People have an innate desire to do good. They want to be good people, do well at tasks, succeed, grow, help others, etc. There’s always going to be evil and laziness, but those cases are the outliers. We’re hardwired – most of us – to improve what’s around us.

Every personality is different. Accordingly, those personalities seek to do good in different ways. For every different personality, there’s a different way of doing good. It’s fascinating!

Let’s look at a few examples. My father has a meek personality. His way of doing good is, effectively, to be the change he wishes to see in the world. He’s a quiet leader who takes every opportunity to do the right thing and improve the situation, whether it’s with his business, his community, or some other organization he’s apart of.

Let’s look at one of my best friends. He’s a seemingly simple guy, impassioned by what’s going on in the world. His way of doing good involves volunteering as a fireman. Anytime something goes terribly wrong in his town, he’s one of the first to show up. He’s directly helping to save lives and families. That kind of thing doesn’t fit for everyone, but it does for him.

Let’s look at me. I’m a quiet, thinker type. My way of doing good is sharing what I’ve learned and experienced to provide others with helpful resources to improve their own lives. At least for the moment, this is a good fit for me. This allows me to grow myself, and to help others grow in the process.

Other people choose law school. Others, the medical field. Military. Athletics. Big business. Youth camps. Ministry. Small business. Teaching. NGOs. Parenting.

People naturally want to leave the world a better place than when they came into it. And that’s incredible! Everyone is trying to find their own way – however small or large – of doing good! Bust most of the time we don’t pay attention to it.

We think the young person who enters the military does so because they couldn’t do anything else. We think the beautician was a failure in college. That the artist is too immature to get a “real job.” That the wealthy are trying to buy islands instead of starting charities.

We’re built with a desire to improve the world. But our first thoughts when we see others trying to fulfill that desire is negative. Why is that? I think it’s because we want to feel that we’re doing more good than the next person. So we put others down to build ourselves up. But that’s not the point.

The majority of the population is trying to do good on a regular basis. They’re trying to improve the world how they see it, in the way that fits best with them and their own personality. We need to acknowledge that.

We need to encourage others instead of tearing them down so that we can all help each other improve everyone’s situation. We need to work together in our own unique ways to leave the world a better place than how we found it.