๐ ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐ข๐๐ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ซ ๐๐จ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ข๐๐ก๐๐๐ฅ ๐ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฌ
(book available at amazon.com $12.95)
๐๐ก๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐จ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฏ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐ข๐๐
๐๐จ๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ณ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
One of the greatest problems countries face all over the world is the polarization of its peoples. Some of these issues include, religion, race, political party, tribe, socioeconomic status, class, Look all over the world and back into history and see how these differences have ravaged and continues to ravage the world.
Some examples:
โข Rohinga in Myanmar - Isis has killed thousands of its fellow Muslims, proudly showing some of these killings by gruesome public beheadings.
โข Genocide in Ruwanda - In the Rwandan genocide tribal gangs of Hutu gangs killed an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 members of the Tutsi tribe and raped an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 women.
โข Boko Harim in Nigeria - In Nigeria, Boko Haram has killed thousands and displaced 2.3 million from their homes.
โข Isis in the middle East - Isis has killed thousands of its fellow Muslims, proudly showing some of these killings by gruesome public beheadings.
โข
These killing do not come from invasions but they are all killing their own people.
Democracy sounds great but how many are killed come election time? It is a great system because through elections the people speak. But, they also riot, murder, cheat, intimidate. The sad fact is democracy severely polarizes people in Jamaica and all over the world. In addition:
โข It is expensive
โข It breeds hostility
โข It is so corrosive it scares good people away from becoming candidates
โข It produces politicians who as a class are disdained by people in general
โข It create almost cult-like followers
โข It wastes valuable resources on perpetuating itself
โข It breeds corruption and favoritism
The fact is that people become so polarized that they kill each other. The goodwill revolution recognizes this problem as its objective is to create goodwill to all regardless of any kind of difference including political differences.
Sure Jamaica is not as bad as these examples, but Jamaicans are killing each other at an alarming rate. Crime, violence and political corruption are rampant. Beloved reggae icons Bob Marley was shot in Jamaica and . Peter Tosh was shot and killed in Jamaica by our own fellow Jamaicans. Jamaica was not good enough for Louise Bennett and Jimmy Cliff to retire. Our beloved Louise Bennett left Jamaica to spend her declining years abroad in Canada. Jimmy Cliff chose England. A Jamaicanโs home is his castle but instead of a moat for protection, he must live behind bars, burglar bars.
โThe people united can never be defeated.โ
This is absolutely true, but, people are being defeated everywhere. Politicians have the primary task of keeping people united. Unfortunately, an effective tactic for gaining political power is by dividing people and turning them against each other. So we see these ruthless politicians like Donald Trump, use divisive tactics such as race, religion, class, national origin to gain power. He gains power over the people, but the people are defeated. We need politicians who can bring people together, politicians with goodwill for all.
So what is being done about this evil? No enough. Not enough in the world. Not enough in Jamaica
Too often we look to America for solutions because its culture is dominating the world. But, that culture is the greatest proponent of the money-hogging power-seeking rat race. They have elected a dishonest, racist liar as president for Godโs sake! According to Center for Economic and Policy Research, America has killed 40,000 innocent Venezuelans in about six months with their sanctions in their attempt to install their puppet as president. Such heinous actions do not seem to raise much moral outrage and thatโs a substantial part of the problem. How can we oppose evil when so many fail to recognize it or are so complacent?
The fact is Jamaica, with all its flaws, is far superior to the vaunted America in the execution of democratic principles. Money has completely undermined their system. Jamaican politicians, both JLP and PNP, represent the people. American politicians represent the big multi-national corporations and the ultra- rich who fund their expensive political campaigns.
Apathy and complacency to evil is a worldwide crisis, but, it is business as usual. Instead we continue to promote money and power to the status of gods. But unless we do something about it, evil will continue to flourish. Jamaica must break out of that mold for things could get even worse. Jamaica must seek its own solution. We have had some band aids but we need a whole cultural revolution. Jamaica needs to join and lead the revolution, the Goodwill Revolution, and show the world.
But, you probably think, โMoney is so wonderfulโ and frown on goodwill as sort of corny and unglamorous. Since we are addicted to money, we are conditioned to think so. If we break that addiction, then we will be able to appreciate the true merits and genuine satisfaction of goodwill.
