Photo:
Picjumbo
20 What is the big picture?
Relax! Today’s
article links you to your world without requiring you to save
that world. Humans enjoy context (the big picture,
your world). This is comforting if you agree with Friday’s
message that the world is beautiful. Now we consider
how that helps.
When we see ourselves in
the bigger picture of reality, that affects three areas of our
personhood:
1. Perspective gives meaning to our lives; we feel
purpose in our being.
Life includes a feedback loop. In lay
terms, that means that making a little progress inspires making
more progress. Every success amplifies the next. We
tend to do as well as we think we are doing. Thinking about
our mistakes makes us less courageous. On the other hand,
when we do anything positive, that increases our expectation of
additional positive experiences. --
2. We appreciate relationships to our environment
and to other people.
We draw strength from favorable resources and
people. Knowing about service organizations provides
channels that help us give service. Surrounded by similar
efforts, our minds see progress as the normal course ahead.
We are blessed by the tools we recognize and the company we
keep. --
3. We draw succor from not being alone.
Seeing good examples everywhere could overawe us,
but a healthy sense of individuality will let us feel valued
differently. We do not have to equal the outstanding
leaders we admire. Our comfort and satisfaction lie in
being engaged in doing the same kind of service, whatever the
scale of our projects. We do not expect to be the giants of
our generation. We are sufficiently sustained by realizing
that we are also engaged on the path to progress, and the world
would amount to less without our individual
contributions. --
The two prior articles
advised, respectively, measuring and appreciating wisely.
Greatness is the aggregate of those qualities. Doing right
assures us that we are necessary to the big picture, and we
are saving the world.
Being For Others Blog copyright © 2020 Kent Busse
Have you shared this with someone?
