The headline probably gives away part of this: When people say they want to change the world, they often mean they want fame, or prestige.
They want the magazine covers, TV stories, and movies about how the world was changed by having them in it.
If that's you, just recognize your desire for what it is. Be honest with yourself.
After facing this truth (or realizing that's not your desire), we can get to the practical steps in changing the world:
1) Realize That You Are Changing The World Simply By Existing In It
If you were snatched out of existence, it would be a sort of 4-dimensional Jenga moment where a player got too bold. A lot would change.
We're interdependent, just like our genes are interdependent. You add in an Ozempic and suddenly you look a decade older to go with your thin waist.
Because of this interdependence: you change the world simply by existing.
The facial expressions people make in response to you, the memories they have of you, the conversations that connect you, are all examples of how you changed the world.
So, it's important to first appreciate that.
You'll never know the contours of every happy memory someone has from their time knowing you. No one will.
As sappy as it may sound, I think it's very important to recognize the truth in this idea, even if making someone laugh didn't get you featured in the New York Times.
There’s likely someone you admire that impacted your life for the better and didn’t get a TV movie out of it.
If you’ve acknowledged that, let’s move on to how you can learn enough to actually change the world.
2) Change The World By Gaining More Experience In Living In It
Live life, be there with experience and you'll naturally have your own slice of wisdom that can be served to people that are a few steps behind you.
Get really good at, or get a lot of experience with one thing and you have a better chance of changing things outside of yourself.
When I was being carried by manic episodes to tens of thousands of I Ching readings, I didn't have a clear goal. It was driven by craving, and I was often miserable indulging in question after question.
But by doing so, I generated a lot of feedback to learn from and draw from in offering my knowledge to the rest of the world via the magic of the internet.
I will admit, though, it would have been a lot more straightforward if I knew I wanted that outcome to begin with. So, let’s talk about the questions that could help you get closer to a vision of a changed world you want to have a hand in.
3) Figure Out What You Want The World To Change To
What would this changed world of your doing look like?
What would need to be true for you to have successfully changed your world?
What's the Promise - Story - Experience you want to have in the world.
Give those questions some thought, and then align your actions with it, which we'll talk about next.
4) Change The World By Being The Way You Want The World To Be
It's important to change your life on your own terms before you try changing the world.
If you're not where you want to be, you may change the world, but will it be fulfilling?
But if you do get to that fulfilling place, it’s important to remember our individual influence, even if it varies from person to person:
It's trite, but people mimic what's visible.
People copy the Romans.
It's why Apple stuck their bitten apple on the backs of their laptops.
And if your life looks good, rewarding, or enviable, it will stick with those in the world that experience their share of struggle.
So, be careful about what stories, behaviors, and ideas you make visible.
But let’s talk about how we can ‘be’ something that others might find worthy of emulating.
A) Change The Way You ‘Be’ In The World To Get The World Changing
The first time I took an antidepressant, I experienced the world differently. It's not necessarily something I would recommend, but it's an example of how simple changing our experience of the world can be.
And when we change our experience, we change how we touch and impact the world.
One way you can change how you experience the world is changing what you're listening for inside of it. Ex: Instead of listening to the world waiting to hear hostility, try to hear the wisdom, the peace, the friendship.
Easier said than done, I know, but by 'being' a way that might be a little more beneficial, or a little more lucky, the world might change your experience. And others might experience you, and what you offer differently as well.
And one thing that can help you ‘be’ different is by focusing on being with the present moment, which we’ll get into next.
B) Change The World By Focusing On The World That’s In Front of You At This Very Moment
Set goals of one.
Focus on the person in front of you, because consistency, no matter the audience, will dictate your impact.
And change the world by living like your world can end at any moment.
Look at every interaction as your album drop, your art gallery show, your magazine cover, your 60 Minutes interview. Maybe your last chance at any of those things.
The truth is, you won't look at everything that way.
You might successfully do it for an hour or two, and Kamma will slip back into your process, and you'll get lulled back into normalcy.
Then you'll have to remind yourself that every moment is momentous, all over again.
But this uphill battle is more productive than surrendering to your worst habits.
And while the present moment is how we can actually change the world, there are moments in your life that are more conducive to making those changes happen.
5) Recognize That You'll Never Change The World 'Enough'
Remember that you're never gonna change the world enough to completely satisfy yourself.
Changing the world can be its own form of craving. Its own prison with a key swallowed by a fish you'll never find again in all of your years of fishing for it.
If that's not good enough, I'd recommend taking a look at the Kanye’s, the Jay-Z's and the Bill Gates' of the world.
There's always going to be a new album you could make, a new business you could start, a new charitable idea you can make others care about.
If you do launch these things, the new successes will beget new problems and you'll be reminded that the world is run by cravings that will refresh themselves like seasonal runway shows.
New costumes for the same creatures.
It may be depressing to hear, but: Your thirst will not be quenched, no matter how many people you help.
But it's less depressing when you realize most of humanity has experienced this feeling of insignificance for thousands of years.
It's a reminder that I sometimes need myself.
You'll die at some point and some people will say you died too young, and others will think that you overstayed your welcome.
It's not often that a death's arrival gets delivered to ears that will in turn use their mouths to say that the person did enough, saw enough, lived enough.
This inherent dissatisfaction links us together as humans, while animals seemingly live in a state of meditation, focusing on the present moment of their fight for survival.
Instead of feeling terrible about how we'll never make enough of a difference in the world, we should 'be with the experience'.
The more we can be with the difficult things, the more we can help others do the same. And change life in our little ways by doing so.
Wrapping It Up
It's easy, and tempting to feel like our lives are amounting to nothing because we don't have a publicist on the payroll to spin our latest grocery trip into a story of how we left an imprint on the world.
The truth is, some people we meet will say we changed their lives (some for the better, some for the worse), and many will forget we ever existed.
Instead of turning our mouths away from the medicine, we should appreciate how we truly do change the world by being here, while not necessarily changing it in a way that would match those dreams, and hopes that are influenced by the narratives we've seen spun in media most of our lives.
If these truths of life were good enough for the ancestors and unsung heroes of the distant past, we shouldn't find ourselves 'too good' to be written out of the history books.
One day you may be impermanently immortalized in a story, and for the rest of us, we'll have to make do with our '... and all I got was this peace' t-shirt.
So be it.