5 Ways To Change The World And Make It A Better Place
The only true purpose in life is to create change. By creating change you become remembered and are written down in the history of time. If no one remembers the life you’ve lived, did you really live it well enough? I’d say that you didn’t. As far as I can see, life has little certain purpose. If there is a real reason for it, then we have to accept that we simply don’t know the reason.
You live your life and then you die. However, the truth is that some lives are lived better than others. Some lives created a purpose, contributed, changed the course of events. Not all change is for the better, but since we can never truly know the result had we chosen one of the other options, I’d like to state the obvious: positive change that brings about more happiness and/or less misery is the better of the two.
What it really comes down to is magnitude; how much change can you create? How much good can you do to be remembered for? Some choose to create smaller, less personal changes in the lives of many while others choose to create great change in the lives of a few. Both are honorable reasons to live. Yet, we can’t overlook the granddaddy of them all – there is a third option: to create great change for many. If you’re going to aim then aim high.
1. It can be difficult to figure out what you want to do with your life.
I’d like to believe that’s because most of us are approaching the problem incorrectly. Or, to be more exact, we’re approaching the wrong problem. We spend time trying to "look inside ourselves" for answers. We are trying to figure out what we as individuals think that we should do with our time. The truth is that it doesn’t really matter what you would like to do.
To have a purpose isn’t to live an easy, constantly pleasurable life. There isn’t something out there for us that is perfect – that we were meant to do. If you’re looking for answers then you’ll never find them. What you ought to be searching for are questions. Don’t look inside of you, but look at the world around you.
What problems need solving? What questions need to be asked? What change needs to be made? Ask the right questions. Find the right problems.
2. Get an understanding of the environment you will have to work in.
Every problem in the world is a function that is processed in an environment, on a platform with certain bounds, certain rules, and certain major players. You have to understand whatever industry you’re in, whatever game you are playing. Information is always the first and foremost priority because, without it, we are basically shooting in the dark.
The more you know, the better you understand the reality you are working in and the better the choices that you can make, increasing your chances at reaching your desired outcome. Don’t forget that what you are doing is solving a problem. Problem solving is the only thing in life that holds value. Anything that isn’t a solution to a problem is pure excess.
3. Don’t expect others to do your job for you.
We are often deluded into believing that to create real change, we have to come at the problem with numbers – we need to get as many people involved as possible. We have to spread the word and get the world to scream the same message. Here’s the problem: Getting a whole lot of people to agree on any issue is near impossible unless you bludgeon it with a glitter stick until it’s barely recognizable.
People often like to disagree simply for the sake of disagreeing. People like to judge without doing research. They like to believe themselves clever enough to see through the deception – because apparently everyone is really only looking out for themselves. People will not trust you. And if they do, they’ll be too lazy or too scared to follow through on any promises they make.
The truth is that the world is not a democracy. We don’t all decide what is best – only a select few do. And it’s because they have the courage to do the things that others believe impossible to accomplish. The greatest changes in the world always have and always will be made by the few. They aren’t special. They’re just fixing what needs fixing.
4. Be wary of making money for the sake of making money.
Money has no intrinsic value whatsoever. It's only a means to an end – what we are really interested in. It’s that end that we are looking for, that we desire. People, for whatever reason, think that money will make them happy, as if it were some sort of medicine to an ailment.
Money is only good if it can be used for other things, for either facilitating change or attaining the necessary ingredients. However, to create change on a larger scale, then you will need money. Money allows you to move forward and to continue creating things worth creating.
Without money, you cannot create change worth creating, yet doing it for the money won’t get you where you want to go. Money is a distraction. It’s nice to focus on because it’s an easy target. Unfortunately, while we focus on chasing it down, we miss out on opportunities that would bring us closer to our actual goals.
5. Being human is difficult.
We balance our own wants and needs with the change that we know we need to create so that we can matter in this world. We are egocentric through and through – but creating a lasting, meaningful change feeds our egos like nothing else. Unfortunately, creating change takes time, patience and perseverance.
It doesn’t happen overnight, yet there may be no hints of the change in current until the last second. We receive little reward while trying to force change because it literally is a battle. Life flows in a direction – one single direction. Energy, life, does not change its direction or velocity until it hits into another force.
We have to expend energy in order to create change. We have to fight against the current and force life to change direction. It’s not easy. The larger the problem you’re trying to solve, the more variables in play and the more forces you’re going to have to deal with. Don’t give up until you have to – until there is a better, more logical option.
For More Of His Thoughts And Ramblings, Follow Paul Hudson On Twitter And Facebook.
