I feel that it is very important for everyone to believe in the possibility of behavior reform, even if only for our own sake. It is important because we all stumble and fall short of the mark from time to time.
First it proves useful to acknowledge that every single human being has intrinsic value. We are all of the same worth on the level of being. Following we have a separate scale of value for what we do. The second scale focuses on our extrinsic or instrumental value. Some of our deeds have high value, some of them have low value and some of them will even have negative value on this second scale. No matter what we do, our deeds cannot alter our intrinsic value as human beings. Even when we perform deeds of negative value our own intrinsic value, our human dignity continues to endure every moment of our lives.
We must also consider this in another framework. All deeds have consequences. Our deeds do greatly influence our role as participants in this world. We build our live as participants with our deeds, so we must select our deeds with care to build the kind of life in which we want to live. We do well to recognize that we can select our deeds. It is well within our power to make decisions about what to do. Making good decisions requires the successful anticipation of consequences.
A change in our activities is possible for all of us. No matter what we have done in the past we can change what we will do in the future. We all have the capacity to learn, grow and develop. Everyone can discover and invent new ways to influence their own behavior. No matter what a person has done in the past, as long as we are alive we maintain the potential to do things differently in the future. We all have an opportunity to reinvent what we do each day. These changes can be small tweaks or profound transformations. The potential for improvement always stays within our grasp.
If people have done poorly with a task in the past and that does not necessarily doom them to do poorly with that task for the rest of their lives. No human actions are fixed. No human actions are predetermined. We can always make a new choice.
We can find a key to this in our striving. Our striving is greatly influenced by our hope. We must believe that our striving can make a difference. We all have an extraordinary potential and we must struggle to achieve it. We will also find it useful to acknowledge that growth often happens incrementally.
