【英语天天读】改变当今世界，一个人能做些什么

作者：gnuhpc
出处：http://www.cnblogs.com/gnuhpc/

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

~Victor Frankl

Sometimes I think that if I could change the world, and run everything the way I want, then the world would be a better place. I’m a good guy. I have good intentions. I want the best for everyone; so it sounds like a good plan, right?

Why not just make me the king of the world? I would have the smartest people in the world serving in my cabinet to solve all the important issues that I don’t know much about. The rest will work itself out.

The truth of the matter is that we’ve all had that thought in our minds at one point or another. It’s our ego’s natural yearning. If only I got my way. If only I ruled the world. An even greater truth is that none of us are going to become the king of the world anytime soon. It would probably be a very lonely job, anyway. Too many responsibilities, too much on one person’s shoulders.

So how do we go about changing the world if we don’t have supreme reign over everything? The bad news is that it’s still our individual responsibility. Despite not being the kings of the world, the changes we make as individuals can and will impact the rest of the world if executed with great precision and passion.

Where We Make The Most Impact

I am convinced that we can create the most change in the world by concentrating our resources where we can have the most potential impact. This focus, unlike spreading our resources thin, allows us to have a more direct impact on individuals.

The part of the world in which we make the most impact, whether we like it or not, is within our families and small circles of friends. We may be successful in converting our family into believers, and they may even turn out to be our biggest group of supporters, or not. The point, however, does not lie in the way they treat us, but rather it’s in our behavior, and the actions we exhibit from our end; the way we treat them!

Being able to express compassion, patience, love, and understanding for the people in our families, despite opposing views belief systems, allows us to expand our ability to empathize with others. These abilities, which in my opinion are critical in interpersonal relationships, will become ingrained in us as second nature.

The fact that we have such a high level of influence on the people closest to us, our families and close friends, will make them more susceptible to picking up on these behaviors and adopting them as their very own. Thus, we spread compassion, patience, love and understanding. From one person leading by example to another.

Taking Impact To The Next Level

While transforming the world for our own families can be very fulfilling, many of our egos(n. 自我；自负；自我意识) will strive for prolific(adj. 多产的；丰富的) change in the world. In one sense, our egos’ mission is to conquer the world. Whether it conquers it with a message of love or destruction depends on the individual ego.

You may think that family does not need to be a first step, and that you are perfectly capable of changing the entire world without such a close social bond. You’ll soon find out that human beings do not operate on such a paradigm. Whether blood related or not, people tend to gravitate to others, and eventually form a family unit. It’s a survival mechanism.

This is why I say to first work on yourself, then your family, and then the rest of the world. From this powerful core and support system you will have better resources, mental, material, and spiritual, in order to make breakthroughs with hundreds, thousands, or millions of people around the globe.

I leave you with this. Take into consideration how your global goal plays into your mission statement. Discover who you are going to be around your family in order to spread your message. Figure out how you will enroll the rest of the world into your possibilities.

当我们不能改变环境时，我们就要试着改变自己。”———Victor Frankl

有时我想，假如我能改变整个世界，按我的方式治理所有的事情，那么这个世界将会变得更好。我是个好人。我的意图也不坏。我希看每个人都能过得最好，这听起来是个很好的计划，不是吗？

为什么不就让我当世界之王呢？我将让世上最聪明的人们在我的内阁服务，幇我解决所有我不太懂的重要题目。而其余的事也会迎刃而解。

事实上，我们都会时不时地在脑海中浮现出这种想法。这是我们自我本能的欲看。要是我能为所欲为就好了。要是我能统治世界就好了。一个更勿庸置疑的事实就是目前我们谁都不可能成为世界之王。而这也会是个非常孤独的工作。太多的责任、太多的事情都压在一个人肩上。

那么，假如我们没有统治一切的至高权力，我们该如何着手改变这个世界呢？不幸的答案是这还得依靠我们个人来完成。固然不是世界之王，但是我们依靠个人深思熟虑和极大热情所带来的变化必将影响我们之外的世界。

我们影响最大的地方

我相信我们将气力集中在受我们潜伏影响最大的地方就能给世界带来最大的变化。这种集中，而不是将我们的气力平摊开来，可以使我们对每个人产生更直接的影响。

这世上我们影响最大的地方，不论你喜不喜欢，就是在我们的家庭中、在我们的朋友圈中。我们或许能成功地将我们的家人转化为信徒，他们甚至会变为我们最大的支援团，但或许也不能。达成这一点的关键并不在于他们如何对待我们，而在于我们自己的行为和我们采取的行动，在于我们对待他们的方式！

不论观点和信仰是否对立，都要能向家人表示同情、耐心、关爱和理解，这样做能幇我们增强对他人的移情能力。这种能力，在我看来，对人际关系来说至关重要，它也将根植于我们身上成为我们的第二天性。

我们对亲近的人（我们的家人和好友）拥有的高度影响力会使他们更易于熟悉这种行为，并接受它使之成为他们自己的行为。因此，我们是作为一个榜样，将同情、耐心、关爱和理解从一个人传向另一个人。

将影响扩大到另一个层次

改变我们家人的世界可能是很有个人成就感的事，但很多人要为取得更多改变世界的成果而奋斗才能满足自我。从某种意义来说，我们自我的使命就是征服世界。用爱还是破坏来征服这个世界则由我们每个人的自我意识决定。

你也许觉得家庭不一定是改变世界的第一步，你不需要这个紧密的社会纽带就能很好地改变整个世界。但你很快就会发现人类不是按这种模式生活的。不管是否有血缘关系，人们都趋向于相互吸引，并逐渐形成一个家族单位。这是一种生存机制。

这就是为什么我说首先要在自己身上下功夫，然后推向你的家庭，进而再达到之外的世界。从这个有力的核心和支持体系出发，你将会有更大的气力（思想的、物质的和精神的）在全球数百人、数千人、数百万人身上取得突破性进展。

我留下这些题目给你：考虑一下你的全球目标在你的使命中如何体现；为了传达你的信息,你在家庭中要成为一个怎样的人；如何将家庭之外的世界纳进到你可能的计划中。