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Change The World

Do you want to change the world? If yes – this is good. If no – we are really sorry, but this is not possible. You will always change the world. So, why not do it on purpose and for the better.

The Butterfly Effect

In chaos theory the butterfly effect means that tiny changes in a system might have huge impacts. As a literal example a butterfly flapping its wings in Japan can cause a Thunderstorm in Germany.

If your goal is to become a doctor and you study medicine, you work hard to pass all the exams, you pass them, apply in a hospital and then eventually you become a doctor. The path is quite clear. Cause and effect are quite clear.

But if you plan to go outside and then it starts raining (because of the butterfly in Japan) and you go outside just a minute later because you had to grab an umbrella first, this can have foreseeable consequences. Maybe you bump into the love of your life, you meet, marry and have children. Or, a roof tile hits you and you have to go to the hospital.

Everything you do has consequences. And, everything you don’t do has consequences, too.

By the way, please don’t kill the butterflies. They might very well also cause a sunny day 🙂

Take Control

If everything you do or don’t do has consequences you can as well do something that has a positive impact on your goals. Why? Because if you do something you take control. Sure, you cannot control everything. You cannot control each and every butterfly and you have even less control over thunderstorms. However, if you take aktion you take control and you increase chances to reach your goals.

Why to Change the World?

As discussed, you change the world anyway so why not change it for the better – for you, for your loved ones and for everybody.

Have you ever gone to work in the morning, tired and with a bad Monday-morning-mood? Then a stranger opened a door for you with a smile and this made your day? These tiny acts of kindness can be so powerful. They can be the butterfly effect for so many great outcomes. And, they truly change the world – for the better.

Very often these small gestures or good deeds pay back. The guy who opened the door for you feels better, too. And if you feel good, you become happier and this helps with so many things, including your goals.

Try it out. It really works. Be kind, smile and say thank you consciously in the course of the next week. If you like you can use your journal to note the impact and how you feel.

If you change the world for the better, no matter how big or small the change is, you will leave a legacy. Your legacy will be a better world. Wow.

Environment Check

If you want to contribute to the greater good and make the world a better place you can start small. All these small changes will sum up. Also, working on your own personal goals and on the greater good does not need to be a contradiction. Ideally, it goes hand in hand.

If you have a personal goal and a plan on how to achieve this goal you can do an environment check. How does this goal impact your environment? That starts with your family, friends and colleagues but also goes beyond to your community or even to your country and to the whole world. It includes people, nature and business.

Here comes an example. If your goal is a 30-day vacation with your family and as a consequence you work day and night and don’t see your family for months, the price might be too high. The environment check fails because you want to spend more time with your family but on the way you spend much less time with them.

How to Change the World?

OK, this surely goes beyond what we can cover in a blog article but probably you already have some ideas. As a general guideline you might want to ponder the categorical imperative, a concept introduced by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. It goes like this.

“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.”

Happy goal setting and keep making the world a better place.

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