By a slim margin Joe Biden is about to become the 46th President of America. But why should we care? Like it or not, because of the size of its economy and military, America is the leader of the West, and therefore the world. Today America still sets the agenda and general direction that the rest of the world moves in. So what should we make of America’s choice this time? My guess is that the majority of the people who voted for Joe Biden were actually voting against Donald Trump rather than because of the merits of Joe Biden. In my opinion, Biden is not a strong candidate. He lacks charisma, he’s the wrong side of 77, a career politician who is devoid of eye-catching policy ideas. So I don’t expect much from him in the next four years, after all the democrats still don’t control the Senate either. But his victory could very well mark the moment when we start moving away from division, separation, racism, sexism, and egotism towards unity. Let’s hope that that is the case, but even if it is, unity is still a long way off. There remains much that we need to overcome and change on this planet today. Still, maybe, just maybe this moment could represent an important tipping of the scales from negative to positive. Donald Trump may well have had some policies that you could have supported, but his overall tone was divisive, petty, and self-centred. This is not how to lead, anything, anywhere, let alone the world’s most powerful democracy.
As I said above, let’s not kid ourselves that this represents the end of the journey, it really is barely the beginning. You could go back further for sure, but certainly since the end of the Second World War, Western leadership has failed spectacularly and has done so despite the fact that most people in the West haven’t even noticed. If you are one of these people who hasn’t really noticed this failure, don’t worry you’re not alone. But it is becoming increasingly apparent to more and more people that change is required to how we live on this planet, today and in the future. This will require significant changes to be made to our economy, our money systems, our spiritual practices, and our stewardship of nature, amongst other things. To fix these things we need Top Down change, that is change driven by leadership figures. But remember we can still influence this individually, or by what you might call a Bottom Up approach. We do this by making positive choices about how we live, and by demanding more from our politicians.
NLP is based in the world of bottom up change. What that means is that you take responsibility for yourself and your growth. Let go of your own limitations, focus on what you want in your life and then take action to make that happen. You don’t worry or fret about what other people do. You don’t blame your parents, your partner, your teachers, or the government for how your life is. Instead you take responsibility for making your own life work out the way that you want it to, regardless of what your circumstances might be. What this means is that you don’t care who is sitting in the White House, you just focus on your own life. I have spent the last 15 years working to help people to realise their own potential regardless of how the outside world looks. And more and more I also think that it’s time for us to demand greater top down change too. For too long Western leaders have been (and still are) too busy helping themselves rather than the people they claim to serve. This must stop.
I don’t expect that it will actually stop with Joe Biden, but maybe because America has tipped to a slightly more positive outlook, he can be the one to hold the door open for the future leaders who will bring the top down change we all need so much. I’ll vote for that.
“In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.” Dalai Lama