It is the contention of this author, after much soul searching, that goodwill towards all is better than money because, compared to money, goodwill will make you happier and the world a better place. Read on and we will show you why goodwill is better than money and how joining this Goodwill Revolution will make the world a better place.
So what is the goodwill revolution anyhow? The goodwill revolution is a down-with-money-up-with-people revolution. The Goodwill Revolution seeks to restore human values by emphasizing that humans are social beings by making a conscious effort to reach out to all people and to fight against the excesses of materialism, the materialism that has devalued humans and our values.
Allow me to introduce the product of the goodwill revolution, Goodwillism. Goodwillism is a philosophy which advocates that the prime guiding principle of life should be the creation of goodwill towards all regardless of race, religion, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, class, political party and so on. Ideas in Goodwillism may seem familiar. They are all not new, but in Goodwillism these ideas have been compiled, organized and marshalled in such a way as to impact our prevailing money-hogging rat race culture. And, not just to impact it, but to replace it with a better one. The ideas of Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King play prominent roles. The spread of goodwillism requires revolution, hence the goodwill revolution.
Goodwillism is a realistic, practical movement to fight consumer mania, improve your life, the lives of others, your community and the world by promoting goodwill to all. โGoodwill to allโ is not new. It is the original message of Christmas given to man by the angels. But, this message has languished on the back burner and plays little role in our present rat race-society. Now, through the Goodwill Revolution, it will play a dominant role for the betterment of all.
You are invited to join the Goodwill Revolution and thus become a goodwillist or less formal name, a goodwillie. So, join the Goodwill Revolution against the addiction, worship and corrupting influence of money by organizing around โgoodwill to allโ in order to achieve a more happy meaningful life, better relationships and build a better world. But, today Jamaica, tomorrow the world!
We have made astounding technological advances but our strife-filled world is falling apart like a great Humpty Dumpty. The villain is this corrupting influence of money on our values, political system, our leaders, justice, the media and our entire society in general. The Goodwill Revolution is a systematic comprehensive plan to put Humpty Dumpty back together again by harnessing the inherent goodness of man to fix the severe problems of society. It will seek to transform the plethora of adversarial relationships to amicable relationships. It will devalue money and revalue people. It will unleash the unrecognized, unstoppable power of goodwill to overcome money mania to achieve real happiness.
Be Extra Nice to Everyone Every Time Regardless
Jamaicans will have to abandon and reject that mean-spirited rat race philosophy and adopt the goodwillism philosophy. The aim of the goodwillism philosophy is to make the world, not just Jamaica, a better place. Granted we have limited influence, but will not be deterred by that. Our music has captured the world. Goodwillism will make Jamaica a better place. The world will follow later.
We must seek to be extra nice to every one every time regardless. As a goodwillist, we must make a conscious effort to try to be, not just nice to everyone we encounter, but be the nicest we can be.
1. Befriend all โ use goodwill to be a friend to everyone
2. Do good deeds
3. Appreciate and acknowledge good deeds - athletes, entertainers
4. Oppose bad and evil deeds but in such a way that goodwill is maintained with the perpetrator.
5. Proselytizing - Converting others and spreading the goodwillism philosophy
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐จ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฏ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
1. Abandon Materialism โ
โข Choosing to be happy rather than to be rich
โข Recognizing and resisting our addiction to money and materialism
โข Making a strong deliberate effort to reduce our appetite for material things.
โข Rejecting the manipulation, snobbery and propaganda of advertising
โข Making a conscious effort to be happy with less
โข Refusing to buy extravagant earth-resource-stripping products like gas guzzling SUVโs, and hotel-size homes.
โข Admiring people on the basis of their good deeds and their character rather than on the amount of money they have or their celebrity status.
Actively seek goodwill to all with no exceptions
โข Improve our relationships with family, friends and all people in general.
โข Reach out to be a friend to all but especially those who differ from us by race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, politics, and so on.
โข Make a special effort to get to know people better
โข Try to find the good in all
โข Try to overcome the fear of rejection in reaching out to befriend all
โข Embrace goodwill to all including those who do not like us.
