For years now the rock band Pearl Jam is active in beneficial work. By speaking up about their opinions (even if it’s not commonly accepted), by organizing beneficial concerts and by donating money. Surfing on their own video channel I found a beautiful performance of their song “daughter”, which contained the simple answer to my question “how can I make a difference”.
When you can’t wait for the answer (or when the music of Pearl Jam is not your taste of music), you can go directly to approximately 4 minute 10 in the video.
“With my own two hands I’m gonna make this world a better place…… I can change the world.” Is this possible, to change the world with our own two hands? I’d like to think so. And I even believe it’s true. And when we share this construct of this (world)view together, we can even make it happen. Let me elaborate on this.
“Post-modernism” rejects the idea of an underlying structure and an underlying truth (as opposed to the modernists of the 20th century where the focus was on one all embracing principle that, when found, would explain everything in our world). Instead of one grand design, post-modern thought embraces the idea of multiple and contextually determined “realities”. We create our own worlds and realities by our own exchanges of thoughts, feelings etc. with each other. So when we agree with each other on the concept “with our own two hands, we can make this world a better place”, it will become our reality. That will help us see opportunities within our own sphere of influence; for instance we can notice the people around us and give them our smiles, we can give our neighbour a hand, instead of judging some-one with another opinion or another cultural background we are curious and ask questions. And it will help us see the good in other people, in little experiences around us.
This will work – if we want and agree to – not only with big life-questions but also on the work-place. What we “agree to” with each other through our conversations becomes our reality. So when we focus our conversations on our difficiencies, big chance that the reality will become: “our company is not working that well”, “we make too many mistakes” and maybe even “I’m a failure because I can’t deliver properly”. Instead we could easily focus on the other side: where are the successes, what brings us energy, when are we going home with pride? And the agreed reality through these conversations could become: “what a potential is there in our company”, “it’s fun and good to work here, I can’t wait to ….”.
I’d like to invite you to try this at home or at work. Try to bring the conversation to what works, what makes you proud and to what you (with each other) can do to make it an even better place. Create your own appealing reality. Or start globally and join Pearl Jam, me and thousands of others. Become a global citizen and make this world a better place (with your own two hands).
Most importantly… Act with your two hands!
Yes for sure! Acting is verry important. And surprisingly it will follow almost automatically. Because what we agree on as our reality, we will see and we will act on. Wonderful machanism isn’t it.