You Can Change The Whole World
Rajendra Sagolsem *
Have you ever thought of changing the whole world and you don't know how? If so, here is a way, a very simple way. Don't imagine too far. And don't think I'm kidding. It's within your reach.
Now listen carefully. If you want to change the whole world, you have to simply change yourself. If you change yourself, the whole world will change itself. You might be silently talking to yourself right now, 'What is this nonsense, I wanted an advice and this person is just giving me a crap.'
My dear, I can just tell you one thing for sure. You can't change the world. It's too big. You can't move the Himalayas. You can't move the mountains and the hills. You can't even move your wardrobe yourself to another place. How will you change the world?
But you can definitely change the whole world provided you can change your outlook. See the world from different angles. Do you want to see the planet earth from different angles? If you have the INTERNET facility, search it out for yourself in any of the NASA's websites. If you don't, write to me, I will find at least one for you. Okay?
I can give you a simple example here. Two persons look out through the same window. One sees the ground where all those miserable things are taking place, people exploiting people, people killing people. And the other one sees the shining bright stars. The one who sees the ground is a pessimist and the other one who looks at the sky is an optimist. The optimists want to climb up in life. That's why they are looking up.
In life, you always have choices. You may choose a pessimist's view and live a self-defeating life. Or you may decide to take an optimist's route and take a challenging and fulfilling life.
Suppose you get the third prize in a painting competition you participated recently, will you jump up with joy and shout, 'HURRAY'? Will you push yourself further for better results the next time you join any competition? Or will you spread your legs apart and cry to find an excuse not to join any competition again?
If you think you are getting the third prize now, the next time you will get the second prize, and any other time you join any painting competition, you will be the FIRST, then what's the worry? So why don't you nurture an optimist's point of view? And why don't you start it right now? If you start right away, you will be able to change the world early. The world that has given you a third prize will give you the first prize very soon.
I just want to remind you that if you're positive, you are climbing up. If you're negative, you are climbing down. I have collected a report that pessimism and the resulting depression have never been so high. "It affects middle-aged adults the same way as it hits the younger people. The mean age of onset has gone down from 30 to 15. It is no longer a middle-aged person's disorder but it has become a teen-ager's disorder as well."
So negativism has reigned the whole world today.
A Few Tips
If you want to change the whole world, here are a few suggestions that can help you in turning yourself from negative critic to positive critic.
- Never say a single word that will offend the other person you are talking to. People don't want be offended. They have got their own pride that is very important to themselves. Pride is sometimes mistakenly called EGO. But they are not the same thing as you think. EGO has got a deep psychological meaning. And pride is used in a very common parlance. However they are very much closely connected to each other. In fact, we live only because of our EGO. If we can't defend our EGO, we simply can't survive.
- You are not going to listen to anybody who hurts your pride. Your pride is more important than anybody else's. If someone speaks ill of you and talks down upon you, fight them straight away. Ask the reasons why they treat you like that. Change yourself now from unassertiveness to assertiveness. Speak up for yourself if you think you are right.
- Avoid arguments. If you win an argument, you will lose one friend. If you lose an argument, you will gain one more friend. Which is more important to you? Winning an argument or gaining a friend? I will remind you here that if you have lots of friends, you will gain more power to change the world.
- Don't find faults of others. Instead, find some good qualities and praise them honestly for those qualities. Normally, majority of the people try to find faults. They find it very difficult to praise others for their good qualities or good deeds. If you are separating yourself from this group, you are changing the world.
- Don't nag people. Don't nag even Gods. Nagging is irritating. If you go on nagging, nobody will be around you. Even Gods will run away from you. Instead of asking Gods to make you a multimillionaire in your everyday prayer, you can request Them to give you the courage and wisdom to find out the means to become a multimillionaire. In this way you will be different from others.
* Rajendra Sagolsem (Director, SAFE Group of Instirutions, Bangalore) writes to e-pao.net regularly
The writer is a counselor, motivator and educational advisor serving at present as a Director in the SAFE Group of Institutions, Bangalore. He has writtern many eBooks on motivation and counseling.
You can visit the writer's blog here or email at razensag(at)gmail(dot)com
This article was webcasted on December 29, 2010.
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