โข Try to make sure that all interactions with people are positive and uplifting regardless of how obnoxious and belligerent the other person might seem to be.
โข Constantly seek opportunities to do good deeds
โข Acknowledge and appreciate the good deeds of others.
2. Oppose anything that destroys goodwill such as war, injustice, exploitation, derision
โข Oppose belligerence and hostility with goodwill.
โข Oppose bad and evil deeds but in such a way that goodwill is maintained with the perpetrator
3. Renounce aggressiveness, vengeance and belligerence; as anger distorts reason and good judgement
โข Choose reconciliation over retaliation and revenge
โข Shun retaliation and instead try to convert an enemy into a friend.
Goals
Goodwillists seek, to be less dependent on money, lots of friends, a warm friendly, fair and just environment, and a better world. To obtain lots of friends we need to improve our relationships with others. In our present society, relationships between people are too often just lukewarm. This is because they have been trivialized and treated as unimportant. The main focus of the Goodwill Revolution is to use goodwill to improve and strengthen all sorts of relationships between people.
In simplest terms this goal is to become friends to everyone. We want to be friends with our spouses, our relatives, our neighbors, our co-workers, people we do not even know, people who do not even want to be friends with us, or as I said before everyone, the world.
Now I have heard many a motivational speaker, respected psychologists and similar professionals advise the opposite. These motivational speakers started off wrong anyhow. It seems that they always begin with some personal rags-to-riches story of their life that they are passing on and how they did it. So success to them is achieving these riches from rags. They have a lot of good advice but unfortunately they are reinforcing this money mania. Their message is not goodwill to all but to some, a select few. They want us to collect only the โniceโ people, the beautiful people, the positive people, the desirable people as friends. We are supposed to collect friends who enhance us. And, we should shun the other so-called negative people. I even heard one expert refer to these people unworthy of our friendship as โtoxicโ people, people who will drag us down. Often, these are the people who really need friends. Of course, it is probably much easier and customary to put up these discriminating criteria and all sorts of qualifications on friends. Do you qualify to be their friend and do they qualify to be yours? I mention this to make it perfectly clear that these exclusions are completely opposite to goodwillism goals. When we say โto allโ we mean โto allโ. Besides, our way should be different from the norm. It is after all a revolution, a goodwill-to-all revolution.
To improve relationships with people we have got to upgrade our relationship skills, our people skills. To do that we need to examine them closely and see how and where we can improve them. How do we treat people now and how can we do better?
Be a friend to everyone
โA stranger is a friend that I have not yet met.โ - Unknown
โI never met a man I did not like.โ โ Will Rodgers
โI do not want any friendsโ. My friend of many years said that to me with great conviction. I was lucky to be the exception but unfortunately such a statement is not uncommon among many people. It is a symptom of how our society has deteriorated until friends have become undesirable. Through the goodwill revolution we seek to reverse that. Our money centered culture has so devalued people that they are undesirable or unworthy of the effort as friends. We seek the comfort and refuge of money at the expense of friends. Besides, we fear our offer of friendship might expose us to the pain of rejection, the uncertainty of distrust, fear of insincerity and the risk of exploitation and vulnerability. Yes, so many withdraw to the security of money, of materialism and abandon fickle unreliable โfriendsโ.
So what is our society to become, a bunch of isolated money-seeking hermits? It seems headed that way but we goodwillists rebel against that trend. We do not go along with this devaluation of people. We revalue them. We consider people to be very important to our society. We, like the Quakers, seek a society of friends so we seek to befriend all. We unashamedly and without reservation seek goodwill towards all. This is the primary goal of the goodwill revolution. We want to befriend everyone.
We, goodwillists, are not afraid to admit that we want people to like us. We think this is a very worthy goal and a goal which most people share, but secretly.
Being a good friend makes you valuable. Here is the logic:
โข A good friend is valuable.
โข A good friend to some or all makes you valuable to some or all.
โข A bad friend is not valuable.
โข A bad friend is not valuable to anyone.
So be a good friend, even to a bad friend, and increase your worth.
This is not always easy, especially in our jaded society. In this quest to achieve it, we will face distrust, insincerity, exploitation and even ridicule. We have got to use all our skills, good judgment, all of our smarts, to overcome these real obstacles in order to accomplish this. Yes, we can anticipate strong opposition especially from the victims of the money addiction, but we must fight on.
