Feeling Overwhelmed? Try Tangibly Improving the World

A lot of people are feeling overwhelmed right now.

Just when it seemed like the quarantine was winding down, there’s been a spike in new COVID cases.

Despite all our efforts, our society is still plagued by systemic racism.

Our ever-increasing climate of political hate continues to grow, with no end in sight. In fact, we all know it’s going to get much worse as we approach the elections in November.

None of us knows what we personally can do to fix any of these problems, so the common reaction is to resort to screaming at the internet.

Which doesn’t help, and only means that on top of everything else, we also have to deal with half our friends on the internet screaming at us.

We like to feel in control of things. We like to have a sense of self-efficacy.

When you see a horrible problem that is ruining people’s lives, it’s natural to want to fix it. The desire to do so means you’re a good person.

Accept That You Can’t Solve These Problems

But then that desire to fix the world runs up against harsh reality.

It’s incredibly frustrating to not be able to help.

The fact is, you as an individual can’t fix the massive intractable issues facing the country/world.

You as an individual can’t solve COVID or safely end the quarantine.

You as an individual can’t fix all the racism in the world.

You as an individual can’t stop the hate on the internet. Believe me, I’ve tried. You can’t argue someone out of the irrational belief that you can argue people out of their irrational beliefs.

Maybe there are things you can do that help out in some tiny way, whether it’s wearing a mask or winning allies for a worthy cause. 

But these certainly aren’t solving the problems. They aren’t even making a noticeable difference. The issues still seem just as bad afterward, so that doesn’t help with the sense of overwhelming hopelessness.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do things that are helpful. Just that you’re likely to still feel hopeless afterward.

And a lot of what people do in reaction to intractable problems end up making things worse rather than better, both for their feelings and the problem itself. Such as the aforementioned screaming at the internet, alienating potential allies, insulting people who disagree, or engaging in vandalism and violence. 

When Feeling Overwhelmed, There Are Still Places You Can Make a Difference

So what can you do?

There are a lot of huge problems in the world that are beyond your control, where no one individual can solve them.

But there are also a lot of smaller problems in the world where you, personally, can have a much bigger impact. An impact you can see. Something that makes a real difference to a real person’s life.

You could mentor an underprivileged child.

You could make a Kiva loan to a farmer in a developing nation.

You could sew masks for first responders.

You could volunteer at a hospital.

You could read to children.

You could staff a suicide hotline.

You could participate in a community clean-up.

You could make an effort to be kind to someone who is ostracized, lonely, or bullied.

These are all things where you are improving people’s lives, and you are able to directly see the results. 

You have made the world better in a real and tangible way. 

You have taken back your sense of self-efficacy, so you don’t have to feel kicked around by the world.

Imagine a World Where People Direct Their Energy to Making Tangible Differences

If more people were to focus on making tangible improvements to individuals’ lives, the world would be a much better place.

People have been screaming at each other on Facebook for sixteen years, and it doesn’t seem to have made much progress in fixing the world. 

What if all that energy had been directed toward mentoring underprivileged youths instead? How many people would be living better lives?

What if the billions of dollars that people donated to politicians had instead been loaned to new entrepreneurs trying to start small businesses that would revitalize underserved communities? 

If you had made one of those loans, you could personally see the life-changing impact it has on the store owner, employees, customers, and community. 

What if you took all the time spent watching sources of doom-and-gloom, outrage, and hate, such as the news, political pundits, comedy politics shows, and people arguing on social media, and spent that time volunteering for a mental health crisis center? You’d be saving people’s lives, and it would be a lot better for your own mental health as well.

This Also Makes Your Life Better

This doesn’t only make the world better. It makes you happier.

I tried this for myself recently. 

I was in a bad mood. Back when I had my internet argument addiction, I might have handled this by going on social media and picking fights with arbitrary people who said things I disagreed with.

This would invariably have made me feel worse. It would end up sucking up a huge amount of time and headspace with rants about how stupid people were for believing things I didn’t. 

And of course, I would have been an obnoxious jerk for engaging in this behavior.

Instead, I went on Kiva. Where in the past I would have found arbitrary people to pick fights with, now I found arbitrary poverty-stricken farmers to loan money to.

It helped out the poverty-stricken farmers. It helped out their communities. And it made me feel much better.

It didn’t even cost me anything, really. They were loans, not donations, so I should eventually get paid back. (Though I intend to loan the funds out again to other needy people once they’re repaid.)

There’s overwhelming research showing that charitable actions are one of the best ways to make yourself happier. It certainly worked for me.

Also, when you focus on the real good that you’re doing for real people, you’re *not* thinking about the intractable problems that make you feel overwhelmed.

The Problems That Make You Feel Overwhelmed Are the Exception

Which brings up the final reason to do this.

By nearly every objective measure, the world is the best it’s ever been, and constantly getting better.

The last four months of COVID and Quarantine haven’t been great. But this is only temporary. We’ll get a vaccine eventually, and things will go back to normal. We’ll get through this.

Overall, there are fewer people in poverty, and people are healthier, safer, and have more opportunity than at any time in human history. And this is the most true when you look at the poorest levels of society.

Obviously this doesn’t mean everything is perfect. There are plenty of problems that have improved greatly compared to the past, but are still far from an acceptable level and progress is coming far slower than we’d like.

And while most aspects of global life has improved, there are a handful that have gotten worse.

The doom-and-gloom prophets like to focus on the problems – the ones that haven’t progressed enough, or the very few that have gotten worse – to try to convince you of the lie that the world overall is terrible.

And because there’s a general human bias toward negativity, they tend to be successful at tricking people into believing this falsehood.

Help People’s Lives and You Won’t Fall For the Lie That The World is Getting Worse

Which is why we end up feeling overwhelmed by the world.

But these as much as these intractable problems draw our attention, they are rare. They’re the exceptions.

When you do something to tangibly improve the world for a real person in a real way, it reminds you of this.

The world is a pretty great place.

And all of us are capable of making it even better.

The doom-and-gloom purveyors try to brainwash you into thinking you’re helpless. That everything about the world is terrible, there’s nothing you can do, and that your only option is to wail at the Internet in despair.

When you make the world better, you disprove this lie. More importantly, you disprove it to yourself.

Despite any intractable problems, you have power. You have self-efficacy. You don’t need to feel overwhelmed because there are things you can do that really will make a difference.

So go out and make the world better, and make yourself feel better at the same time.