The Fearful are not part of the Solution
Finding and understanding patterns in life is one of my greatest hobbies. I am fascinated by the nitty-gritty details of how systems work. I believe we all do enjoy such to varying levels. I specifically have been drawn to one for some years now. Whenever I observe its manifestation I am inspired to strive for greater heights.
I know this is obvious to some people but it sits differently with me. It seems to me that every individual has a mammoth-sized potential of influence that is mostly untapped. An individual can impact the world in ways they cannot even imagine. In small and big ways, the impact still impacts. It may be immaterial to one person but humongous to another.
You may not have the platform to influence a billion people but you can at least influence one person if not yourself to start with. Sometimes a person may act in a manner that seems to affect no one else but time shows this is impossible. Everything you do affects the world or society or future generations in one way or another.
This is a power some are utilizing right under our noses. It’s almost like there’s no limit to what an individual can achieve. The sky isn’t the limit, your imagination and devotion are. You can’t know how much impact you would have if you never try, but you will definitely have a negative impact if you never try. I believe a person can actually change the world as we know it today. We have evidence of people doing the same. Examine the contributions of Martin Luther, Muhammad, Nikola Tesla, Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche to society. This is an unbiased truncation of history but just consider how much these individuals have shaped the world around us.
Even if you don’t know these big names, you know about some local examples, your parents, friends and media, which have modelled the world around you. The very views you have of life aren’t original but a concoction many years in the making.
All that aside, it fascinates me that we are constantly adding to the very fabric of society every second that elapses. Consciously or not, we are making the world what it will be. It doesn’t feel like it but we are in our various capacities making the world better or worse every day.
Most of our contributions are more or less involuntary, (this is obviously a lie, but serves great comfort to one who doesn’t want to bear responsibility for their actions). All our contributions are a fruit of the choices we make every day.
We have phones and the internet as a fruit of someone’s ideas being realized. Everything around us is a result of individuals’ decisions.
Some of us make brave deliberate decisions and the rest just act on a whim in a reckless cowardly manner. Both these have incalculable effects. The former tend toward success while the latter is the bedrock upon which fear, regret, anxiety, depression and complaints are built upon. The very things that cripple societies, leading to undesirable standards, dictatorship, slavery, indecency and evil.
Every day the world needs you, the future needs you. You are required to make a conscious informed decision about how you act or think. Refusing to make such decisions is also a set of decisions.
The fearful feel powerless and convince themselves that their lack of will to act in such a manner to steer the world in the right direction is a positive thing. They think they are doing everyone a favour. The only thing cowards do is help the bold overrule the world and propagate their ideas without resistance. In this sense, being a passive coward: lacking the willingness to take the bull by its horns, makes the world a worse place. In the end the bold totally mow down the cowards’ will to be passive, forcing them into subjection.
All I am saying is, I discovered the people that have impacted the world in either positive or negative ways, (depending on your flavour of morality and definition of success), have all done so in no better conditions than I am predisposed to. Their environment also looked unalterable from a certain standpoint. They thought, at a certain time, like me, that they were powerless and couldn’t have any influence. However they took full control of their minds, and took aim at the fear that so easily besets us from achieving anything. Then they focused on changing themselves first. This is bravery. They were no more human than I am.
They completely shut off every form and manifestation of cowardice and ran in the opposite direction of the entire world. The only thing that could stop them is success itself.
They didn’t set out to change the world, but rather one person, themselves. This bore the fruits we all enjoy or disdain.
They chose to be part of the solution, ensuring they were on the steering side of the car and not the ones getting knocked over by the car.
This is precisely what I intend to do with my life. For all intents and purposes, I will prosper.
For me, this translates to achieving the godly purpose that I am precisely hewn for and doing that whether the world cheers me on or not.
Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. ~Proverbs 4:26
