I have loved doing this blog over the past couple of months but I have to move to more pressing issues in my life and career. In trying to Change the World I need to begin taking more action which is what I plan to do.

I am going to have this post up for a few days with a final message.

Look outside yourself. I have written many posts on being introverted or extroverted and various charities, groups and organizations; about character and humanity; about people and the way the world interacts with you and you the world.

My idea I want to present to you now is to see the extroversion inside of you (isn’t that a contradictory statement). I have said before that there are people who can travel the world and be in incredible places and experiences and not even look outside themselves.

The reason I love to stare up at the stars or watch the sun rise and set is because it reminds me of my place in the universe. I am nothing without those around me as far reaching as the other side of the world. A person is nothing without other people. To look only within yourself is to not except the power and importance of those who you may not even know.

To live solely for yourself is vain but to live for yourself and the world is empowering. Helping those outside your own comfort zone actually has benefits for all, including yourself. The Golden Rule is called golden for a reason.

As I sit here outside by a fire, after having a long-and-great conversation with an old friend who just left (came to keep me company while I am sick), I remember the most important aspect of my life is other people. Without them life would be meaningless so to devote myself to others brings me great and fulfilling Life Meaning.

I say tomorrow, you wake up and do your usual routine. Drink your coffee; tread mill for fifteen minutes; whatever. But then during that day I want you to try something. Try following an old rule of the Boy Scouts and do a good deed for someone else in that day. A good turn for someone else in the long run is a good turn for the world and yourself.

It does not have to be a great and powerful showing to your fellow man but a simple gesture of selflessness can bring a great change if done enough by enough people. It could even Change the World.

To keep up with me in the future head over to my personal blog WarrenGreeley.com/Blog to read my future posts. They are on topics of business, writing, and generally trying to change the world.

Thank you for reading. Thanks for caring.

Six years ago today my world came tumbling down. I, like the rest of Americans and many around the world were devastated at the live images of a terror attack on American soil. Today I do not want to discuss everything that has happened since. My views on this day are not important. The semantics and politics mean nothing on this day.

Today I want to send a message of peace. On this day I want people from all over the world to stop what they are doing for just a moment and thing about it. No matter your side, your views, your politics, your faith; remember that we are all people and all need each other.

Today is the day to honor and cherish the memories of those lost on September 11th, 2001. Today is a time to honor all of those who have died afterwards and the heros who have saved so many lives. Now is the time to pray for the families of all these people. Today is the time to pray that peace will come in the world and people will realize that we all are wrong and we all are right and that understanding this can save lives.

For today we are all united in a cause of peace. This day can symbolize what has happened and what will happen again if change is not made. Take today to reflect on our mistakes of the past and use them to make a better tomorrow.

There are a few things in this world that no matter how simple they are have an incredible impact on the minds of people. The reason for this is what these symbols represent. Now many have forgotten those meanings and consider things that are powerful to be just fashion.

Today I saw a young adult indian man who had on his key chain a swastika that was cast in silver. I was so appalled by it that I could not even look the man in the face. Even today that symbol is such a painful reminder of a tyrant who destroyed and ended millions of lives. I thought to myself, How could someone even think of that as a piece of decoration in today’s world?

It also reminded me of back when I was in high school seeing a kid I knew well wearing a jesus cross on his neck and when I asked him why he did he said it was his jesus piece, a piece of fashion worn by many rappers who’s lyrics contradict any type of christian teaching.

In this I realized that many people no longer care about what the symbol means but instead wear it to look good or for other vein purposes not realizing the impact that the symbol possessed. So why is this wrong? It is because we live in a world of people who recognize these symbols for a specific reason and in wearing it carelessly they are showing their lack of care for the world. They are admitting without a word of their carelessness towards their fellow human beings.

Symbols are not something to be taken lightly. They make up much of human history and have specific connotation because of it. In wearing it as fashion a person is sending a false message about their beliefs and possible effecting others negatively who are impacted greatly by these symbols.

Unfortunately for me this was not the end of my lesson of the day. After my moment of fury I did allow myself time to ponder why this person would have a swastika on his keychain. Then my perception changed.

For a long time I have been facinated with various religious beliefs and I remembered that there was a religion in India that has existed far longer than the Nazi party. This particular faith (the name slips my mind right now) has a symbol that is meant as a sign of peace. This symbol is a swastika.

After realizing this, I learned the second part of my lesson. I should not have jumped to such a conclusion about the origin of this person’s bling. It is more likely to be a symbol of peace to this person than the more known meaning of this symbol.

So there is something to be said on both sides. We all interact with our fellow men and we all react to certain symbol so they should not be taken lightly. But at the same time symbols have very different meanings thus should not be assumed to be just one thing.

Part of introversion is forgetting those that are not like us. Many people can easily brush off things happening elsewhere just because they are strangers, just people in distant lands. But the truth is they are still people and thus equal to us all. Sometimes it is the little things that can impact huge change. Check out this video to see what I mean…

*If the video is not working click here.

www.24hoursfordarfur.org

Enough said.

