My husband recently gave me a card that boldly stated; This is your world. Shape it or someone else will.  He gave me this card as a reminder. He gave me this card because I had forgotten. What had I forgotten? How powerful the force of one person’s life-affirming focus can be on not only their own life, but also on the life of our world.

In the times we are living in, it can be so easy to forget that everything great that has ever shifted humankind has begun in the mind of one. And then, through association with “a one,” these different ways of seeing and being in the world have gone on to grow in the minds of enough of us that the balance finally gets tipped in a new direction. This has happened in all of our historically great social movements; causes that had to initially withstand ridicule, nay saying, disbelief, suspicion, and violence.

And while each “cause” that has ever moved us has had to make its way through and past what was unjust, unfair, and ignorant, ultimately, each movement has had to come to define itself around what it stands for; what it is trying to build and create and spread in the world. Ultimately, it has had to decide to live by a different truth, no matter what consensual reality is saying or doing.

Pick your pet peeve about the direction the world is spiraling in. What could you do to withdraw your energies and attention from what you do not want, and instead, direct them to what you most want in the world? Could you maybe watch less news? Could you maybe not spend time connecting with others over the injustices and the horrors of the world? Could you maybe not spend your days going over and over and over again inside your own mind all the things that terrify you about what is going on? Where could you be brave enough to stand for what you want as opposed to silently colluding with, or being a victim to, around what you do not want?

Try this: Unless something is working for you, don’t choose it; in any way, shape, or form.

P.S. Notice all the ways that the mind will tell you that to do this means that you will be unsafe, uninformed, ignorant, or naive if you do not link into the current “realities.” This is never about denying what is there. It is instead about choosing to focus your energy and attention on what it is that you most want to grow, be, and stand for in the world. Who will be brave enough?