Eric Schames - My 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World, inspired by Gandhi

My name is Eric Schames I believe it is important not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is a deep ocean so if a few drops are dirty, the whole ocean doesn’t necessarily become dirty.

Mahatma Gandhi who needs no long introduction has been a great inspiration of my belief system.  So let’s move on and let me share some of my favourite tips from Mahatma Gandhi.

1. Change yourself.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as in being able to remake ourselves.

If you change yourself you will change your world and if you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take.  So the world around you will change.  

If you don’t change yourself when you have changed your outer world you will still be you so when you reach the change you have strived for.  You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact and you will still not find what you hoped for since your mind is still seeping with the negative stuff. 

2. You are in control.

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

Whatever you feel and how you react to something is always up to you.  There may be a normal or common way to react to different things however that’s all it is.

You can choose your own thoughts, reactions and emotions to anything you don’t have to exasperate the situation and overreact in a negative way.  Perhaps not every time or instantly. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction just goes off. Or an old thought habit kicks in however as you learn that no-one outside yourself can control how you feel you can then begin to incorporate this into your daily life until it becomes habit. A habit that you can grow stronger over time, this will make your life a whole lot easier and more pleasurable.

3. Forgive and let it go.

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

You know fighting evil with evil doesn’t help anyone you can always choose how to react to something. So when you can incorporate such a thought habit more and more into your life then you can react in a way that is more useful to you and others.

If you don’t forgive then you allow the past and another person control how you feel. By forgiving you release yourself from those bonds..

4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere.

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

If you don’t take action you won’t achieve much.  However, taking action can be difficult.  There can be a lot of inner resilience so you may resort to preaching, as Gandhi says or reading and studying endlessly, feeling like you are moving forward but getting little or no practical results in real life.

5. Take care of this moment.

“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”

The best way I have found to overcome inner resistance preventing us from taking action is to stay in the present as much as possible and to be accepting.

6. Everyone is human.

“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”

“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

It’s important to keep in mind that everyone is just a human being no matter who they are.  To remember that we are all human and prone to make mistakes.  Holding people to unreasonable standards will only create more unnecessary conflicts in your world and negativity within it.

 

7. Persist.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Be persistent. In time the opposition around you will fade and fall away. And your inner resistance and self-sabotaging tendencies that want to hold you back and keep you like you have always been will grow weaker.

Success or victory will seldom come as quickly as you would have liked it to. I think one of the reasons people don’t get what they want is simply because they give up too soon.  The time they think an achievement will require isn't the same amount of time it usually takes to achieve that goal.   This faulty belief partly comes from the world we live in, a world full of magic pill solutions.

8. See the good in people and help them.

“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”

“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.”

“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”

There is always something good and bad in people and you can choose what things to focus on.  If you want improvement then focusing on the good in people is a useful choice. It also makes life easier for you as your world and relationships become more pleasant and positive.

By strengthening your social skills you can become a more influential person and make this upward spiral even stronger. 

9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”

One of the best tips for improving your social skills is to behave in a congruent manner and communicate in an authentic way. People really like authentic communication and there is much inner enjoyment to be found when your thoughts, words and actions are aligned.

If your actions aren't in alignment with what you’re communicating then you start to hurt your own belief in what you can do and other people’s belief in you too.

10. Continue to grow and evolve.

”Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”

You can always improve your skills and habits or re-evaluate your evaluations. You can gain deeper understanding of yourself and the world.

You may look inconsistent or like you don’t know what you are doing from time to time. You may have trouble to act congruently or to communicate authentically however if you don’t then, as Gandhi says, you will drive yourself into a false position.  A place where you try to uphold or cling to your old views to appear consistent while you realise within that something is wrong. It’s not a fun place to be. To choose to grow and evolve is a happier and more useful path to take.