How the world changes

There is merit in reflecting on how the world changes – and even more, how our personal world changes. There are three insights I’ve gained from contemplating this question. First, our world – and the vast majority of what shapes our quality of life – is local. That doesn’t mean adopting a parochial attitude and ignoring global issues. Rather, it means paying attention to your immediate context.

Where you live, who you live with, your living space, where you work, who you work with, how you spend your leisure time, whether you fill your life with good experiences and positive people who love and support you. I’d go so far as to say that what happens within a 10-mile radius of your home is crucial for your happiness.

The second insight is that our view of the world is almost entirely dependent on our baseline. How things were when we were a child or when we were growing up – when we learned about the world beyond ourselves – this is the baseline against which we judge progress, our perception of whether the world in general – and our life in particular – is getting better or worse. Sometimes it helps to remember how short term, myopic and subjective this viewpoint is.

The third lesson I’ve learned is that every generation, every decade, every moment has its challenges and advances, its defeats and victories, its problems and solutions. So, while it is vital to keep fighting for the causes of justice and sustainability – and celebrating progress when we make it – we should never expect to be “done”. Like the yin-yang symbol, each problem contains the seed of its solution, and each solution seeds another problem. This is life.