It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the suffering we’re seeing in the world right now. Although things are evolving faster than before, the awareness we now have of the misery happening around us is heartbreaking.

The soul of the Earth is crying for change.

Global warming, racial injustice, poverty, mental health, disease… We all want this to change. But it takes time to uplift a system that has been in place for centuries.

I’m struggling with how to approach this and contribute to change things. Growing up as a white, privileged, guy, I know very little about racial injustice. But falling into despair about all the pain in the world would be of service to no one. Bringing attention to the issue is my starting point.

I wish I could do more, but I remind myself that change starts from within. Sure, you can go about and change the world out of anger and resentment. But your impact will be far bigger if you do so from a place of virtue and love.

The greatest action we can do to act on the misery around us, is to change ourselves first. And boy, trust me, that’s a lot of work.

It may sound cheesy and redundant, but I believe this is the best we can do. First, do the inner work. Then, go change the world. Without a good inner balance, we may just end up making things worse.

If you are really serious about changing things now, then you need to have stronger foundations than ever before. Because some of the world is heartless and full of darkness. You’ll need to have strength for two.

With this in mind, I’m committing to go all-in as a writer and a coach. I know I still have a long way to go, but I don’t want to hide in the comfort of my ignorance anymore. If anything, what happened this year has given me more courage and determination to follow my path.

Sure, it may sound selfish to focus so much on yourself. But face it, we have a lot of work to do on ourselves first. If everyone decided to live a life of virtue and act as their best self, the problems we are facing right now would naturally solve themselves.

Again, I’m just trying to figure out what he can do to reduce the suffering in the world. But even if I understand very little, I know that acting out of anger, guilt or shame will not solve anything.

My commitment to living with virtue, exemplifying it, and following my path, is more valuable. I won’t pretend I can shoulder all the world’s miseries on my shoulders — I’ll start by doing the work on myself.