The Good in Us is Weak: The T3 approach might help us
Watch the video here…
I woke up with a question planted in my brain, it wouldn’t let me focus on my usual routine. Instead, it wants my attention for the whole day on a subject that makes highly intelligent minds go ‘gaga’. It is a question about the fallible nature of the human being. It is a question that kept me thinking through the day and changed everything I thought I knew.
For the first time, I begin to see how strangely the world is formulated. I could see that there is some good in us but it is very weak. We react more to how we feel or how we want to feel than thinking into what effects of the outcome such feeling would cause. Then the good in us goes silent.
This accounts for why we make mistakes. Surprisingly, it is inevitable. What counts is how you’re able to pick yourself back up from the mistakes you’ve made. When you allow your feelings to override your reasoning, and then you see the effects of the consequence on you and others, do not allow it to define you.
It has happened. You can not ‘unhappen’ it. The only thing you can do or that is expected of you to do, is to resolve it. Accept the judgments that come after you err with a heart of resolution. Do not fight it. Do not debate it. Understand that the human being is fallible.
The Wisdom in this
Each day comes with its task, test, and timeline — this is what I call ‘the t3’ of the day. If you’re able to recognize the t3 of your day then you’re likely to boost the good in you.
Most times, it is not the ‘wrong’ we are afraid to make but the ‘good’. Because the good in us is weak, doing wrong becomes very easy. A large percentage of the wrong we’ve done or that we do, we were well aware of them beforehand. We knew what we wanted to do is wrong but we do it anyway. Why? Is it because we lack the strength to do what is good or right?
After a terrible disaster, you’d see families that recovered from it kissing and hugging each other. You’d see people irrespective of nationality, race, religion, tribe coming to help and rescue those who were badly affected. You’d see so much activity of good being demonstrated by people regardless of their differences. Then after some days, they’d forget.
Does this mean bad things must happen to us before we can see the good in us? Do we need to have bad times before we can appreciate what is good?
‘The t3’
If you’re able to recognize the t3 of your day then you’re likely to boost the good in you.
- Know and define your task for each day. There is something you must do to contribute to humanity. You have been given an assignment for this day. If you think you do not have or can not identify your assignment for the day, create one! Start with a to-do-list. Then recognize the objectives or goals of the task: What does it seek to achieve or contribute to humanity?
- Understand that you’re being tested each day and choose to pass the test. I think, in a sense, we are all here to be tested. We must decide to pass the test of being human. This is one of the qualities that make us different from animals or other creatures. Life for humans is a test. Well, you may want to ask who is scoring the test. Surprisingly, you are! And then others around you. This is demonstrated in how your actions affect you and others around you. You’ve judged yourself and people around you, even the ones you do not know, have judged you — based on your actions. People do not see or judge intentions but actions. You may have the right intention for your actions, but it is your actions that are being articulated.
- Identify it’s your timeline that’s making a story that history would remember you for. What’s the guarantee that you’d live through this day? There is none. What moment must you create this day that you’d want someone to remember you with when you’re gone? It is one thing to be alive and another, to stay alive. Assuming you’re told with all seriousness and evidence that you’d die today, what would you do differently?
What is the human being?
The truth of what the human being is simple — there is no truth of what the human being is. We do not know the kind of beings we are. We can become whatever we want — as we’re not given any restrictive property like animals.
For example, fishes can only survive and move with ease in waters. Birds can fly with ease in the air and feed on whatever they find as food. Animals and insects have restricted properties to be what they are. But the human being is given the liberty to decide on anything (s)he wants.
We are self-creating beings. We’re in some sense, autonomous and responsible for ourselves. We are to some degree, able to change our programming. We can speak a single sentence to a person and change their life. That does not happen to animals. You can’t convince, for example, a mouse to do something differently.
There are still limits to the human person and the anthropology of what kind of creatures we are. But we must filter this liberty of humanity through ethics, philosophy or maybe a spiritual understanding of what kind of beings we are.
We must filter this liberty of humanity through ethics, philosophy or maybe a spiritual understanding of what kind of beings we are…else, we would fail to be humans.
