It's not a binary choice, but a spectrum. It depends on the scope and your own abilities - you can't turn a river around with a stick, but you can clean up your part of the lawn. Keep control over what you can control, and don't get too upset about what you can't - so with a little effort you change (or progress) a little part of the world.
Funnily enough I also know some happy people who adhere to none of these points.
> you can't turn a river around with a stick
Somebody forgot to tell this[0] guy.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashrath_Manjhi
That's a lot of rock.
It is a thing with humans. We :
1. overestimate how much we can do in a short amount of time.
2. underestimate how much we can do incrementally over a long amount of time.
Someone should put this somewhere. In a book or a poster. On a LinkedIn post for managers