The World Will Be Just Fine!

“Don’t give excuses”

“Find your true north”

“Live your best life”

“If you think you can, you will”

“Go for it”

I often see posts that exhort others towards improvement. The fact that many of these posts gather good engagement in terms of comments and likes – am sure warms the heart of the writer. However, despite all these frequent and sound advice – I wonder if the world really does become a noticeably better place?

David Maister is his book, Strategy and the Fat Smoker talks about this conundrum referring to it as the “Know-Do gap”. Most people who are obese know what they need to do to get back to shape – control the calories, hit the gym – but few people do. Similar is the story with smokers – “I know how to quit smoking, I have done that many times!” The point being – people rarely ever change by just reading a clever piece of writing.

What then inspires people to action? This is an exhaustive topic in itself with a lot of path-breaking work done by thought leaders like Simon Sinek who says, “Start with Why?” to Dan Pink who sheds light on “What drives people”. Underlying all these theories is what Mahatma Gandhi put together succinctly in one line, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

A dialogue from a movie I saw long back – Evan Almighty – springs to mind, in which God asks the question: “Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”

So, here is a thought for all the people out there, who are on a mission to motivate others: “If you want to be a motivator – is that better done by your words or is it done by your actions?” Yes – be the change you want to see! People are not motivated by what you say – they are motivated by what you do – by who you are. The greatest speech ever made – “I have a dream” worked so well because it was backed by the credibility of Martin Luther King. The same speech by another good orator but a lesser man, would have fallen flat on its face.

And so, as the Bible says: “Physician, heal thyself”. Don’t worry about the world. Despite all of human folly, incompetence, greed and avarice – the world has survived for centuries now. And it will for centuries ahead too. What God perhaps meant each one of us to do, like the stars in the skies - is to shed a little of our own unique light for a little time before we go quiet.

And that unique light is by being inspirational – not just saying so.