How To Become A Good Person...?

  • Why does being ‘a good person’ have such a bad name? In the modern world, the idea of trying to be good or kind raises up all sorts of negative associations: of piousness, soberness, bloodlessness etc. It’s telling that if people call you ‘wicked’ that means that he is being praised .

    Yet the venture of being good is absolutely necessary , or in fact we can say that it has become even more important, for a society and on an individual level that we acquire goodness as this would result in a healthy society. However, we have no difficulty in to get fitter and for that going to the gym, but it sounds extremely weird and even creepy, to suggest someone that he might need to ‘work’ at becoming better or nice person. Because practice and exercise is equally healthy and important.

    It sounds weird to our ears because we never imagine that practice would have anything to do with being good and if it has any link with practicing it, then it’s only a course to being fake. We assume that either you just are good or you are not but exercise anywhere in this process can not be involved. This seems severely mistaken. Just as we have physical muscles any need exercise to remain healthy, just like that, we have ethical ones as well and they too must be put through their exercises. Why do we think that Goodness does not to be worked at? Majority of us are living in the fool’s paradise…

    In the ethical gym of the future, we might regularly be put through our paces. We would have to imagine how our life looks from other person’s eyes life, we would have to practice giving way in arguments and to accept other person’s point of views too. We would also have to learn to compete with the diplomacy of the society and tactics of paradigms of patience and learn to minus the hopelessness and gloom through deliberate measured quantity of hope in our lives on daily basis...

    Aristotle gave twelve key points that a man must practice to become  good human being. Out of these twelve, seven were argued by Christianity.

     

    There’s no scientific response to this, but the key to become a better person seems to be to have some kind of list with which to guide our efforts at being good. We all want better lives, until now, very few of the people have shown much interest in being better people.

    Following are the key exercises to become a good person;

    Flexibility:-

    Keeping moving forward even when things are looking dark, accepting that reversals are normal, remembering that in the end human nature is tough.

    Forbearance:-

    We lose our temper because we believe that things should be perfect. We have grown so good in some areas like sending men on the moon etc. that we are ever less to deal with things that still insist on going wrong; like traffic, government, office and other people… we should grow calmer and more forgiving by getting more realistic about how things actually tend to go.

    Empathy:-

    The ability to imaginatively connect yourself with the sufferings and unique experiences of other people. The courage to become someone else and looking back at yourself with honesty.

    Sacrifice:-

    We are so hardwired to seek for our own advantages but also have miraculous ability to pass by our own satisfaction in the name of someone or something else. We would not always manage to raise a family, love someone else or save a planet if we do not give up our satisfactions and learn the art of sacrifice.

    Self-Awareness:-

    To know oneself is to try not to blame others for one’s troubles and moods. To have a sense of what is going on inside oneself, and what actually belongs to the world.

    Forgiveness:-

    Forgiveness means a long memory of all times when we would not have got through life without someone cutting us slack. It is recognizing that living with others is not possible without forgiving and excusing their errors.

    Confidence:-

    The greater projects and schemes die for no grander reasons but because we do not dare. We need to learn this at first place that being confident means you are being arrogant. Confidence is based upon constant awareness of how short life is and how little we ultimately lose from risking things.

    Hope:-

    The way the world is now is only a pale shadow of what it could be one day. We are still at the beginning of the history. As you get older, despair becomes far more  easy, almost reflex where as in adolescence it was still cool and adventurous. Pessimism is not necessarily deep nor optimism shallow.

    Humor:-

    Seeing the funny side of the situations and of oneself does not sound very serious but it is integral to wisdom, because it’s a sign that one is able to put a generous  finger on the gap between what we want to happen and what life can actually provide, what we dream of being and what we actually are. What we actually hope other people will be like and what they actually are like.

    Like, anger, humor springs from disappointments but its disappointment optimally channeled. It is the best thing we can give do with our sadness.

    Politeness:-

    Politeness has a bad name. We often think it’s about being ‘fake’ which is meant to be bad. However, given what we are really like deep down, we should spare others too much exposure to our deeper selves. We need to learn ‘manners’, which are not evil… they are necessary internal rules of civilization. Politeness is very linked to tolerance, the capacity to live alongside people whom one will never agree with, but at the same time, can't avoid.