Enjoy my writing and art? Want to see more? Support my work on Patreon or donate with PayPal.
Image: Public Domain, Pixabay
Many people these days have a very skeptical outlook on the world and on other people. Society has led us to believe that most of the world is in a horrible state and that our best course of action is to think only of ourselves. Unfortunately, people fail to realize that this mentality only perpetuates the problems that we see rather than solving them. When we close ourselves off from others and live selfishly, no progress can be made for the world as a whole.
I’ve seen and heard a lot of people who have the idea that “No one helps me, so why should I help them?” Admittedly, I used to be one of those people. Everyone around me treated me poorly, I was given no encouragement or help, and so I thought it was only natural to treat others as they treated me. Unfortunately, I, like most people, had it entirely backwards. We’re not meant to treat others as they treat us, we should treat them the way we want to be treated ourselves.
Let’s look at this from a perspective that more people might be able to relate to:
If you treat the people around you with disinterest, rudeness and lack of caring, that’s how they’re going to treat you. Even people who would have treated you better will see no reason to do so. What you put out into the world will surely come back to you. You want help, you want to get ahead and have a better life, but all the while you bemoan the poor treatment you receive and think of people as selfish, uncaring and affirm to yourself that no one’s going to help you and the world is a horrible place. Somehow it comes as a surprise that no one wants to help you and people continue to treat you badly and your life never gets better. Obviously this mindset isn’t working.
Now suppose you treat others with respect and compassion, no matter who they are or what they may have done or you perceive that they may do to you. You’re good to people because that’s how you would want to be treated. You’d see that the negative, selfish people will show up less in your life, and seemingly from nowhere people appear who appreciate your kindness, honesty and other good traits, and these people will be willing to aid you in whatever way they can. You see the world as a place of hope where people can change and grow, and surely enough circumstances line up to make that true.
If you want to get a little more blunt about it, think of it this way: If you’re rude, thoughtless and pessimistic, who’s ever going to help you? Would you want to help someone with a bad attitude who treats people poorly? Of course not! Are you going to help someone who treats you like dirt and doesn’t care what happens to you? No! Do you like people who are always thinking “Me, me, me!”? Not Likely. Would you want to help someone who’s kind, friendly and is always looking out for others, including you? Yes! So why be the kind of person that no one wants to help?
Plainly speaking, if you’re a lousy person, people will be lousy to you. If you’re a good person, people will be good to you. You may not think so, but trust me, I speak from experience. I was once surrounded by horrible people, and I was a horrible person myself. When I started thinking about myself and my life and began to change, those awful people didn’t want to be around me anymore. Sure, they tried to pull me back down to their level at first, but when they failed, they backed off. Soon my circumstances led me to move to a new state, and suddenly I was surrounded by people who recognized the good growing in me and wanted to nurture it. They helped me in ways I can probably never show enough gratitude for, and many of them have no idea what good things they did, because they were just being themselves.
Don’t let the lower portions of society convince you that the world is a bad place filled with bad people. Be your best every day, and look for the good in others and the world. As you change for the better, you’ll see that others do as well. You’ll attract better people and better circumstances. You’ll get the help and support that you need. The first step is realizing that you need to treat everyone around you the way you’d want them to treat you.
UserR
There is, in fact, more good in the world than most people realize. I believe that people are essentially more good than bad, but since negativity is so prevalent nowadays, it’s hard for people to realize that they simply need to better themselves and each other. That’s really the key.
Eric Peacock
Indeed, there is more good than bad in the world. If only people would see it more.
Briana Blair
I think they get caught up in the media’s scare tactics. The worst people in society want to keep us scared and weak, so they make sure we focus on the negativity. as we wake up, we can easily see the good int he world and how we can better ourselves and the world as a whole.