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We have a page about improving the world; this is the other side of the coin - if we want the world to improve, we need to get better ourselves. It does not take a great deal of insight to see that the things I dislike in other people are also in myself. It is well summarized by the apocryphal story about GK Chesterton replying to a newspaper’s question of “What is wrong with the world?” with the simple response, “Dear Sirs, I am”.
And, of course, it works the other way round, too: if we want to improve ourselves, we need to work to help other people and the world.
We grow, we get stronger, more skilled and better able to act in generous and creative ways, mainly in some fairly obvious ways.
- We take responsibility for our own choices and our own actions.
- We have high but reasonable expectations of ourselves, in both standards and workload - downtime and variety are both important.
- We accept appropriate challenges and respond to them, facing the inevitable difficulties life throws at us.
- We accept the love, help and support of others.
- We learn from the example of others - both what works, and what doesn't work.
So how does this work out in practice? Here are some initial ideas.
- Better Choices How can we make better choices in our lives? Some initial thoughts.
- When What I Want Is Not What They Do Some suggested strategies for handling conflict with other people.
- Binary Thinking It is very easy to see the world as a set of binary choices - either this is true, or that is. But, even if our choices are sometimes binary, the issues we face rarely are.
- Self Honesty A difficult but necessary starting point.
- Don't Be Fooled by Abstraction We frequently argue about abstractions, but these arguments are often based upon the mistaken assumption that the abstractions in question actually exist.
See also...
- What Is Time For? Everyone is too busy. How would we spend our time if we weren’t? An article on Plough by Zena Hitz.
- Humans Could Learn a Lot From Anxious Cows We are part of a herd, too. An article on Slate by Kathleen Smith.
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