Practice What You Preach

Do you find yourself being critical of other people's actions? Do you find yourself wishing people were different? Do you find yourself wishing the world was different? Maybe you think people should be nicer to each other. Maybe you think people should worry less about others and focus on themselves. Maybe you think people should be nicer to each other. Have you tried doing the things that you think other people should be doing or do you just find it easier to judge others rather than change your own behavior? We can't change anyone but ourselves so when we see things that we would like to change about others, we can only change that within ourselves.

Maybe you hate to see people litter and you hate seeing trash all around you all time. It's easy to sit around and complain about people who litter and it's easy to not litter ourselves. Have we tried going out and picking up some trash ourselves? You might be thinking... but if people wouldn't litter, we wouldn't have to pick up their trash, it shouldn't be our responsibility to pick up their trash, they should just stop littering. You are correct but also wrong. In a perfect world no one would litter, and no one would ever have to pick trash up that someone else threw on the ground. The issue is, we don't live in a perfect world, we live in a world where people litter, a world where people only think about themselves and don't care about anyone around them. We cannot change other people's behavior no matter how much we complain about them or judge them. We are forced to live in the world that we were born into. 

Pick up some trash, it doesn't even have to take up a lot of your time and it doesn't have to be a lot of effort. If you are outside walking somewhere and you see a piece of trash, simply bend over and pick it up and throw it in the very next garbage bin you come upon. It takes minimal effort to make the world a nicer place, to make the world cleaner, and to live in less garbage. Next time you are outside in a public space, look around you for trash and try to see if anyone is picking it up. When is the last time you picked up a piece of trash yourself? If we all would just pick up a piece of trash here and there instead of just complaining about the people that are littering, there wouldn't be any trash around.

Do you think that people are mean and rude and inconsiderate of others? Have you tried being nice and polite and considerate to other people? That doesn't just mean the people that are nice to you but everyone with whom you encounter. It's so easy to complain about other people being mean and not making any effort to be nice yourself. If we just complain and don't make the effort to be nice to people, we are in fact one of them. By simply being nice to other people we are able to brighten people's days and in turn make them nicer people. It doesn't take much effort, a smile to those who look in your direction, giving someone a hand who needs it, and simply asking someone how their day is, can all go a long way. Kindness can be spread but if all we are doing is complaining that no one is nice we are part of the problem. 

Are you part of a religion that preaches Love, kindness, and acceptance? Do you yourself practice those virtues or are you too busy just making sure other people are virtuous? Are you the type of person who is always worried about the sins of other people, all the while ignoring every sin that you commit? Do you complain about the corporation and billionaires hoarding all the wealth and yet you won't even give a nickel to a beggar on the street. Most of us aren't even willing to look a beggar in the eye and acknowledge their existence within the human race. We complain about those in power being greedy and money hungry while we ourselves desperately cling to every penny we have, always wanting more and never being satisfied with what we have. 

Hypocrisy is abundant in our world. So many of us are more worried about the thoughts, beliefs, and actions of other people all the while ignoring that we are doing the same things that we are complaining about. We accuse people of being selfish while ignoring our very own narcissist traits. We accuse people of being evil while refusing to look at the suffering we cause other people. We accuse people of being "no good criminals who are a drain on society" while speeding, running red lights, and drinking or smoking weed while driving. It seems to be ok when we break laws, but not when those "no-good criminals" do. We accuse people of being "lazy" and "not wanting to work" while not wanting them to earn a living wage or have access to any form of assistance. 

We say we Love our veterans and yet we don't care that roughly one third of the homeless are in fact veterans. We claim to be patriotic and Love America while yelling at anyone who doesn't speak English to "go back where they came from" when anyone in America who isn't Native American is in fact from somewhere else. All of our ancestors came to America from another country. Anytime anyone who isn't Native American tells someone to "go back to where they came from" they are literally saying that to their very own ancestors which in turn means they are saying it to themselves. 

We have become a society who is focused on shaming other people while refusing to look at our own actions. As soon as an altercation with another person takes place, we pull out our phones and record to blast all over social media to get everyone to side with us and prove that we were right. Meanwhile nothing gets accomplished, and no one ever learns conflict resolution. We are a society that has lost the ability of conflict resolution. We just blame, shame, and ignore instead of taking the time to hear the other persons perspective. We have no reason to ever listen to anyone when we are always right and are never wrong. The other person is always the one who is wrong and therefore we never have to look at ourselves. Never realizing that the other person feels exactly the same way, in their eyes they are in the right and you are in the wrong and you will never be able to convince them otherwise. 

Conflict resolution is the ability of both sides of a disagreement to listen to each other, make an attempt to understand the other persons perspective, and work together to form an outcome that works for both parties. If no comprise can be made, you simply agree to disagree and part ways with no hard feelings on either side, since you both put forth an effort. Next time someone offends you, you could try talking to them instead of pulling out your phone to shame them. If we would all practice what we preach a little more and worried a little less about what other people were doing, we would all be a little more content with life and be all the happier for it. We are all humans, and we are all in this together, we accomplish absolutely nothing by fighting with each other, we need to learn how to work together to create a more peaceful society. We all need to do our part and that can only start with you. Love and Peace! 

A True Artist Puts Their Words into Action!