Are we ever going to be able to learn how to make the world a better place? Is creating a better world a far-fetched dream for humanity, a fleeting hope for a horizon we are never going to be able to reach?
Is that all it is? Impossible?
There are some weirdos out there in the world who think of changing the society, and maybe eventually the whole world, and look at that, they are actually under the impression that they can do something eventful.
Well, that’s all we need. Craze.
Change is Supreme & We Need A Better World
I believe in change, not that I like it very much. But yeah, I respect change. I respect the changing world order, I respected the change as a law of nature.
And if I feel that me changing in any way is going to do something better to the world, make it a better place to live, I’m all in for it. I am willing to leave behind my pervious self, no matter how much I was comfortable with the kind of person she was, and I am willing to adapt.
I think we all do to some extent. We all adapt.
We are willing to change.
Table of Contents
How to Make the World a Better Place?
This is for us. The three methods using which, and using the subdivisions of which, we can practically and scientifically change the world. Or, if changing the world sounds too big and intimidating of a challenge, we can probably just learn how to make the world a better place.
#1 Personal change
Of course, great men have said that changing the world begins with changing yourself, that we have to essentially be the change we want to see in the world. But what does this personal change even refer to?
How do we change ourselves in a supreme, majestic way, in a way that actually leads us to progress down the road of metanoia and self-reflection. Metanoia in psychology means the “process of experiencing a psychotic “breakdown” and subsequent, positive psychological re-building or “healing”.”
I’ve always believed in metanoia. It signals that we can change, that we can leave behind our previous selves and make a better world by first just doing our part and then creating a ripple butterfly effect to change the world.
If you want to learn how to make the world a better place, the very first step, of course, would be to stop looking for the solution outside and peek within oneself to find out one’s good and bad points, then increase the good ones and eliminate the bad characteristics.
1.1 Self-Awareness
It all begins with self-awareness, with a level of understanding of oneself so great that you actually do know who you are, what you feel and think and what your beliefs and opinions are.
There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.
Benjamin Franklin
This shows how difficult a task it is to get to know yourself, get one-on-one with your own emotions and feelings and beliefs. If we want to change the world, we shouldn’t be oblivious enough to think that we can just do so by getting some idea and then acting upon it and hoping that the world recognizes and awards us. That’s rarely the case. We have to know what we truly want.
We have to figure out our why. Why are we doing this? Why do we want to change the world? What do we get out of it? Why did we even think about this in the first place?
You must have had a reason why you’re doing this, right—why you’re thinking not for yourself but for the whole world? You must have some time wanted to live in a better world. And so you’d have determined that singularly, only you make the world a better place and no one else.
That’s nice and all.
But once you realise why you want to make a better world, you’ll need to figure out how you’re going to do it. And what is your philosophy? Surely, you must have a dream, right?
The reason why I’m putting so much focus on self-knowledge itself is that this is actually one of the very hardest things we ever do. So many people know what their names are and what they do and whom they like and all their hobbies and every single superficial thing about thsmelevs. But very few of us actually attain a complete state of self-awareness and self-realisation. Very few of us actually understand what we want, and more importantly, why we want it.
This would be where we take note of all our bad qualities and negative traits and accept them.
1.2 Self-Development
Getting to know ourselves deeply from within only makes itself beneficial when we make use of the knowledge we’ve gained and we start developing ourselves, and making positive better changes in our personality and self.
This would be where we make better changes in the negative traits we had discovered in the step of self-awareness. Self-developemnt is, if truth be told, almost as important as self-awareness.
It is where we turn ourselves into a supreme, developed human being, into an alpha personality which everyone likes and admires. This is exactly what the self-help non-ficiton books tells us to do.
You precisely read books that will help you, that are guaranteeing to pull you out of whatever hurdle you might be facing, whatever stands in your way of changing yourself and eventually changing the world.
Suppose, if you’re dealing with challenges in communicating with people and/or speaking up your opinion within a group, you can benefit from these books:
- How to Talk to Anyone, by Leil Lowndes.
- How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie.
Or if you’re dealing with problems relating to self-awareness, as in, you can’t identify what your true desire is, your purpose in life, or are unsure of the direction you’re going, then these books would fit great in your reading list:
- Ikigai, by Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia
- The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, by Eric Jorgenson.
- Think Like A Monk, by Jay Shetty.
1.3 Taking Care of Our Well-Being
While practicing all this, changing the world and dreaming big, we need to make sure that we don’t forget to take care of ourselves to make sure that our mental health and well-being aligns with our goal and the amount of pressure that it brings.
You don’t have to be too harsh on yourself. You don’t have to constantly call yourself out, pin the blame for anything and everything om yourself. You don’t have to punish yourself for all your mistakes and shortcomings. You’re trying. That’s all that matters, whether it be something as small as trying to maintain a habit, or something as big as changing the world.
Sometimes, all you can do is to try. And that works best.
Some books that feel like therapy are:
- The Mountain is You, by Brianna Wiest
- The Strength in Our Scars, by Bianca Sparacino
- 101 Essays that Will Change the Way You Think, by Brianna Wiest
- You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay.
#2 Environmental Change
I don’t believe that just by changing yourself you can change the world. Surely, it’s possibly the first step you have to take, because you’d look like a hypocrite if you began preaching about changing the world without even focusing on yourself.
But once you have actually made a positive, better change in yourself, what then? What comes then? What further?
I really like the concept of working towards the outside. Like, standing at the centre of the problem and then working your way towards the solution by thinking outwards.
This is how this is explained. We, human beings are the centre of the problem, and once we’ve done everything we can regarding ourselves (by diving deeper into personal change) then we’ll step outside a little and into our immediate neighbourhood, the place, the people, the ideas that surrounds us.
