You Have The Power To Change The World This Year

The world sucks!

How many times have you heard that sentiment? It's a popular belief in the 21st century. The more things evolve, the more things feel wrong to people. And yet, this is the world we have to work with. So, what can we do? 

Exercising Our Power

As regular people, it's easy to feel powerless. Why? Please take a look at what we see out of the powerful. Then, you'll understand. 

The powerful have things that we don't have. They are the wealthy, usually well-connected, and in a position of authority. The very powerful may have achieved a combination of the three. 

It's up to regular people to realize they still have power and to use it wisely. Do you recognize the keyword? It's a choice. That's our real power. 

The one power nobody can take from you is your ability to choose your path. Choice is an important part of our lives, and it is crucial to feel like we're in control of our choices

Every day, we make choices that impact our lives. Those impacts are felt in our health, well-being, and relationships. But, if the world sucks, can't we choose to do something about it? 

By making it this far into this article you made a choice that has more than one effect on you. Can you tell what effects your choice gave birth to? 

• You chose to see things from someone else's perspective, thus finding a new idea or someone who shares your views on the importance of choice. 
• Your choice means I found one more reader on this platform that helped me, a veritable stranger, toward a goal.

Choices carry with them the power to change your whole day, and to influence the lives of others. Remember that!

"Choice theory explains that, for all practical purposes, we choose everything we do, including the misery we feel. Other people can neither make us miserable nor make us happy. All we can get from them or give to them is information. But by itself, information cannot make us do or feel anything. It goes into our brains, where we process it and then decide what to do."

― William Glasser, Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom

What do you take from the above quote? Is it that you have the power to choose how you feel about things? If Glasser is right, that's your biggest power, how to act under a given set of circumstances. 

Looking at his belief, everything around us is making its way into our brains. We then interpret the information and choose how to respond. Unfortunately, we aren't machines. We become emotionally invested. And it's our emotions that we act on, rather than the information we get from the circumstances alone. 

How does that give you the power to push the world to a better place? It does and doesn't. Realistically, you can't change the whole world. But if you choose to push the first domino you can affect more than just your part of the picture. 

For example: 

You chose to read this far into the article, thus assuring I get credit for the online read through the algorithm. What's your next choice. You can share it on social media, clap up to 50 times, or leave a comment. 

Each choice affects me, and if you're a writer, it will likely make me want to check out your work. 

When you're out running errands after a busy day, how do you respond to the people you encounter? You can choose to respond with kindness and be polite at each encounter. When you do, you might save that clerk or waitress from their worst moment. You never know when someone is on the edge. 

Your choice sometimes comes down to the simple act of doing the least that you can. It makes things much easier to view it that way. Start with the least you can do; being nice, being polite, saying thank you, flashing a compliment, or sticking around on the page of someone's content to get to the end (even if you hit play and walk away). 

The best part, is you feel good about yourself. When you feel good about what you put into the world, have you ever noticed how much brighter your day is? Try it for a while and see. Make an effort to do something positive in every circumstance, and over time, see how much better you feel about the world. 

Maybe the world will suck a little less if everybody adopted this practice. 

Thanks for sticking around. It's more appreciated than I can ever express.