The rhythm and blues group called War raised an important question in their lyrics. which asks instead, โWhy canโt we be friends? Why canโt we be friends?โ
I am a goodwillist means I want to be friends with everyone. It fully recognizes that this is a tall order if not virtually impossible to achieve. Besides people have all sorts of different criteria for friends. Regardless of what we do, we may never qualify. We can only control our actions. So, if we canโt become friends with everyone, let us try to be friendly to everyone.
As goodwillists we must make a constant conscious effort to avoid the actions which discourage friendship and do those that make us more desirable. So we need to first of all investigate what are the traits that make us likable and the ones that make us unlikeable?
Like - Why do you like someone? Because they are:
1.funny
2. friendly
3. same race as you
4.pretty
5.smart and intelligent
6. kind
7.unselfish
8 good listener
9.interesting
10.pays attention to me
11 shows concern for me
12 shows concern for others
13 upbeat
14 laughs at my jokes
15 hates the same things I do
16 likes the same things I do
17 brave
18 educated
19 considerate
20 understanding
21 witty
22 fun-loving
23 serious
24 ambitious
25 honest
26 tactful
27 other ----------
Dislike - Why do you dislike someone? Because they are:
1.loud
2. Rude
3. Obnoxious
4. Stupid
5. Insulting
6. Inconsiderate
7. Selfish
8 uneducated
9. domineering
10 bossy
11 boring
12 too talkative
13 no sense of humor
14 mean
15 boastful
16 lecherous
17 unpopular, unliked by others
18 rich
19 other race or religion, nationality
20 derisive
21 belligerent
22 uncaring
23 constantly puts people down
24 profane
25 withdrawn
26 cowardly
27 insincere
28 lies
29 dishonest
30 steals
31 low status
32 poor/rich
33 unpopular with others
34 too complaining
35 snobbish
36 insensitive
37 ugly
38 fat/thin
39 bad dresser
40 ignores me
41 too depressing
42 too religious
43 too argumentative
44 too embarrassing
45 too unfriendly
46 too negative
47 too nosy
48 other -------------
Rank the top 10 in each category.
"The unexamined life is not worth living" or how do you stack up on your own rankings? Hopefully this self-examination will point out areas you need to improve.
As a goodwillist we must always strive to do things to make people feel good. Making someone the brunt of jokes is very popular but it does not make that person feel good. Derision, sarcasm, and ridicule do not make the subject of such actions feel good. It does the opposite.
Some examples:
โข Growing up as a kid in Jamaica, making fun of people was very popular. I remember racking my brains to come up with a great insult in order to gain respect among my friends. One of my creative bests was โyou are a bombastic superflastic warra warra dead dogโ. That was a winner and I was very proud of it. When I called someone that, it got lots of laughs. How ridiculous! Of course, we are all familiar with probably the most popular method of humiliating someone is to curse them out with a barrage of our own unique profanity. Although this is considered vulgar and vile, Jamaicans use them often. So as a goodwillie, we must abandon โbad wudsโ and focus on words that will uplift spirits.
โข I leave my home in Maryland to fly to Columbus, Ohio to watch and cheer on Jamaica in a qualifying World Cup football match. I arrive the day before the game. So that evening, I go to the hotel bar to meet up with other Jamaican supporters to rally round the team. There I find some loudmouth, not talking football, but launching some homophobic rant against some โbattymanโ. I went back to my room.
โข Another time I was on holiday in Negril. Again Jamaica was playing USA in a World Cup football qualifier. Jamaica had some crucial injuries and the US was highly favoured. Rather than stay in my Negril hotel, I sought out a local bar to join my fellow Jamaicans to cheer on our team. I was so enthusiastic about the occasion. Jamaica fell behind early and from that time, a couple of loudmouths dominated the bar, criticizing and berating the Jamaica coach and certain players. I wish I had stayed in my hotel.
Recently I heard a Jamaican comedian on the web. This comedianโ act was a steady stream of abusing the physical appearance of an American celebrity. It was in no way funny. As a Jamaican, I was embarrassed.
