energy to get your biology working in harmony with your environment? You would have more energy, be less stressed, happier, and you would be working with not against your own body.
What effect would this have on the world around you? Obviously, for those people you are most close with, they would get an immediate increase in wellbeing. You would have more energy and focus to give them. As well as just being more pleasant to be around.
But it’s not just your immediate family. Your improvement will spill out into the environment.
You will be more productive at work which will improve those people that you serve. And your coworkers who you spend more time with than even your spouse will have a boost in their happiness because again you will be more pleasant to be around. This will lead them to be happier for their families and so on.
This effect can really snowball becoming a massive force for good in the world. It’s hard to know exactly how far this can go. Even a simple smile can cause a major positive impact. Just think if you smiled at the manager of a company, and this made their day better. Then later that day he was tasked with laying people off because of budget issues, but because he was in a good mood he decided to find a different way to restructure the company so that people got to keep their jobs.
Obviously, this is a completely made up scenario, but a majority of our days are spent running subconscious programming which is based on environmental cues and the biochemistry you have in your brain so you can see how this is a real possibility.
I think about how many events that happen in our lives are dictated by events completely out of our control. When I was applying for my master’s programs I always thought, “What if the person that is reading my application just got cut off in traffic, or they just got dumped, or what if someone smiled at them when they were walking in?” Your actions and behavior can have a huge ripple effect.
Taking time, energy, and resources to improve yourself is not selfish! Every step you take to achieving your biological potential improves the world around you. Either through you being a more productive individual or through simply being more pleasant to be around because you feel good.
So if you want to fix the world start with yourself!
And if you want to achieve your biological potential now then why not jump on a free discovery call with me. Just go to https://www.catalystimpacts.com/coaching !
Many of these ideas come from my reading and listening to Jordan Peterson. If you haven’t heard him before definitely take the time to check him out. You can get his New York Times Best Selling Book at www.catalystimpacts.com/store. Plus links to all of my other favorite books 🙂
I wish you all the best!
Catalyst Impacts 