It’s 2020! A New Year, a new decade is upon us! As we are celebrating this new happening, our mind prompts us to take a fresh look at our relationship with others and ourselves. It’s a reminder to retrace our path, to dig into our goals. It’s a chance to set a renewed path to become better humans, and positively impact our surroundings.
How to become better humans by reclaiming our inner-thoughts
We live in a binary world where twofold concepts, such as good and bad, evil and angel, or love and hate seem to be the recipe to explain all life’s happenings. Such accepted beliefs become normal attitude when describing our connection with the world . That is to say concepts of being good or doing good are elusive and not easy to grasp. Such excessive influence of external voices is unconsciously reshaping our inner-self and undermining our quest to better ourselves.
This sense of loss echoes in Karen‘s words:
“Whether or not every human being on earth has the ability to do good—I do not know about that. But what I do know and what I believe in is that every human being is not born bad. How can an innocent newborn baby desire destruction, or anything at all?”
How can we shine our inner light on our surroundings and become better humans in such confined spaces?
Time to reclaim our rightfully owned inner-thoughts. We need to redefine ourselves in connection with our loved-ones and our environment, in both time and space because awareness equips us with the right tools to foster real changes.
Thankfully, there is a silver lining as to how to becoming better humans
“Becoming good is not impossible, it just requires being surrounded by good people,” indicates Boubacar, a millennial from Ottawa. Ali, another Ottawan millennial also believes that it is important to “figure out who you want to be, and just keep trying to be that person. And it’s okay if you mess up along the way, as long as you keep trying.”
The same positivism resonates in Grace’s words.
“I think every human being has the ability to be good and/or bad. Everything is shaped by the influences the individual surrounded himself throughout her/his life. ” – Grace, another millennial from Ottawa
Life on Earth is also bounded by something called time. In our lifetime, everything we do depends on the right timing. How many missed opportunities have we encountered just because of the wrong timing?
Good news! The New Year is the right timing to review our path.
“We are living in interesting times when it comes to defining “good”. Perhaps because there’s a big and fast increase in population, we are witnessing major changes in the environment and in technology. And power, now more than ever, belongs to very few people and organizations. Good can be seen as the achievement of a desired result,” argues Eddie.
How much good have we done? How do we feel about ourselves, and most importantly, how are we going to ensure we keep improving ourselves?
As a result, VoiceOasis wants to promote a message of love, of true human connections, and freedom of thought. We invited a group of 15 people to join their voices in redefining concepts of ‘being good’ and opening the discussion on how to become better humans.
Through their own words, these thinkers provide eye-opening and insightful ways to approach these crucial life questions:
- Do you think every human being has the ability to be good? If yes, how do you define good?
- What do you think one can do to become a better human being?
- Should our desire to improve ourselves be a new year’s resolution or an everyday goal?
Do you think every human being has the ability to be good? If yes, how do you define good?
Most of our thinkers genuinely believe that being good is intrinsic to human beings. This thought resonates exactly with Wasil‘s words: “Yes, I do believe every human has the ability to be good,” as opposed to John who believes that “Human beings have zero capability to be good.”
For Ruth Tania, it’s also a definite YES. “I think human being has the ability to be good. Since they are conscious of every actions they make. And if you decide to hurt others or do something bad, deep down you know what you did wasn’t right.”
The same goes for Naya, but with a slight nuance as she does believe “that every human being has the ability to be good if they want to“.
Right off the bat, Ali also confirms his belief that being good is part of the human nature. ” Yes, every human being has the ability to be good. However, for some it may be easy and feel natural, whereas for others it may be hard and uncomfortable.”
Becoming better humans is a nurtured process
Many participants conveyed in their responses that being good is a process that we develop throughout our lifetime. Similarly, your background plays an important role in your ability to be good given to your ‘upbringing’ and ‘intrinsic personality’ as pointed out by both Ali and Boubacar.
“No one is 100% pure and good. Everyone will be selfish, nasty, or otherwise unpleasant to others at some point in their life. And that’s not something to be ashamed of. It’s part of being human. It’s part of maturing and self improvement. It only becomes a problem when a person loses the ability to be good.” – Ali
Boubacar mentioned that education, cultural aspect, and personal upbringing define someone’s ‘ability to become good’. “We are not born good, we become good by the good deeds that we do on a daily basis.”
The notion of evilness is also highlighted in participant’s responses. However, it is not painted in a binary way.
Hassan sets the tone with an unambiguous statement, “No one is born evil or bigoted.” and ” Each person has the ability to fight this cancer by seeking knowledge and facing fears.” He added:
“These traits are nurtured. They need a breeding ground of hate and fear of the unknown, false assumptions and a systematic rejection of self-evaluation. Since these traits are nurtured, then human beings are innately good. Even those who have been described as evil or bad can demonstrate good traits which prove goodness is inherent and that evil is a cancerous intruder that invades the human heart.” – Hassan
In the same vein, Jackie a millennial from Chicago agrees that ‘No human is really born evil.’
“We’re all born innocent and as we grow we learn the difference between good and bad and right and wrong. It’s a choice to define yourself as a good person or a bad person, but I believe we can all be good.” says Jackie.
Life’s path has an impact on someone’s ability to be good
The impact of life’s hardship are present in two participants’ talk.
