Do news reports of unethical politicians, corporate greed, executive misbehavior and general crime just make you tired, upset or depressed? There’s so much of this in the news that one can feel there is no solution to it.

But when you peel away all the noise and look at who actually commits these acts and look into why, the reason usually comes down to an absent or completely non-functional moral compass.

Let’s think about this for a minute. If a politician really understood and followed ideals like “Seek to live with the truth” and “Support a Government run for ALL the people” would he operate so flagrantly in the support of special interests?

If a corporate executive understood the true importance of safeguarding and protecting our environment, would he in good conscience try to sell products that were toxic or even questionable?

On the worldwide front, what would happen if tolerance of religious beliefs were a fact and was the rule of the day, rather than a far-off wish after yet another killing in the name of a religion.

All these points and more are the results of decisions made by people according to their moral compass.

What is a Moral Compass

Simply put, this is the framework you and everyone around you uses as the basis for decisions and the choices you make in life. Should you do this? Should you not do that? One way or another you are evaluating these decisions according to your own ethical guidelines. But what if these guidelines are askew? What if they don’t align with the people around you, your family, your company, your country and even your religion? What happens then? Usually, you’re on a slow or quick path into a world of hurt, or at least a less happy situation than before that particular decision.

In the past a moral compass was set up for society by religious sources, the Ten Commandments, the Koran, the Torah and others. But over the past decades, this has changed. Because of long standing efforts to make governments and institutions in some countries secular (non-religious), reference to religiously sourced moral codes has become taboo. In other countries, the opposite has happened—the government has become a religious entity, but to the exclusion of other religious or moral ideas leading to discrimination and even genocide.

Luckily we now have a moral code that was developed from pure common sense. It is a booklet called The Way to Happiness. This booklet, available from The Way to Happiness Foundation was written to address this exact point in our society. Since it is not based on religious teachings, but common sense principles, it can be used in any social sector to bring about a common moral compass.

The Common Solution

What is the common denominator of all the people making decisions that affect our society? It may surprise you because it is so simple. Here it is: they were all kids. That’s right. Before they became adults and moved into decision-making positions, they were in school, running around with friends, interacting with families and pets, you name it.

When did these people begin to learn what was important or not in their moral decision-making process? Bingo! as kids.

This is where the Good Choices Program lives. The booklet How to Make Good Choices is based on The Way to Happiness in order to make these principles more available to our children. You can get an idea of how far reaching this program is by watching a series of short videos on this page.

Watch these videos. It won’t take you long.

Then imagine what it would be like with kids everywhere learning how to make their OWN Good Choices, not because they were required to, but because they could evaluate on their own the best decision possible in a given set of circumstances.

The Good Choices Generation

Now get the idea what life around these kids would be like. That’s right, it would be happy, fun, joyful and even adventurous and uplifting.

Now envision these kids grown up. What just happened to the world?

In the immortal word of Samuel L. Jackson, “Correctomundo!” Good choices changed the world.

This success story from a student of the Good Choices Program gives you an idea where this leads:

I learned that we can positively affect our lives and the world by making good choices. If we avoid drug abuse, eat healthy, and care for ourselves and our community, we can make our world a better and safer place. Change starts with ourselves and happiness lies in the service of others. Thanks for a great summer! – AC

You Can Help

There are so many ways you can help:

• Teach your kids with the Good Choices Program at home.
• Start a Good Choices delivery program in your area.
• Support Happy House and Good Choices with donations.
• Distribute The Way to Happiness and How to Make Good Choices booklets.

To all those who have had a vision of changing the world for the better, here’s a simple way and a simple set of tools.