It's Always About You

It doesn't matter how good things get, somewhere in the world, something is always going to shit.

It doesn't matter how bad things get, somewhere in the world, something is always going right.

In the end, it's always a matter of perspective.

I the end, it's always about you.

It is about how you experience the world. What you focus on, what you spend your time on, and what you pay attention to. Even if you are the most altruistic, greater-good-minded person on the planet, your first-hand experience still revolves around you.

You are the centre of your own universe.

Focussing on yourself might sound egocentric, but since you are at the heart of everything you experience already, it is actually rather sensible. In your own story, you are the only character you control. Everything and everyone outside of you is truly beyond you.

This does not mean that everything is your fault. Far from it. A lot of things just happen around you. A lot of them happen to you. Nevertheless, since it is your story, you have to deal with it. This can be deeply unfair, but it is also completely true. It can even be liberating.

If you stop looking for whose fault it is and who should do something and instead just pretend it's always about you, you can skip all the blaming and shaming that keeps you from moving. You can stop waiting for permission and for others to step up. You can simply assume that it is always your turn and save yourself a lot of wondering.

This doesn't mean that you have to do something about everything that is wrong with the world. It doesn't mean that you have to care about everything. Actually, not caring about everything is precisely the point.

Caring about what others should or should not do only keeps you busy, distracted, and angry. It doesn't help you, it doesn't help them, it doesn't help the world.

The only world you can change is your world.

Sure, there is overlap. A good deal of your world extends outward. You might pull others along with you. You may inspire or demoralize, encourage or frighten, lift people up with you or pull them down with you. You have some influence over what surrounds you.

But at the centre, there is still only you.

For the world around you to move, you have to move first.

If yous stay stuck, your world stays stuck, too.