Iain Thomas Quote on How The World Becomes Better

“Let me tell you how the world becomes better.  The world becomes better when good people like you look at themselves and decide what kind of life they want to live, and what they’re willing to do to make it that way.  This does not mean you need to fight more.  It means you need to find ways to fight less.  Sometimes, our immediate response to the way the world is, is anger, and the world is the way it is, because sometimes our immediate response to it is, anger.”

Iain Thomas, Every Word you Cannot Say (Page 30)

Beyond the Quote (Day 5)

The way to peace, is peace.  The way to war, is war.  Peace, is not a means to the outcome of war.  War, is not a means to the outcome of peace.  Peace is the way.

The way to happiness, is happiness.  The way to anger, is anger.  Happiness is not a means to the outcome of anger.  Anger, is not a means to the outcome of happiness.  Happiness is the way.

This is not to say that anger won’t or shouldn’t come up in our lives—it’s an emotion that we all undoubtedly feel.  This is to say though, that we should never take action on anger as a means to get a happy end.

Feeling anger and acting on anger are two very different positions.  And as I’m sure you’re already aware, acting from a place of anger usually leads to actions you later regret and words you later wish you could take back.

Let anger come, be mindful of how it makes you feel, let time bring you down to a calm and collected state, decide how you want to act, then take action in a way that will lead you back to a state of happiness.

The same is true with how we respond to awful, upsetting, depressing news in the world that we’re spoon-fed on a regular basis.  Our immediate emotional reaction is often, anger.  And as mentioned above, anger begets more anger.  And anger acted upon, begets more anger to be acted upon. 

If we want the world to become better, then we need to become better.  We need to be the person who breaks the cycle.  When we’re judged, we need to choose understanding.  When we’re rejected, we need to choose acceptance. When we’re shamed, we need to choose compassion.

We need to be the person we wish we had when we were angry or hurting and we need to pay forward into the world the actions we wish we would see more of.  It’s not somebody else’s job to make the world better—it’s ours.

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Read Next: Stephen Cope Quote on Being Yourself and How You Can’t Be Anyone You Want To Be (Day 4)

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