Essential, Inherent Goodness

Question: If you could peel away all the outside stuff like behavior and pretending, do you believe human beings are basically good?

Certainly, there are some individuals in the world who think that people are essentially bad, and that goodness has to be pounded into us, more or less against our will. This attitude is a little hard to take, because most of us believe that we are, essentially and fundamentally, good. Just look at a baby – any baby in the world – if you want to test the idea.

Babies do not come into the world evil or resistant or fearful. Babies, given basic care and affection, are by nature happy little beings. This means that nearly all of us started out living in love and joy. Most of us live our lives with the best intentions, not the worst.

If you are not still living that way, it doesn’t mean you are bad. It means that somewhere along the way you were taught to expect less. You behaved accordingly, and less is what you got stuck with. But you don’t have to stay stuck. Change is possible. It happens every day, by people all over the world, and these people are no smarter or better or capable than you. The only difference is they made the decision to change.

Today and every day you have a choice to make: Do you want to be happy? Do you want to live a satisfying, productive, adventurous life?

If so, you can do it! Visualize it, affirm it in everything you do and say, and behave as if you already were! And you do not have to wait for a special day, like New Year’s Day, to begin. Start today, and then get ready for ever greater tomorrows!