How To "Fix" The World In Five Simple Steps...

While I'm not a self-help guru, a Professor or a researcher, I am a reader and a blogger - someone who sees a lot of articles online with titles like " Five steps to a new you" or " Six ways to change the world" or " Seven things you need to know right now!"  Most of the time, titles like that make me laugh. After all, the whatever-many steps that worked for whoever wrote the article may not work for me or anyone else. This blog post is entitled "How To Fix The World In Five Simple Steps" not because I believe that these five steps will actually 'fix' the world but precisely because titles like this one make me laugh. Because they make me curious yet also make me think Let's see what this author comes up with...These five steps may not fix the world, however I hope this article will make you think.

Step One: What works for you may not work for another

Realise that your system, *your* way of seeing the world, of believing, of doing things, isn't the only way and isn't the only right way. Just because you believe capitalism is the be-all-end-all does not mean that communism isn't a valid system too. Just because your country has a king or a queen does not mean that a country without a king or queen isn't a good country too. Just because you live on an island does not mean a land-locked country isn't a great country as well. Just because your skin is a certain colour does not mean that your kind of colour is the only valid colour out there. Just because you believe that your religion is the best in the world does not mean others agree or see things the same way. What works for you may not work for another, it's that simple. Let's all take a moment to internalise that truth and remind ourselves that it's perfectly okay to agree to disagree on certain issues.

Step Two: Value the differences that make us unique and special

Learn about the world, about the people around you. Get to know it and get to know them. Learn about what others think, like, want, believe, care about, dream about. Realise that humans are very different in many ways yet also very much the same in many ways. Come to understand that we are all valid, worthwhile and meaningful, even though we are all different. While you love chocolate ice cream best, your sister prefers strawberry ice-cream, your brother loves banana ice-cream. While you love rock and roll, your aunt loves opera and your cousin loves heavy metal. While you're a fan of Game of Thrones, your mother prefers Star Trek and your dad swears that Doctor Who is the best show ever made. While blue is your favourite colour, your best friends prefer purple and green, respectively. While you are a cat-person, your neighbour is a dog-person, his or her neighbour in turn prefers fish to furry animals. While you have nightmares about clowns, your nephew has nightmares about dinosaurs and your niece has nightmares about spiders. We are all different, yet being different does not make us less, strange or weird. It just makes us different. It makes us human and unique and special.

Step Three: See yourself as a grain of sand on the beach of existence

Figure out how tiny and insignificant you are, really. Compared to an ant or a fly, human beings are pretty big. Even a baby human is bigger than an ant, after all. Yet compared to other animals like giraffes, elephants and whales, even the biggest and tallest humans are pretty small. If we are small compared to elephants, giraffes and whales, just imagine how tiny we are compared to bigger 'things' like villages, cities, regions, countries and continents. Even the largest continent is pretty small when you look at the planet as a whole - our world of oceans and landmasses. Yet compared to planets like for instance Jupiter or Saturn, our planet is pretty tiny. But, compared to one human being or even the entire human race put together on a big heap of humanity, the planet we live on is huge. Then again, compared to the vastness of interstellar space or even the space between planets in our own solar system, our planet is so small it's pretty much invisible. We share this planet with many other living beings - humans, animals, birds, fish, insects... Just because we humans think of ourselves as wise or special or the most amazing species on the planet does not mean we are, necessarily. We are just tiny humans on a tiny planet, no matter how important we think we are or how much knowledge we accumulate.

Step Four: Realise that we are all in this together

Get this one fact through your thick skull: We are all in this together. Yes, humans have figured out how to send a few of us into space. We are dreaming of colonising space, sending humans off this tiny planet we call home to go and live on our moon and Mars and perhaps other planets as well. As I write this, there are people out in space, human beings travelling in a small craft orbiting the earth. Getting those few people up there took a lot of money and resources, a great deal of effort and determination. But, just because a few humans have managed to get into space does not mean that we are at the point - yet - where we can send people to colonise the moon or Mars. Perhaps we will live to see the day the first colonists leave for their new home in the sky. And perhaps not. As much as the idea of humans living on the moon or on Mars fascinates me and many others with me, the reality is that a lot of work needs to be done before the first regular people can move out to space. That work will take decades at least, if not centuries or more. Which means that the exodus of humans from earth to space will be decades away as well, at the very least. Unless a bunch of friendly aliens show up and decide they want humans out in space with them - and would you take US into space with you? Really? - there is no way for you or me to get off this planet. No way for your children to get off this planet, for your parents and siblings, friends and neighbours to get off this planet. We are all in this together, all stuck together on this one planet, all here for whatever will happen, good or bad. We are all in this together and the only way to make the world a better place is by doing that together.

Step Five: Change your thinking to change the world

Examine your own life, your own thoughts, your own dreams, your own words, your own opinions and your own actions. When was the last time you judged another person based on their dress or appearance? When was the last time you judged another based on what you think is normal or the way things should be? When was the last time you mistreated another living being for your own selfish reasons? When was the last time you saw yourself as more important or better than another? When was the last time you thought of yourself as more special or worthy than another? As humans, we think of ourselves as the only truly intelligent species on the planet. Yet just look at what we've done to the planet and to those living beings we share this planet with. We treat the planet like our own personal garbage heap instead of as the only home we have. We treat other living beings as things to be used or abused for our own needs. We are causing entire species to go extinct at a ridiculous rate. We pollute our oceans, cut down forests and poison & kill animals we see as pests. We are selfish beings who, instead of living in harmony with the planet and other living beings, seem to believe it is our right to rule the world. If we are truly the most intelligent species on the planet, let us show our intelligence by being caretakers instead of destroyers. Let us be humane and caring instead of destructive and selfish. The earth is not just our home, it is the home of many other living beings, from cute kittens to pesky flies to adorable pandas to magnificent lions. We are not just destroying and polluting our own home, we are destroying and polluting theirs too. They don't speak human languages and they can't turn to social media to protest our actions.
If we are truly evolved and sentient beings, let us prove that we are by caring for those who can't speak for themselves, who can't stand up for themselves. Let us be caretakers instead of destroyers, humane beings instead of inhuman monsters.