Our environment. Our environment consists of both biotic and abiotic elements, just anything that surrounds us. Our friends, family, neighborhoods, the ideas that have shaped us, the events, the history, the geography, even the political situation in our immediate surroundings.
That is our environment, and it’s safe to say that once we’ve confidently changed ourselves, we have to go further ahead and try to do something better to our environment to convert it into a better world.
2.1 Education Can Change the Society
The youth, the students hold in their hands the very influential and powerful weapon to change the world: education. It’s not just schooling yourself. It’s about educating yourself, with knowledge, facts, words. It’s about being able to express yourself in a way that what you speak constructs a better society.
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela
So many students actually are acquainted enough with the world that they do want to learn how to make the world a better place. They are eager. They actually have this idea that their voice and their actions can change the world.
And this kind of determination, this kind of drive is very important in our mission of changing the world.
Education, when put to the bestest use, will eventually lead to a better world, where equality and justice rules. Education will lead the world towards a brighter future, a better possibility where everyone is intelligent and acquainted with the laws of the society and knows how to live sustainably. And it’s so liberating to know, that even as a student, a kid, you make the world a better place.
2.2 Environmental and Sustainability
There is no planet B, as a great quote by Richard Branson says. We have to take care of the one we have.
It’s really scary if you think about it. Many life gurus and successful people say that you always gotta have a plan B, you know. And then even if plan A fails, the alphabet has 25 more letters. That’s a nice concept to instill resilience and determination into someone, to never give up; but then why the heck are we giving up on our planet?
Why are all of us behaving like we have got some backup plan ready when in truth there’s no such thing as that? Why are we fighting wars and threatening about atomic bombs, knowing fully well that once this happened, we might as well call it an end?
We need to act before it’s too late, we ned to start taking big action to protect the environment and make it sustainable for everyone to survive.
The future generations deserve a future, a better world.
2.3 Technology and Innovation
Technology is nice and all, and new innovations yet every other day are raising the bar for the new generations to compete. But AI is killing jobs of many people, and machines are being preffered over human intelligence and capabilites.
How is this making a better world, if all we seem to do is create more aritfiical intelligence, rendering people jobless and making everything seem so easy that people are resisting altogether from making use of their own creativity and minds to do the work?
Technology is changing the world. We have to find a way to stop that overpowering nature, that domination that technology and the modern scientific developments are pinning on us. We have to make the technology work for us.
2.4 Prevailing Social Issues
So many social issues prevailing in the society make it difficult to exactly pinpoint how to make the world a better place because we see so many problems, and not enough solutions.
In fact, no one seems to have any solutions, at all. People are just hanging on by a thread, not actively trying to change anything, but internally willing that someone would.
Some statistics to show you how bad the conditions of this world are:
Hunger: “The world produces enough food to feed all of its 8 billion people, yet 828 million people go hungry every day.”
Poverty: “…1.1 billion out of 6.1 billion people (just over 18%) live in acute multidimensional poverty across 110 countries.”
Cleanliness: Over 1.5 billion people still do not seem to have even basic sanitation services.
Animal welfare: “Every year, humans slaughter more than 80 billion land-based animals for farming alone.”
#3 Socio-Cultural Change
The change we see or make in our environment is bound to work its magic outside of the regional or national boundaries too. The whole world has to know the effects of it.
3.1 Social Justice and Human Rights
People are being discriminated against, and this is no new fact.
Think about the different ways people are being discriminated against. The basis on which the biasness strives. We have to make it a mission to never let it go unnoticed if we see this kind of thing happening anywhere around us. If we can do something to stop this kind of injustice, I think we can only think about changing the world if we can take a step towards it fearlessly.
We have to act with a mixture of maturity, smartness, and boldness as we raise our voice against injustice.
3.2 Healthcare and Community Development
Healht is still a major issue in many parts of the world. Data about diabetes, obesity. About 422 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes and almost 2.3 billion children and adults are living with overweight and obesity.
We can chose this field to make a change in so that we can help someone sick or ill get better and live and maybe tell the inspirational story.
By raising awareness for different illnesses and diseases that seem to be common among the community, we can practically do something worthful that will change the future of the people, help them make a better world.
3.3 Peace-building and War Resolution
War seems to be a prevailing issue nowadays as many world leaders think of taking the big drastic step, by firing missiles after missiles, killing off hundreds of civilians. I don’t know what anyone is trying to prove.
If someone entered the political field with the determination in mind that they are always going to act in favour of peace and resolve all the wars, even if with war treaties, then I think that’s going to a big step for changing the world, to at leasing ensuring that the people and the children do have a bright future of a better world.
3.4 Art as a Creative Expression
Art and craft is what separates the boring old facts with new ideas and creativity. Art and design is the new method to actually say something meaningful enough to change the world.
I believe in artists changing the world. Or, possibly, if not the artists, I believe in art changing the world. Art can be used as the medium to express our ideas and our philosophy for doing something epic or eventful.
We can use this form of language to communicate creativity and impact-fully.
You Can Make the World a Better Place
It begins here.
Chances are if you’re here, you’ve already thought of changing the world, making a better society, and if that is the case, and you’ve got the determination that you need, you’re already well on your way.
You just have to keep going.
If you’re serious about changing the world, if you really want to accomplish that, then congrats for being one in the few who dream of changing the world and then actually go through with the necessary steps to do it. Kudos for that.
If you want to find out more about changing the world, and be an active part of this drive, or you liked How to Make The World A Better Place, you can look at our blog series My Formula for Changing the World, where we look at all the different ways and ideas to change the world, and we actually are crazy enough to think we can do it.
