It All Begins With You

As we contemplate the past year and what wisdom we can draw from its lessons, one thing is painfully clear - most of the problems in the world today continue to stem from a fundamental malaise of Mankind that the centuries have not been able to cure.

His tendency to be overly-concerned about other people - their flaws, their injustices, their immorality - and not caring enough about his own and what he can do about them.

Natural disasters aside, many of the major troubles in the world today are Man-made, including murder, racial and religious intolerance, and reprisal attacks.

Listening to the leaders of the world condemn these acts and hearing the perpetrators justify their behaviour is like listening to a broken record. We've heard it a million times, yet we're no closer to resolving age-old conflicts.

The truth is, the world has always been torn by strife and clashes, civilizations rise and fall, good intentions get corrupted by self-righteousness, greed and power, and revenge continues to breed more and more revenge.

In fact, the history of Man has been a history of repetition.

We come, we conquer, we plunder, we use up, then go find some other place to feed our cravings or someone else to blame.

If we could all stop thinking about and blaming others for our problems and begin to focus more on self-development, I'm sure the world would be a much better place.

The problem with focusing on others is that it's a convenient distraction from our own inadequacies. While we're preoccupied with others, we don't have time to think about our own shortcomings and therefore don't have to do anything about them.

It's weakness of character, because it takes courage to look within, discover our own flaws and work towards improving ourselves.

If we want others to change, we must first change ourselves. We can only lead by example. This is as true of parent and child relationships as it is with politician and citizen, boss and subordinate, believer and non-believer. Nothing will make others see our point of view unless we can prove just how clearly we see it ourselves.

Whether you believe in God or not is a personal choice - only you can see it, only you can feel it or not; you don't need anyone for that. And why should it matter to you how others think as long as it doesn't affect the way you think?

Starting now, try to shift your focus from other people onto yourself.

Don't think about how other people are wrong, immoral, stupid, selfish, wicked or whatever.

Think about how you can be a better person.

How you can reach for that deeper humanity in you.

And when others see how sincere and accepting you are, perhaps they can start to do some soul-searching and make some real changes themselves.

It all begins with you.