This is a followup to my post entitled “the audacity of introversion.” This one is a little more tricky to write though because it is really pushing common belief. Yah me!

How dare you care about others! I’m just kidding but as with the entire goal of this blog I want you to see a different perspective of the extroverted lifestyle. I like to consider myself more extroverted than introverted but I think I am definitely a mix of both. Here are some problems I have pondered with being extroverted.

Your not doing for yourself what you could be. If you focus all your energy and resources on other people you are not doing what you could be to help yourself. Now why is this a bad thing? Because you are just as important as anyone else so you deserve to do good for yourself as well as others. If you spend no time working on yourself your personal potential is not really being met. Try just taking some time for yourself once in a while.

You are destroying our economy. Ok, not really that drastic but you are putting a damper on the free market economy. As evil as greed may be perceived it is a necessary aspect of our society as well as any free market in the world. If people did not focus on increasing their personal wealth then the economy would collapse and we would all be in the same position as those we are trying to help.

Many of you are feeding the problem. I will address this one more in a future post but a fundamental problem with charity is that in many cases it promotes neediness among those it helps. If you are going to help others try to remember the old saying. Give a man a fish… But teach a man to fish…

I know you are probably confused right now. If it is audacious to be introverted and the same to be extroverted than aren’t we all terrible people? No. What I want to stress is a median between the two. Do not feel bad about doing good for yourself but also do not just focus on yourself. The other people in the world are the reason for any success you have. Mix up the two lifestyles and you may end up being much more fulfilled as a person.

Why do you think you are better than me? What have you done that gives you the right to sit on a pedestal above me?

If the answer to either of these questions is something other than “I am not better than you,” than you are probably an introverted person. What this means is that you think you are more important or above your fellow human beings. Why? Maybe you were raised to think this way, maybe it is natural. Maybe you don’t even realized you are like this. In any case I find it audacious that you view yourself in this manner.

Regardless of who you are, you are still vulnerable to death. You, like every person, will eventually die. Your physical life is just as fragile as anyones and this makes you equal to everyone else. You bleed the same blood and if you needed blood to live, someone would give it to you. Would you make that sacrifice for anyone else?

You are not the center of the universe and must realize that in a world of six billion people you have to wait in line like everyone else. Especially to the full grown adults, why do you throw fits in public when you do not get your way? You are not above the people around you and especially are not above those you are yelling at. Most likely they are working harder than you at that moment. Maybe you should take that into consideration.

You hurt yourself by being introverted just as much as you hurt those around you. John Nash’s theory on economics says that what is best for the group and yourself will benefit all greater in the long run. This is true for more than the economy. It can be set into all walks of life. If you focus on your own needs those around you will not benefit at all and then as the rest fall, either finacially, phisically, or mentally you will go down with them. Your success, no matter what you do, depends on others and without them you would be nothing. Take this into account when you are interacting with others. Helping other people is beneficial to you too you idiot!

P.S. Tomorrow I will be posting the follow up to this entry called “the audacity of extroversion.”

There is not a person on earth who has been right about everything in their entire lives. If this were true it would imply that they know everything which of course is not a reach of human capability. Yet people in certain positions in society are put on pedestals of truth and whatever is uttered from their mouth is taken at truth.

Here are a couple examples. (I will probably write about more groups in the future).

Teachers

A group that has been put into a place of assumed truth is the teachers, especially at a college level. (They even get their own title: Professor). Unfortunately these teachers are human beings that incorporate their own ideas and concepts into their lecture. This is not a bad thing in most cases because teachers in specific fields have expertise within that field. The problem is that students, or learners are then subjected to that opinion without seeing the other points of view or alternatives. One in a learning position is the most susceptible to falsehood simply because their objective is to absorb knowledge and have little or no prior understanding to argue with the teacher’s point of view on a subject.

Now just so I don’t get emails from all my old teachers I want to add something to this. In my experience, teachers are some of the greatest sources of understanding topics and much of my knowledge comes from teachers. But, like in any other group they are still not infallible. What they know is the best of their knowledge but knowledge is limited so what they speak is only the beginning of the journey.

Preachers

Scholars have spent all of human time seeking the truth about what is in text of faith and whether that faith is even valid. This alone shows the unlikelihood that your personal preacher knows the truth about your particular faith or even if that faith is entirely true in the first place. What he or she knows and believes is most likely a slight alteration of what they were taught themselves. When listening to a preacher it is good to absorb the words said because in many cases it is insightful but that cannot be the end of the journey. To find what is most true you must look past just that one source or several sources who influence each-other and instead find alternatives to that point and then make an assessment for yourself what is most likely truth.

In traveling to many churches, (at this point only limited to within the U.S.) I have found that particularly in the Christian faith, even from church to church, that the interpretation of the the same text is very different. The only way to find what is really the truth, or closest to it is to listen, question, ponder, and then decide what is your truth.