Most of my adult development has come down to a matter of expanding empathy. I did care about other people when I was younger, but everything tended to be filtered through my own experiences. I didn’t have a knack for putting myself in other people’s shoes, and I placed my own well-being above others.
You don’t need empathy to live in this world, but you do need it if you want to make the world a better place. You also don’t need a sense of perspective to survive, but it definitely helps if you want to do more than draw breath and take up space.
The average human being will inhabit this planet for less than a century and be but one of seven billion other voices. The best impact you can make is not to live happily in your own tiny space but to try to impact others around you. Instead of being seven billion scared and lonely people, we can share our passions and pleasures, our pains and tragedies.
The video below talks about “Dadification,” showing the journey from being a man to being a dad. When the kids show up, it jumps right into the chaos of having children around, which I absolutely appreciate – you can’t talk about being a dad without talking about the mayhem of parenting.
Charlie Brooks 