We have the ability and therefore the responsibility to create change

Whatever it is you don’t like that is going on in your professional or personal life – you can change it.


The ability to choose your response is a core humanist idea. In fact, human agency is key to the entire philosophy.

Humanists believe we not only have the ability to choose our responses, we have a responsibility to do so.  How you choose to respond, can create positive change in your life, and your circumstances. You don't have to accept the status quo, if the status quo - sucks. 

The challenge is choosing responses that will work. For that, we need critical thinking and science. The more your choice align with good ethics and the more they are based in reality and not on assumptions, the more successful you will be.

As I wrote this, I realize it sounds a LOT like - positive thinking, but it is not like that at all. For a Humanist, there are no guarantees in life. You can do everything right and still get bad results.  All choosing wisely does is increase the odds of good things happening to you.

There is no magic solution to fixing problems. You have to analyze them, figure out what will really work to fix your real problem and then do the actual work required to actually fix your real problem.  That is all any of us can do.

Does this work? Most of the time. It is certainly better than leaving things to fate, though, sometimes that is exactly what you should do.

Confused yet?  There are no hard and fast rules in life. Humanism is a situational ethic. Meaning, the situation we are in dictates what an ideal response should be. Sometimes, it's best to take a wait and see approach. Sometimes it is best to take action. Wisdom is knowing when to take which approach.


But I digress. The purpose of this post was to encourage you to not accept things you cannot accept and to do the work required to change it.  To learn more about how Humanists tackle the eternal problem of - how to fix our problems I have a few courses that might help. They are available as online courses, streaming videos and books.

The first is Planning for Personal Success. - This course will help you learn how to live your values fully, using critical thinking to improve your odds of success and to remove the fears that overwhelm you.

The 2nd is Reality Based Decision Making for Effective Strategy Development.  - This program will help you learn how to answer the three most important questions for any strategy. What is your real problem? What is really causing it and what will really work to solve it?

If you want to learn about how to create change in yourself and others, I have a program called, Why is Change so Hard? - which will teach you how to utilize behavioral psychology techniques to help overcome resistance to change in yourself and in others.

And finally, if you want a Humanist Life Skills course for your personal development - there is my Living Made Simpler program -  If you want to learn more about how to be happy and how to think more effectively about the choices you make, this program will help.


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