“While I believe that human are not good all time due to influences like the hardship that we endure, the ability to be good is within all of us. The act of being good involves being kind to every souls–humans and non-humans, sympathizing, doing selfless acts, and caring for others.” – Magdalande
This thought is also found in JJ‘s reasoning:
“Everyone was good once in their life, then life really hits them. So, I would say it depends on their way of living. Anybody can be good, but staying good is another question,” argues JJ.
What do you think one can do to become a better human being?
Becoming a better human being involves self-improvement
It’s about being ‘your best self everyday’, trying ‘to be kind to others’ and treating ‘everyone like you’d want to be treated’ says Jackie. To Magdalande, becoming a better human is about ‘reflecting on whether their actions made a good impact or bad impact, and thinking of ways they could help others especially those in need.’
For Jennifer, it means having “self-discipline, such as regular exercise, healthy diet; using dialectical thinking to see the positive side of anything; regulating your behavior and being considerate of others.” – Yu (Jennifer)
Self-improvement is the willingness to go the extra mile by ‘doing what’s right’ and “act in a way to be able to live with everyone”, affirms Ruth Tania.
To Diana, it is also about working ‘on oneself’. “Never quit the process of learning, wondering, and fixing the vicious habits. “Better” comes along with improvement.”
Bettering yourself calls for consistency
“There’s no specific way for someone to be a better human being, but if they keep trying to always make the right choice even when it’s not easy I call it being good”, says Naya
JJ also reasons that consistency is key. She says: “To become a better person, quitting is not an option”.
Others believe that faith is the solution to become better humans
On this note, Wasil believes ‘that we are the better version of ourselves when we act in good faith’. And, John argues that we can ‘only’ improve ourselves ‘through believing in Jesus’.
Bettering ourselves is inherently connected to our sense of community
Boubacar says that one can reach such goal “by being surrounded by good people because humans live in society and society (the environment) plays on our behaviour.” Ali also points out that you should “Treat others as you you’d want to be treated”. Furthermore, ‘humility and empathy’ are key.
On the same note, Eddie explains:
“It’s not only what we can do, but it must be an obligation for humans to understand and search to understand the system we living in. Humans who wants to see multiple communities living in harmony MUST be aware of the system that was normalized to us by the people from the 20th century and before, and reject it from their lives. This is so we can finally understand what being a human really is in its nature.” – Eddie.
Karen affirms that ‘people are capable of change’, and ‘the past has the information to theorize a future’, but cannot define it.’
“A genuine change of heart with strength that lasts more than a day or two is powerful enough to change the direction of a person’s “theorized” future; the kind of future that data, an non-living entity that I value so much as a Software Developer, can predict.” – Karen
Should our desire to improve ourselves be a new year’s resolution or an everyday goal?
An anonymous response: Improving ourselves should be an everyday goal
In response to the appropriate time to improve ourselves, all our 15 thinkers agree that ‘it should be an every day goal’. It can be something as simple as “trying to minimize your carbon footprint or simply smiling and being kind to everyone you meet during the day”, declares Grace. As JJ points out, “you should live for the moment and not the future”. How do you reach such important goal? By starting ‘small’ and working ‘your way up’, to paraphrase Ali.
This endeavour should also affect positively ‘the people around you’. And, “it should be a goal for a person before every decision is made”, says Karen. Ultimately, “people should not wait until a new year to set up goals for themselves”, explains Magdalande. In the end , we need to “set goals for ourselves every year, and achieve them day by day”, adds Jennifer.
New Year’s resolutions: elusive concepts?
Some participants do not believe New Year’s resolutions are useful. “I don’t let these type of “western” concepts regulate my daily vision of reality. What is a new year’s resolution in reality?”, argues Eddie.
“At this point in time, one must constantly seek the truth from history and understand the system where we are living so we can be part of a collectiveness and have one common goal: to stop “the few that have the power” from controlling our lives, from brainwashing and dividing the masses and destroying our planet,” says Eddie.
New Year’s resolutions bear reminders and a sense of a new beginning
However, some opinions carry an open door to the importance of New Year resolutions. In that respect, Diana considers a New Year’s resolution as a necessary ‘reboot’ and a ‘sense of a new beginning’.
“The ‘New Year’s Resolution’ is the perfect ‘excuse’ to reconsider why, what and who is important and what should be left behind. The desire to improve ourselves should be an everyday goal, but we also need the sense of a new beginning. It “should be a restart on the desire to become better on a daily pace”, adds Diana.
To Jackie a New Year’s resolution, “is just a reminder to get us back on track from a busy and possibly not so good year”.
A Last Note on New Year’s Resolutions
“Whatever it is, everyday you should try to exceed from the previous day. Now it’s not always easy and that’s why new year’s resolution are there to remind you that you can have a new beginning and decide to change things.” Grace
Going Forward
To sum up, the effort to become better humans and improve our surroundings is an ongoing quest as pointed out by most participants. However, defining good and applying such good in one’s life is not easy. This is the aim of this whole brainstorming exercise. I am grateful to witness such important gathering of thoughts on the beginning of the year. Together, we can continue opening our inner-thoughts and our hearts to become, each and everyone of us, an agent of change for our surroundings.
Happy New Year to All! May 2020 be a voiceful year filled with blessings.
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