Why Do Our Moment- to -Moment Responses Matter a Lot?
They reflect our character and make the world better or worse
We may have a great attitude and believe in upholding noble values like kindness, integrity, humility, patience and gratitude.
The question is, do we practise what we believe in life’s everyday moments?
Character is not an abstract value; it shows itself in our daily actions.
Life only happens in the present moment. How we negotiate the daily moments, truly tests our character.
Some days are good and it is easy to sail through them, showing our best face.
Some days are mixed; others are really bad. Nothing seems to work on these days.
There’s a power outage and we sleep fretfully. We wake up in an irritable mood. We can’t even smile on our loved ones.
We leave the house in a bad mood. There’s a traffic jam, and we curse our fate. We swear at the driver who overtakes us dangerously.
The long line at the grocery store adds fuel to our resentment. We complain about the staff’s inefficiency.
We reach the office. If we are the boss, we snap at our subordinates. As an employee, we sulk and avoid talking to our colleagues.
If we were patient, we would have accepted a night’s bad sleep as an accident.
If we were grateful, we would have stopped grumbling about the power outage and counted our blessings.
If we were kind, we would have smiled and hugged our loved ones.
We would have remained patient in the traffic jam. We would have praised the staff for working efficiently despite the huge line at the grocery store. We would have treated our employees and colleagues courteously.
Our character is not revealed by extreme adversity or misfortune, it’s how we negotiate daily inconveniences that reflect our values and principles.
Our character leaks through our tiniest daily acts.
How do we change the world?
How the world changes is the sum of everyday actions performed by millions of people across the planet. The change can be for better or worse depending on our moment-to-moment behaviour.
We believe only revolutions can change the world. Only peaceful and gradual changes brought about by individual transformations can make a positive impact on the world.
Our everyday actions are not inconsequential; they have consequences that spread far and wide.
Dolores Cannon said:
“Humanity is in a place where they require many servers. Not everyone serves in the same capacity or is even aware of it. Many people are unaware of all the lives they have touched by their good work, good words, goodwill, and actions. All people’s actions are important.”
We live in a connected world. There is a greater awareness about the need to spread the good news because people have been fed up by the media’s constant barrage of bad news.
As individuals, we can serve the world by exhibiting our best behaviour, regardless of the circumstances.
Our moral responsibility is to fix ourselves, not to start a grand revolution to transform the world.
A single act of kindness creates a ripple effect that spreads to unimaginable nooks and corners of the world. The performer of kindness doesn’t realise this. Nor do they need to know.
Teddy Roosevelt said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Nobody is going to tell us how to serve society. If we look around, we can always find opportunities to make a positive impact on society.
Our micro-behaviours like our posture, tone of voice, gestures, and the words we use and our micro-actions reflected in our moment-to-moment daily responses reflect our character and impact the wider world in unimaginable ways.
Let our everyday behaviour elevate our character and spread goodness in the world.
Thanks for reading!
