Look For The Good

I like being informed.  I’ve been subscribed to various news outlets for a while now, from the Wall Street Journal, to Bloomberg, to the Economist.  I admit that these news outlets provide high value, high-quality information to allow me to gain a more informed understanding of the world.  And I appreciate them very much.

However, I feel like these news outlets (along with many other forms of news media out there) seem to focus on the negative much more than the positive.  Every time I turn on the news or read the news, it’s all about bad stuff happening around the world.  Everything from inflation to the Iran war to the famine in Gaza to the Ukraine war to AI doomsday scenarios seems to dominate the air waves.  It’s all doom here, gloom there. 

It can get quite draining at times and it paints the world in a very gloomy, zero-sum frame of mind.  I do give the news credit for opening my eyes, though.  Because now I realize that many aspects of the world are not all just roses and happiness.  Not everyone in the world is living a good life.  And many people are struggling with affordability, with relationships, with careers, and with their own health.  It makes me realize that the world is not perfect and often very complicated and can sometimes be downright dog-eat-dog.

However, I refuse to believe that the world is simply predominated by bad news.  These news outlets simply provide a frame of mind – a certain perspective.  That doesn’t mean that this perspective is the ultimate truth and that the world is purely filled with negativity and destruction.

I choose to believe that there is much good happening in this world as well.  Good in myself, good in my community, good in my city, good in my country, and good across the world.  I try to provide a more holistic and healthy frame of reference for myself, so I’m not only consuming bad news. 

Here and there, I even ask Gemini AI to provide me with some good news in the world so that I am aware of the innovations and positive developments happening across the globe.  For example, this pair of scientists were recently awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their novel discovery related to “mirror image” cells (or something like that).  I’m not a chemist nor an expert on this matter, but in layman’s terms this discovery allows pharmaceutical companies to potentially develop purer and safer drugs to use, with less side effects.  Sign me up!

Or did you know that cancer survival rates have gone up to over 70% or so as of this year?  Back in the 1970’s that survival rate was only 50%, which is essentially a coin flip.  That’s great!  Modern science is truly a marvel and has helped human civilization lift itself out of the stone ages. 

These are just snippets of good news that are hiding in plain sight.  If you look hard enough, you’ll see the good in people and the good in your community.  For me, I am grateful to have a good life and to have so many examples of what entails to be a good person.

I look at my parents and my partner and my friends and family and see that most of them are living relatively good lives.  None of them are homeless.  They all have a roof over their heads.  Yes, none of their lives are perfect, but in general I’d like to think that they all are doing pretty well. 

I see them as examples on how to live a good life, and it’s good to be surrounded by positive examples of what a healthy community looks like.  I look at some of the organizations I’ve been a part of, like Toastmasters, and gain inspiration from their dedication to their mission.  That there is a common group of people that can congregate together to help build others up is admirable and inspirational.

I look at simple examples, like the doorman in my lobby who helps me organize my packages every day, or the delivery driver that helps get me my food on time, or the scientists behind the scenes that are working to deliver the next breakthrough drug to the market to help cure some form of previously incurable disease.

I choose to see the progress of human innovation and how it has lifted vast swaths of humanity out of poverty and out of existential dread. 

At the same time, I realize that there is value in bad news as well, just as there is value in identifying problems.  You can argue that that’s the only way humanity progresses forward.  We were built on solving problems to make lives better than the generation that came before us. 

Admittedly, it’s hard to find the good as our brains are more wired towards negativity, since negativity simply gains more eyeballs and sells more products.  However, I feel like we all have the power to look proactively for the good in our common man.  Yes, we can acknowledge the large swaths of problems that are existent in this world, but once in a while it’s good to balance that out with good news. 

So next time you are overwhelmed with negativity or think that the world is down in the dumps, I challenge you to look proactively for the good that is around you.  Chances are that there are just as many examples (if not more) that are present which can help give you a more (what I think is) accurate depiction of life.