Be in the world what you want to see in the world

Have you ever been frustrated, depressed, or outraged by something, a seemingly small something that someone else did?  I think we've all been there.  A little something can make a big difference to some people.

I've talked about personal leadership, and this is the same theme.  I used to just hate when people at work left a big mess in the kitchen there.  I used to be sad (and still am sometimes too) how we make some things taboo to talk about in our society when talking about them would make so many people's lives better.  These are two examples of thing I wish were different in the world.  I used to complain about these things. I would perhaps do something about it, but complain ("I'm cleaning this kitchen but I'm gonna post a sign telling people off about keeping it clean" is a good example).  What I've found to be so much more effective, and satisfying is to be in the world what I want to see in the world.

These are two examples of what I'm changing in my life, because I am being what I want to see.  So at work I clean things up, wipe up that counter, and even wipe down the coffee machine where all the spills happen near the dispenser.  Sure we have a cleaning crew who comes along and does a great job, but they get to the kitchen area about 1x/week.  That's totally ok, but I like a clean counter.  That's about what I want.  So I'm doing it.  How long does it take an extra 45-75 seconds of my day.  My satisfaction goes way up knowing I made a difference to me at least and maybe someone else will like it too.  I feel good because I'm doing something.

The next is about so-called "mental health."  That's not my favorite term, but I'm talking about depression here.  I've dealt with it many times throughout my life.  It comes and goes.  I've been on anti-depressants before, and while it helped rather quickly (within weeks) I didn't like the feeling of being dependent on something.  Of course this is not a bad lesson to learn, but I didn't really want to learn it then.  So these days I exercise intensely each day, it makes a world of difference in my mood and my health.  When I don't the results are quite immediate, when I do the same is true.  When I eat crap, I feel like crap.  When I eat too much (yah I can get compulsive with food), I tend to feel down, and of course it works the other way too, if I'm down I tend to eat.  That's called a vicious cycle/downward spiral.

Enter moodscope into my life.  In April I started tracking my moods, sporadically at first, but then much more regularly.  It is a test you can take daily to measure your mood.  It's a "validated" questionnaire which means that some psychologist out there made it up and a bunch of other psychologists also agree that it's measuring something that is worth measuring in a way that is clear and helpful.  To be honest the test isn't my super favorite, but the point is that it's a good one and it's available at moodscope.com for free.  By tracking it and reflecting on it I can start to see patterns.

Here is what I've learned so far, and because I have "hard data" or at least more objective data, it makes it so much easier.  This is because when I get down everything seems awful and always has been awful.  When I exercise I feel better.  Low moods don't last forever, it always comes back up.  When I get my stuff done at work I feel better.  Tracking it everyday helps.

In order to get it out there I even volunteered to be an alpha tester for connecting my moodscope scores with twitter, and of course I have twitter connected to Facebook so quite a few people now can know how I'm doing.  Do all of them care: no, but some do.  If I can help one person feel like they can turn somewhere for help, or help one person know that feeling depressed happens to someone else then I know I've done some good. (PS click to see my moodscope graph directly )

Be in the world what you want to see in the world.  What don't you see that you can be? What is one small thing you can change/add/delete from your life that will make the world a better place?  Choose one, just one and change it this week.