Too often in Jamaica we routinely put people down. The goodwill revolution routinely tries to lift people up.
So goodwillists must give up this type of unfriendly behavior. Too many have become so accustomed to using and accepting these traits as essential to making conversation interesting, that they might be reluctant to give them up. They feel compelled to display their acid wit by picking on someone for โgoodheartedโ ribbing. It might seem trivial, but this โgoodhearted ribbing contributes to the acceptance of a certain meanness in our rat race culture. Remove some sort of derision from some peopleโs conversation and they would be mute. As goodwillists we need to be on the lookout to avoid traits like these that make people feel bad. We might be very comfortable with them, even dependent on them, but they are not worth holding on to.
Enemy but no retaliation
Enemies are friends with problems.
What is an enemy? Someone we dislike? Not good enough. Someone who does bad things to us or to our friends?
It happens all the time . An enemy has done you a great wrong. He might have insulted your mother. He might have ridiculed you. He might have told an evil lie about you. He may have physically assaulted you. What do you do? Generally if someone does something mean to you then you want to retaliate by doing something even meaner to them. Retaliation means escalation. Itโs payback time. Even if a friend does something bad to you, you want to pay the friend back. But, letโs take the worse case scenario. An enemy does something mean to you. Shouldnโt we aim for the best most desirable outcome of that situation? The popular and acceptable response is to retaliate so severely that the enemy will not do it again.
But that is not the best possible outcome. The best possible outcome is that your enemy becomes your friend. And, if that is the best outcome, should we not do what it takes to achieve it? Goodwillists always go for the best possible outcome first.
So, instead of retaliation we seek reconciliation. But in order to reconcile, we have to forgive. With anger burning inside us, it can be tough to forgive. It is even better for your health to forgive.
We have to learn how to forgive. The anger, resentment and blame that many people hold on to, often for years can actually cause health problems. Learning how to forgive could prove to be curative. Negative emotions, such as anger, resentment and blame, can cause stress to build up in the body. Where there is excessive stress, there is the potential for all sorts of physical, mental and emotional problems. Most notably, elevated stress levels can impair the bodyโs immune system, putting you at risk for heart disease, chronic pain and depression, among many other debilitating conditions. On the other hand, letting go of grudges and bitterness can make way for happiness, health and peace. This inability to forgive, โunforgivenessโ, can ruin our relationships, rob us of our happiness, and even impact our physical health.
Forgiveness can be heroic. Be a hero.
Twenty-one-year-old white racist Dylann Roof was welcomed into the Emmanuel AME church bible class in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. After one hour there, he took out a gun and systematically shot and killed nine black people, six women and three men. He reloaded the gun many times and several victims received multiple gun shots. He admitted shooting them because they were black.
The survivors confronted him in court. They were in pain. They were crying. They were angry. But, they were heroic. I felt so proud of them. Despite all their pain. โWe forgive youโ. Yes, they offered their forgiveness to the cold-blooded killer! The words of the daughter of one of the victims, Ethyl Lance, was typical of the group.
"I will never talk to her (her mother) ever again,,,,,. "I will never be able to hold her ever again. But I forgive you."
Or as a relative of the slain Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor said:
"I am a work in progress and I acknowledge that I am very angry. โฆโฆWe are the family that love built. We have no room for hate so we have to forgive."
There are some other very practical reasons not to retaliate. Retaliation is pretty much not a rational but an emotional response. Emotions can make you do some pretty irrational things like retaliating and getting beaten to a pulp. Or retaliating and beating someone to a pulp and ending up in the hoosegow. โI showed him, but it is so miserable here in jail!โ How often on the sports field, it is the one that retaliates that get penalized.
Do Good Deeds
I remember driving home in the US from work one evening. I was about two miles from home in heavy traffic, when suddenly my clutch seemed to have gone haywire. I struggled to maneuver the car to the shoulder, where it finally came to rest. Anger and frustration descended on me as I bemoaned my complete mechanical ignorance. Within seconds another car pulled over and out jumped a white youth.
โI saw you pull over. Problem?โ he asked. I explained what happened and the next moment he was lying on the ground peering under my car.
