(To be clear, this email is not about elections).
THE BAD NEWS
You only get one vote for the type of WORLD you live in.
Will it be kind or will it be cruel?
Each of the 8,200,000,000 humans also get a vote…
You only get one vote for the type of COUNTRY you live in.
Will it be hopeful or will it be cynical?
If you live in the United States, each of the 340,100,000 other people also get a vote…
You only get one vote for the type of ORGANIZATION you work in.
Will it be ethical or will it be unethical?
Each of your coworkers also gets a vote…
You only get one vote for the type of FAMILY you live in.
Will it be supportive or will it be critical?
Your partner and children and parents and siblings also each gets a vote…
The Bad News: You don’t get to unilaterally decide what your world, country, organization or family will be like.
THE GOOD NEWS
The Good News: You get to vote every single day, and multiple times per day.
Each time you interact with a STRANGER you get to vote for how the world and your country will be.
Will you make the world just a little more kind or will you make it just a little more cruel? A little more hopeful or a little more cynical?
Each time you work with a COWORKER you get to vote for how your organization will be.
Will you make your organization just a little more ethical or a little more unethical?
Each time you talk to a FAMILY MEMBER, you get to vote for how your family will be.
Will you make your family a little more supportive or a little more critical?
YOU GET TO CHOOSE
You can choose to give up because you don’t have the all-encompassing power to unilaterally change the world.
Or you can choose to use every moment of every day to make the lives of the people around you just a little bit better.
Our culture is trying really hard to make you cynical.
It tells you that humanity is irredeemable.
It tells you that that your actions don’t matter.
You can choose to listen to our culture and become cynical.
And if enough people choose cynicism, our collective future is bleak.
Or you can reject the cultural winds that buffet our lives.
You can choose to be hopeful about humanity… even though it seems naïve.
You can choose to realize that your actions do matter… at least to the people you interact with.
And if enough people choose hope, our collective future is promising.
None of us gets to unliterally decide our collective future, but we each get to vote again and again (and again!) through our actions.
Use each interaction to make the world just a little more kind, more ethical, more supportive, more hopeful…
That is—literally—all you can do.
Peace,
Ryan
