by Jack Thornton

Created on: February 25, 2008

Becoming a better person is about becoming more like the person you see in your own heart. Your heart knows what is good or evil. Choosing the good is what makes you a better person. It is not always easy, but that is why we are not always successful in our attempts.

When we mess up mess up, we know it and feel remorse for it. We seldom think of themselves as being bad people or evil from a single bad act. That is because within our heart, we have an idealized image of who we are. It is when we regularly find our actions not matching that image that problems occur.

The trick to becoming a better person is to identify the justifications we use for our bad actions are and doing something about them. Poverty, addiction, abusive relationships, bad job, medical problems and environment are all justifications that people cite.

None of those are good justifications. Some are much more difficult to deal with than others. All those problems do however is limit how we can express our goodness. They are not a part of that core that is us. No matter how bad your situation, you always have the choice between being the best person you can be and being something less.

Each time you choose to tell the truth when a lie would have sufficed. Every time you take a moment or more to make somebody else's life easier. The sacrifices you make to help those less fortunate than yourself. This is how you choose to be the better person. It is not always easy.

Even friends will test your commitment to be a better person, especially if you have failed in the past. They will remember who you used to be and it will take time for them to see who you are becoming. Their temptations will entice you back to who you were in the past. Each time you can resist however, will make it easier the next time.

Recognize that every time you have a chance to make a right choice that you also have a chance to be a better person. Especially if you are the only one who will ever know what decision you actually made. In this life, it is you who ultimately has to decide how good of a life you have lived. What is your heart telling you?

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