Do Good Now, Make It Better Later

It was a time long ago, I was bankrupt, depressed, unemployed, no credit, no assets, no car. I had hit bottom. It was a liberating feeling, to know that things could only get better! But I still didn't know how I was going to make it happen.

I did some serious introspection with the goal of getting my life headed in a better direction, and I gave a lot of thought to the question of "What to do" and finally came to a general-purpose answer: Do Good Now.

Many people put off doing something good with the excuse that they want to do something better, and of course neither the good nor the better get done at all.

Doing something, anything, according to a Plan, will always be better than doing nothing. In this case, the Plan is simply to "Do Good Now". Physical activity (Do) is mandatory. Even if the activity is sub-optimal, inefficient, or possibly ineffective, the important thing is that the action produces feedback from which you can learn, and adjust future actions ("make it better later"), and continue to "move in the direction of your dreams" (Thoreau).

I like that this life philosophy encourages the creation of many random acts of kindness, for your self, for friends as well as strangers, and animals or even plants. The simplest action, requiring almost no cost whatsoever in time, money or energy, when done with the heart-felt intention of Good, creates within the giver a building sense of happiness. And this is the case even if the recipient is unaware of the kindness.