I often think about what is needing to address many of the issues we face as a society. What we are facing is multi-dimensional change.

There are many social movements in place. They are all very good and needed initiatives.

However, a lot of the ways many are addressing various societal problems are single-dimensional and are not dealing with the root cause of the problems.

Gender gaps, inclusion, diversity, equal pay, affirmative action, black lives matter, metoo, etc. are all very important issues that need awareness, and action — however they are the outcomes of something rooted deeply in something bigger.

The root cause of all our problems is lack of human dignity.

I am passionate about bringing the Radical Purpose movement to the world. To me Radicals is about the need to get to the root of not just our work problems in society, but how we relate to ourselves and each other as human beings.

While in Russia a couple of years ago, speaking at one of the top five universities, a young man, made a comment during the Q&A session following my Radical Cultures presentation.

He said: “What you want to do is change the world — you are getting to the culture, how people live, and how societies and countries are operating. It’s a huge endeavor”.

I replied: “Yes, it is a mission to change the world for the better, but we are focused on one person at a time. Just one of you here in Siberia, Russia can take these principles to heart, start a company, or become a leader in one, begin to apply these principles, and the change begins. Someone leaves your company, and brings the principles along to another company, and before you know it society has changed.”

I continued by saying: “The change starts with you embodying human dignity in how you hold yourself as worthy and extend the same to others.”

The even deeper root cause of all of our problems that are under the umbrella of “lack of human dignity”, is lack of self-worth. Lack of self-worth is a worldwide epidemic, a virus infecting all of humanity. It needs to be healed and that starts with the self.

The trunk to everything that can be good in the world is human dignity, and the branches of the tree extends to work, school, family, community, society, and ultimately the world.

The roots of the trunk need to be deep in a high self-worth foundation.

Being a Radical is about having a multi-dimensional positive impact on all our lives, by highlighting and having the courage to talk about ourselves, in an authentic, raw, and unapologetic way.

We humans carry so much shame from choices we may have made in our lives, related to relationships, work and career, education, choices in entertainment, because of a narrative that has not served humanity. The narrative of self-sacrifice, and selflessness, and doctrine.

We are not meant to be perfect; we are meant to be on an ongoing journey of self-discovery and learning. We need to start giving each other a break by not demonizing being human who screw up — often.

You can’t offer up to solve the problems of the world, without solving the source of the problems.

Society is a reflection, a mirror of who we are collectively on the inside.

The violence in the world is nothing more than a resonance of the violence within us.

The violence begins when we are at odds with our desires, and our actions. The violence begins within us when we have difficulty being kind to ourselves and demand perfection.

All conflicts within ourselves, amplify into chaos worldwide.

This isn’t some new age spiritual awakening; this is proven quantum science. You want to change the world? Start with the human in the mirror.

Acceptance

You can only extend to others what you value within yourself. If you embrace yourself even when you are out of sorts, you’ll extend the same courtesy to others when they are in the same mode of being.

Conversely, when you accept yourself as a gift in the world, you will recognize the same gift in others.

Whatever is external of you is a mirror of who you are within.

It’s important to not avoid or mask our darkness. We need to learn to be ok with going deeper into the darkness to discover the source of it.

We need to stop beating or judging ourselves up for having darkness.

You may have been chosen to play out the darkness so you could overcome it and create the frequency for others to tap into, in order to break free. Everything has a purpose, if we stay open to learning, instead of judging.

The way out of hell in life, is on the other side of it. The door is just past the point of no return, only those trusting that the door is within reach, can walk through fire and gain control over everything.

There are two ways to overcome challenges in life.

1) You work really hard to transform yourself, and to overcome the “not so good” traits; most of us end up simply suppressing who we are, but few do actually transform “some” aspects of themselves.

2) You accept yourself as you are, and you focus on becoming a being who bestows goodness in the world.

The first route will have you chasing your tail for years, and has been the cause of depression, anger, resentment and all the chaos in the world for thousands of years.

All the chaos in the world stems from lack of self-respect, self-love, self-dignity, self-honor, and lack of self-acceptance.

It’s impossible to accept others as they are when we still have things, we don’t accept about ourselves.

Think about that for a moment. Why do certain traits about others bother you? Because they remind you of traits about you that you don’t want to accept. How can you accept other people’s traits if you don’t accept yourself completely?

When you accept yourself for all of who you are, you can do the same for others, and you begin to experience life’s beauty in the imperfection.

Something amazing happens as you remove judgment from yourself, which causes internal violence, you remove it from the world. As judgment diminishes, so does chaos.

Chaos is energized by judgment. Judgment powers up chaos, remove the judgment and chaos will cease to have any source of energy.

As an alternative to judgment, you can try acceptance, acceptance shifts you into state of being where bliss is the normal mode of existence.

Acceptance is being present without judgment.

Love Yourself

A good way to practice human dignity is with yourself. Give yourself a hug and say: “I am great just as I am, and I love me just as I am. I extend the same to everyone around me, and allow them to accept me as I am. I can now focus my energy on emanating the love I have for myself to the entire world and allow the world to do the same in return”.

Most of the chaos that exists is due to hatred for no reason, but it all starts within. Why does judgment exist? Because of lack of self-love, and self-worth.

If we loved ourselves enough, just as we are, we would extend the same to the outside world and in turn activate the energy of mercy and love which knows no chaos.

For millenniums we’ve been chasing our tails, going in circle feeling bad about our “character flaws”, which in some ways has kept us from achieving our greatest potential as humanity.

Our lack of dignity towards one another is only a reflection of our own lack of self-acceptance and self-worth.

It’s important to get in touch with our own inner ugliness. This is very important, but for no other reason than to recognize it, accept it, and find love for ourselves anyway.

The less life we give judgments, the more they will dissipate within, and all over the world.

We often think free-will is about our ability to choose right from wrong.

The natural order of things is bliss, order, harmony… that is the normal state of existence.

So why do we not experience it all the time?

How we choose to perceive ourselves, is how we experience the entire Universe.

The only free-will we have, is to choose to either accept everything with love or with judgment. Love allows us to come to peace with ourselves and extend the same to others.

Human dignity is rooted in self-love, and high self-worth. What the world needs is more human dignity, and that starts with each and every one of us doing our part in loving and fully accepting the human in the mirror.

*Originally published at tulliosiragusa.com.

Tullio Siragusa is an expert level Certified Life Coach, a pioneer of disruptive technologies, an emotional intelligence (EQ) thought leader, futurist, speaker, and author. For the past 30 years, Tullio has built world class leadership teams in technology companies and startups. Tullio currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Nearsoft, he co-produces and hosts DojoLIVE! a platform that gives voice to emerging technology luminaries. He also hosts Rant & Grow, an entertaining and heart-centered reality podcast where each episode explores people’s personal blockages and how to powerfully move forward with careers, relationships, and self-realization by developing healthy habits. As a founding member of Radical, a social justice movement, Tullio is a strong supporter of human-dignity in all aspects of life, including freedom in the workplace.

Image courtesy of Andi Alexander.