2-3-4 Friday

‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’

1 thought

In May 2022, I was so broke that I was eating 4 bananas a day. 

I thought I was broke, until I heard the construction worker tell me he was earning $400 a month. 

That evening, he bought me a meal - despite it costing about 5% of what he earning for the month. 

He showed me kindness, when he didn't need to. 

He also made me think:

Why did I think that life seemed so much worse for us, even though we are so much better off than before?

In the 1980s, if you had told people that you’d probably be able to:

1. Graduate with a degree
2. Fly on average twice a year
3. Have a mobile phone with internet that can serve you information in about 3 seconds
4. Not have to queue up for 10, 20 minutes to do banking transactions

They would have said,

That sounds like a great life!

So why are so many of us still complaining?

Is it just a matter of perception?

Because of what we see on social media, does this result in us feeling constantly unhappy, and having to compare?

A Dutch housemate recently told me that it might be because there’s just so much more people and so much less to go around with.

More people, less resources.

Maybe.

But we’ve also created a lot more value with technology.

So what’s the problem here? And is it even a problem?

Clearly, our discontent with how our current economies are serving us is a problem.

One only needs to look at strongmen politicians sweeping to power, and right-wing politics ascending. People are voting for people promising change to current systems.

In his 2023 September address to the United Nations General Assembly, Secretary General António Guterres described the state of the world.

And, indeed, divides are deepening.

Divides among economic and military powers.

Divides between North and South, East and West.

We are inching ever closer to a Great Fracture in economic and financial systems and trade relations; one that threatens a single, open internet; with diverging strategies on technology and artificial intelligence; and potentially clashing security frameworks.

A Great Fracture?

That seems serious.

What can we do?

1 talk

We have all the tools and resources to solve our shared challenges.

What we need is determination.

Determination is in the DNA of our United Nations – summoning us with the first words of the Charter: “We the peoples of the United Nations…determined”:

Determined to end the scourge of war.

Determined to reaffirm faith in human rights.

Determined to uphold justice and respect international law.

And determined to promote social progress and better lives for all people.

• UN Secretary General António Guterres

1 tip

The easy way is to think, well, we can’t really solve problems on such a global scale.

Indeed, as Guterres suggests, what we do need is compromise, and determination.

As we come to the last week of the year, and start thinking about the next year, our resolutions, and what we can achieve, we often underestimate the power of human determination.

Humans survived because we refuse to surrender to our conditions. 

Wherever we’ve gone, we’ve tamed the environments to fit us.

Or we’ve moved on, and tried to tame another part of the world.

The social conditions that we face today - inflation, inequalities, and many more, are more challenges that we must determine internally, to tame.

This is not just high and mighty ideals to strive for.

But rather, they are active steps each and every one of us can take.

It doesn’t take that much to do things like:

1. Donating a few dollars to your community group
2. Buying something for a child who needs the money more than you
3. Giving of your skills to a child, whether it be teaching them, tutoring them
4. If you’re older or retired, simply sharing your experiences with the younger generation, taking a step back, and referring them to the friends you know so that the young can get better jobs

You don't have to start with a far-off war in Ukraine.

You can start where you live. Because if you look for need, you will find it. Just pay attention. 

1. The cleaner at your apartment 
2. The teaching assistant at your kid's school 
3. The student studying at your cafe

Do something small for someone this Christmas. But more than just Christmas, string it together.

Do it for the rest of the year.

You’ll be surprised at what you find.

John

Live Young, Live Well - Work Your Love

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