โThe clutch cable is broken. Itโs not too serious and the gas station across the way should be able to fix it.โ And he was gone without a โheigh-o silver!โ โWho was that masked man?โ, I wondered. โTo stop so spontaneously and help an old middle-aged black man that he did not know from Adam.โ The benevolence of the act overwhelmed my frustration and I felt good that sunmmer evening. Not only then, but when I think back about that kind spontaneous act, I feel good all over again.
A goodwillist strives to do good deeds. Good deeds make you feel good. It makes the person you did the good deed for feel good. Even people who observe the good deed feel good too. In fact doing a good deed can be more satisfying than buying a Lexus. The novelty of the fancy car soon wears off, the payments become onerous, and it does not generate the good feelings in others particularly.
A popular antidote for feeling unhappy, which does not really work, is to go out and, yes, buy something impulsively. Lots of people swear by that remedy, but let me emphasize. โIt does not work!โ I wonder who ever came up with that idea. Probably some Madison Avenue advertising exec. โJust go into debt and you will feel better.โ โBuy something you do not need and you will feel better.โ Get real. If you really want to feel better, do a good deed. Find someone to help. There is power in good deeds. They are therapeutic.
Savor good deeds
Good deeds make you feel good.. Savor them. If you do a good deed, make an effort to enjoy how it makes you feel good. If you see a good deed, enjoy it too and tell others about it so they can enjoy it too. In so doing we create a climate that will foster and stimulate goodwill.
Unfortunately they are those that will try to impose on your good deeds. You should not allow this as this might be exploitation. This is where again we must use good judgement, tact, and our communication skills. For although we should avoid this type of exploitation, at the same time we should do it in such a way as not to hurt the feelings of the potential exploiter.
Goodwill Quotient
We need to get in the habit of doing good deeds. We drive every day so be on the lookout to be courteous and yield the right of way to other drivers or pedestrians whenever we can. We spend most of our waking hours at work, so seek ways to be friendly and do good deeds to all your co-workers. The more we do them, the more conditioned we become and the easier it will be.
So doing good deeds are an essential part of being a goodwillist. When was the last time you did a good deed? I think tangible goals are a good thing so maybe goodwillists should set themselves a good deeds frequency target. How about at least one good deed per month? In order to establish some sort of our own personal measurement of our goodwillistness, we could use a sort of a goodwillist quotient (GQ). This good deeds frequency would then become a part of your GQ. So let us define GQ as the number of good deeds per year, which would mean that a frequency of 1 per month would be equivalent to a GQ of 12. Aim high!
Do it anyway
We have stated that doing good basically is its own reward. But, not always. Unfortunately, and much too often, we encounter ingratitude, โsharper than the serpentโs toothโ. Yes, ingratitude, does hurt and can undermine your resolve to do good. Gratitude is nice, but donโt expect it nor even set it as a condition. Do it anyway.
Fortunately a more comprehensive guide has already been established for goodwillists to follow. No description of goodwillism would be complete without it. It is the Paradoxical Commandments by Dr. Kent M. Keith.(originally quoted in my book, โBoycott Money and Save Your Soul โ Launcjing the Goodwill Revolutionโ) Goodwillists, obey these commandments. Nail them up on a wall and check yourself from time to time.
The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith
1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
Goodwill can make you invincible
Extending goodwill to strangers is actually easy. But, maintaining goodwill to someone close to you, who has betrayed you, has stabbed you in the back, is really tough. Overcoming treachery is probably the biggest hurdle and is probably why so many relationships between family and friends have been poisoned. Enduring loss of trust and bitterness can come from the slightest of misdeeds too and especially among families. Feuding is just not allowed. Healing relationships is very important to goodwillists so be committed to using all your skills, patience and resolve to try to heal things. Good relationships are better than bad ones so why not work towards creating, maintaining and restoring good ones? Itโs hard. Your anger, your pride, your compulsion to retaliate, gets in the way. But, if you overcome these to maintain goodwill, a bonus lies ahead. The more you do this the stronger you will get and after awhile you will become invincible. Those knives in your back will bounce back and will no longer hurt you.
In addition, there are many who will try to abuse and exploit the very good deeds that you do. But, goodwillists do it anyway. But let me emphasize once again, goodwillists are required to use all their skills and wits and intelligence to use good judgment in the performance of these good deeds.
