Special to the Daily Planet

We live on an insecure planet.

Everyone, without exception, is profoundly self-doubting, even if they’re not dialed in deep enough to know it.

It’s not possible to be otherwise. The world’s complexity lends itself quite well to folly – very poorly to confidence and wisdom.

And so, if you have routine feelings that suggest, “I suck,” do not for a moment imagine you’re alone. 

What you do want to do is ponder what you can do about it.

In a time in our culture where it seems more and more people are trying to become as sucky as possible, consider the possibility of working to have a life of meaning.

Here’s how to begin:

• Remember where your self-doubt comes from — You weren’t born with low self-esteem. You were taught low self-esteem. Putdowns, impatience, anger, bullying, and/or abandonment at home or school can plug in an “I suck” head tape with an infinite battery life. You didn’t break you, but, for better or worse, you are stuck with having to un-suck you.

 • It’s never too late — I don’t care how long you’ve sucked; you can change just like an old broken house can be remodeled. In both cases you have to work at it.

• Start loving something other than you own needs — People who suck are invariably selfish. Selfishness converts us into takers. To un-suck yourself you have to put something back into the world. Look for ways to start giving. One of my favorite examples is the disabled Iraq veteran –  Death2Trash – who picks up litter along Tunnel Road and the Swannanoa River. He doesn’t get anything back but grief, but he finds himself smiling as he does something of value. He puts an “I don’t suck – but littering does” seal on his bags.

• Rescue something — A patient the other day suggested he wasn’t into playing ‘Sir Save-a-Hoe.’ I told him he could do a whole lot worse that trying to treat women as a protector versus as a user or abuser. Men are sometimes supposed to duck into a phone booth, put on a superman cape, and be a hero.

• Opportunity exists everywhere — No matter your circumstances, God hides opportunity in the misery. Amidst the starvation, transience, violence, hunger, and poverty of ‘The Grapes of Wrath,’ Tom – as an ‘everyman’ – found a way to make a difference. When you add value, you don’t suck.

• Remember our most powerful tools of influence — Your love and your example (model) are the biggest tools in your box. Using them wisely is an anti-suck potion.

• You have a head, heart, hand and spirit — In one of those areas you’re gifted. Figure it out and get busy bringing that gift to life. This truism applies to everyone – without exception. But our gifts are like gold, they have to be dug up and brought to light to have value.

• Go to war — It doesn’t need to be military service, but you need to stand for something and fight against something that’s bad. To the extent there is a lot of evil and evil people in the world, there are chances to step-up everywhere. Choose wisely and fight even more wisely. Spoiler alert – sucking is better than eviling.

• If you get high a lot than you suck — Every moment spent high is a moment you don’t grow. If you don’t grow, you’ll suck. Do the things you naturally did as an innocent infant and you’ll only suck one thing. Infants don’t drink alcohol, smoke weed or ingest other sucky substances.

• Don’t become dependent — Whether it’s dependency on government, society, family, your spouse, or anyone/anything else, living off others will make you suck. It’s back to that taking thing.

A final though on not sucking?

Change your behavior, and your feelings and thoughts will follow.

That’s the greatest psychological formula for unsucking yourself in existence.

It means that to become different or better you mostly just need to practice good things.

Need proof? Take note that it works in reverse – the more you practice sucky stuff, the more you suck.

You were brought into this world to be something far better than that.

Oh, and one more final, whatever you do, don’t become a liberal.

Today’s liberal movement is misguided, lost, wicked, irrational, lazy, destructive, anti-everything of value, self-absorbed and morally corrupt.

That sucks.