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The Unofficial Guide to Becoming a Better Person

Having a guide for this topic might appear to border on the ridiculous – but give us time.

Some people just seem to do little things which inflates everyone’s opinion of them – and that’s what we’re going to hone in on today. In other words, you can make small adjustments to your life and benefit those around you tremendously.

Becoming a Better Person

Additionally, by changing your perception of what makes a good person, you can start to appreciate others a lot more.

We’re not talking about giving away your riches, or even doing anything that’s going to harm yourself. Instead, we’re going to focus on some tiny lifestyle choices that can change your life, change someone else’s and in short, just make you a much better person. Hold on tight…

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Don’t try and please everybody – it just doesn’t work

Don't try and please everybody

Ever heard of the phrase “you can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time”? Well, in a nutshell, this sums up our message.

In an ideal world, everyone would get on and everyone would have time for one another. In simple terms, we’d be able to please everyone with every action that we carry out. Unfortunately, we live a far cry away from an ideal world.

Instead, it’s just plain impossible to please the masses. The decisions you make through life are not going to benefit everyone, some people will lose out. Sure, there might be occasions where you do keep everyone happy, but these are going to be few and far between.

If you make the mistake of caving into every request, your life is going to be empty. Additionally, criticism will still come your way – you just can’t win.

As such, the advice is simple – don’t try and please everyone. Don’t go out of your way not to keep people happy, but at the same time make the decisions that feel right to you. Accept that you’re not responsible for the happiness of every single person out there.

Your actions are what matters

Some people out there might procrastinate and imagine a “better world” where they have made all the difference. While the intentions of these people are obviously very good, in practice, they’re not really benefiting anyone.

It’s a very similar concept to becoming an entrepreneur. It’s widely suggested that the most successful people in the world will get up and ‘do’ something, not just ‘think’ about the possible problems and never get going. The same philosophy applies in all walks of life.

Having good intentions is obviously not a bad thing, but if you are to make a true difference to other people and the world you have to combine this with taking the appropriate action. If not, you won’t have achieved anything – just filled your head up with effectively meaningless thoughts. It’s a harsh truth, but hopefully it should spring you into action.

You’re not entitled to anything

You're not entitled to anything

This is perhaps one of the more interesting truths that we’ll list on our page, for the simple reason that a lot of people buy into the alternative. Many believe that the world almost owes them something, they are entitled to ‘good luck’ or whatever else should be thrown their way.

Suffice to say, you’re not. Even though you might have all of the personality traits of a ‘nice’ person, this counts for nothing in the grand scheme of things. It’s unlikely to work in a karma sort of way and you instead need to make things happen via a different approach.

This different approach involves something we have already spoken about; taking action. Rather than moping and potentially feeling sorry for yourself because you ‘deserve’ better, ignore such thoughts. These are the exact sensations that will hold you back.

Instead, you need to get out there and claim what you ‘think’ should be yours. There’s nothing wrong with feeling as though you deserve something and taking all of the appropriate steps to achieve it. There is something wrong in feeling that you’re owed something, and just waiting for it to happen. In short, you’re going to be waiting an incredibly long time.

A person’s own needs are always going to come before yours (and vice-versa)

A person's own needs are always going to come before yours

This is another one of those interesting truths we are going to list and again revolves around the “nice” qualities that a person seemingly has.

We should probably put something of a disclaimer out at this point; we’re not here to dismiss nice people – the world needs them. Our argument is that being nice alone isn’t enough to make a difference in the world and ultimately make you a better person.

This can be emphasized emphatically through our next point. It doesn’t matter how “nice” someone is, on almost all occasions they will always have their own interests at heart ahead of your own.

For example, someone who falls into this category might still stretch another person’s limits – and continue to do so until they are told not to. The message here is simple, people will only start to accommodate all of your feelings once you start to offer some resistance and place boundaries. Up until this point, there will always be some things that people will effectively try and “get away with”.

In summary, the strongest people in the world are able to say a firm “no” and gain from more mutually beneficial relationships.

People can make time to respond to you if they really want to

Something that far too many of us are used to is the phrase “I’m busy”. Well, we’re here to say that if you’re going to become that better person, this should be stripped out of your vocabulary apart from emergencies.

The problem is that we’re all getting far too used to this “busy” response. We all for some reason accept that another person is busy – and don’t even question it. The thing is, if you think about it further, this shouldn’t be tolerated.

For example, someone hasn’t replied to your text message because they apparently don’t have time. Well, for the sake of seconds, they do have time.

They might not have time to engage in constant communication, but indefinitely ignoring the message shouldn’t be on the agenda for sure. While we’re referring to these people as “they”, it goes without saying that you fall into this category as well. You can make time for others and make yourself a better person in the process.

Another way of looking at the situation is by seeing being busy as “not being a priority”. If you’re busy, it means something is being prioritized more than the matter which you have made your excuse for.

Sure, there are going to be occasions where this is completely the case, but not having any free time at all? In our eyes, this means you have sent the person to the bottom of your priorities list and should question why.

Again, people will get busy from time to time and you might have to accept this. What you shouldn’t accept is being second best the whole time.

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About George Allen

George Allen – Author – An AFPA Certified holistic and preventative nutrition professional. George is a well known exercise physiology and sports nutrition expert, the co-founder of MensAnswer.com.
Syracuse University graduate: bachelor’s degree in nutrition/dietetics (B.S.) and a master’s degree in nutrition science with a concentration in counseling (M.A.)
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