Triple โAโ them โ Aware, Acknowledge, Appreciate
Ever been to a sports event? The batter hits a home run or the soccer player scores a goal. The spectators erupt in tremendous applause. They show their appreciation. Appreciation is so important. It is so important that it should not be given only to athletes and rock stars and just celebrities. Goodwillists should always strive to express their appreciation for good deeds. It is what the shrinks refer to as positive reinforcement. Good deeds make us feel good and by expressing appreciation we encourage the generation of more good deeds. Ok, so we donโt have to jump up and cheer, but a simple compliment can do wonders. And, it is so easy to do.
Many people just love to criticize. Of course constructive, tactful, helpful criticism has an important role to play. But, alas, seldom that is the case. Overwhelmingly it is these destructive criticizers. Donโt let these chronic criticizers suck you into their dogmatic world. Instead of constantly looking for bad things to criticize people, letโs look for good things to compliment them. Too often good deeds go unnoticed or are taken for granted. Taking things for granted is the enemy of appreciation and is too commonplace. All good deeds are important and deserve to be noticed. We are probably so conditioned to ignoring good deeds but we must resist it. So before we can appreciate, we must be Aware of the good deed. To be aware we must pay attention. We must be vigilant for good deeds and must Acknowledge them. So, with regards to the performer of good deeds, goodwillists must resist taking them for granted and Triple A them instead. The triple Aโs are:
1. Be Aware
2. Acknowledge
3. Appreciate
Be Aware of good deeds, Acknowledge them, and show Appreciation for them. In short, Triple A them.
Goodwillists should always be on the lookout for reasons and opportunities to compliment. Compliment good deeds, good service, good job, good performanceโฆall the good things. I always go out of my way to compliment people as long as they deserve it. Triple A them. They donโt have to perform Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning stuff too.
Certificate of Appreciation
A very important way to do good is to volunteer. Let us formally show our appreciation to volunteers. So, let us award to volunteers a written document to show appreciation. The certificate of appreciation would state , the name of the awardee, the date , task, number of hours involved and the name, signature and the contact information of the organizer of the volunteer service. The volunteer work should not be taken for granted or forgotten, so this Certificate of Appreciation would be a permanent reminder. Furthermore, it would become a part of the volunteerโs resume in job seeking and serve as a reference.
Everyday Goodwillist
We have got to incorporate goodwillist traits in our everyday life so that it becomes a habit. We drive every day. Donโt let other drivers cut you off. Beat them to the punch and yield the right of way to them. We go to a restaurant or the supermarket and encounter a surly server or clerk. Most people react by trying to out-surl them. Others avoid such persons, but, as a goodwillist, I seek out the surly person and try to make them cheerful. I do it all the time and my unexpected friendly reaction usually shocks the surliness out of them. I feel good and they feel good. Mission accomplished.
Most of your waking hours are spent at work. So the workplace is a good place to hone and practice your goodwillist skills. Be sure to befriend all co-workers but go even beyond that. Consider your co-workers and you a team and try to generate team spirit. Having played sports all my life, I think the camaraderie it engendered was even better than the sport itself. So, why not in the ordinarily dreary workplace too?
Unique
It would be unrealistic and even unfair for many of those who spent their lives acquiring material things to throw them away in order to join the Goodwill Revolution. Such a transition is probably very tough. We want to bring people together, even those that reject the Goodwill Revolution. But I think it is reasonable to no longer make materialism to continue to be their lifeโs goal. Stop that and welcome to the Goodwill Revolution
But, this goodwill revolution is unique from other revolutions. Many other revolutions, despite their outstanding merits, have had their reign of terror. But not the goodwill revolution. For goodwill is our goal and also our means to achieve that goal. We will win over our opponents with goodwill. We will seek to make friends of them, to convert them to be goodwillists too.
But, donโt expect gratitude, appreciation or even positive results right away. Many people are so (conditioned) screwed up by the rat race, that they will be cynical and suspicious. Some will even try to exploit our goodness. Give them time. Persevere.
The more converts we make, the better our environment becomes. We are making a better Jamaica at least one person at a time. But, donโt be impatient.
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