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Be the change you want to see in the world.

Not I, Gandhi said that. Rightfully so, I agree, we do have to be the driver of the change we might want to bring in the world around us.

But what does this actually mean?

I mean, sure, it’s gotta be true and all because Mahatma Gandhi said that, and he himself was one of the major forces of change in the Pre-Independence India, and he played a phenomenal role in pulling the country out of the clutches of the oppressive British government.

But how can we take this philosophical, revolutionary and epic statement and act according to it in today’s time? How do we derive the meaning from this statement and employ it in our formula to change the world?

Gandhi strongly believed that ordinary people change the world. His ideology was to encourage the common people of India, the ones who suffered the most, to fight in their own way against the British through forces of ahimsa (non-violence) and satyagraha (speaking the truth).

We’re not making use of non-violence and satyagraha to change our world, but we will make use of Gandhi’s philosophy, and his encouraging statement, You must be the change you want to see in the world in our drive for changing the world.

How to actually be the change you want to see in the world?

This statement seems generic and common now when we’ve heard it so many times in so many different places. And it had recently started to frustrate the heck out of me whenever I’d see this in my process of trying to find the formula. Wherever I looked to change the world, someone always told me, be the change. Be the one. Be the master.

How?

How to be the change? How to be the driving force when changing the world?

That can be described like this, though its harder to understand in real life than in words. For any change that you want to induce, you need to be the butterfly, the catalyst that will start the chain reaction, the first ripple in the water.

That’s gotta be you.

The Three Steps in Bringing a Revolution a.k.a. Changing The World

Bringing a revolution. Changing the world. Same thing.

We all want to be the one to bring a revolution, and for that there are three steps in our way that we need to perform well and above all, to actually see our efforts get counted in the end. It takes only three steps to bring a revolution no one before or in your generation has ever seen.

It takes only three steps to be a legend in your craft.

1. HAVE A PHILOSOPHICAL IDEOLOGY & BUILD YOUR CHARACTER AROUND IT

We all have our own philosophical ideologies. Well, sometimes we might think we don’t, when we’re feeling overwhelmed with the world around us and the knowledge that’s prevailing in every corner of it. But, sure, we all have our own thoughts and ideas and beliefs, on the basis of which we end up spending our whole lives.

We all have been put here on this planet, for a reason or two. To do something. None of us is supposed to be going around aimless and wasting our time and life away. We have a purpose and it’s better for to realise it as early as possible. Don’t worry if you haven’t yet. Read the book Ikigai, by Héctor García and Francesc Micalles. Try new things. Find out what you like. Do everything until your heart tells you to do just one thing. That thing will probably make you fall in love with life.

So, our philosophical ideology depends, to a great extent, on our surroundings as a child, I think that. The things and people and places and emotions we tend to surround ourselves with ultimately and inevitably decide to a large extent the person we’d grow up to be.

And it can be changed, if any of you is worried that your surroundings as a child weren’t good, or that you didn’t grow up in a nice environment, or that you didn’t get the love and care that you needed. It’s not permanent. Changing yourself is hard, I agree, but so is staying in the same place and same conditions as you were before. You decide. If you want to end up changing the world, first change yourself.

If you want to be a propogator of change, it’s obvious to first off know the kind of change you’ll be striving to bring. It’s important to state your ideology, and your beliefs and the end results you’re wanting to get.

Once you decide the kind of change you’re going to bring, build yourself into a kind of person who’d bring that change. Turn your current lifestyle into the one you know is beneficial to you and the one you know is going to turn you into a better, smarter, tougher individual.

How would that person react to this situation? Ask yourself when you’re going through some hurdle. How would that person come out of this? How would they help others? Solve the problem?

Build habits that make you productive. Don’t indulge in any kind of self-hate. Stop ruining your mental state over people who you know can’t touch you. Be humble, though, that’s important. Stop wasting your time. Be disciplined. Add to your value and worth.

That brings us to the next step.

2. IF YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT SOMETHING, GO ALL IN.

Dont start something you aren’t willing to die for. This is…amazing.

This is an amazing quote to make you realise that life is short and many of us lack passion in what we’re doing. We’re wasting our time, efforts and money. To come out of this rut, we need to understand that we shouldn’t just start doing something we don’t like. Because once you take up that job, start that bad habit, go to that place because someone wanted you to accompany them becuase oh, they were lonely, then it all becomes so real.

And it’s especially true in case of a job. Because some people remain stuck in there their entire lives. Some poeple can’t come out of the cycle even after so much failed attempts. They’re afraid of starting the business, or doing whatever they wanted to do when they were kids and dreamed big.

This is to remind you that if you want to be changing the world, you better be passionate about it. You better be bloody passionate about it, to the extremities that nothing else seems desirable until you achieve this goal of changing the world in whatever sense you want.

This is important. Changing the world is important. And enjoying it while changing the world, is very, very important indeed.

If you like something, like doing something, like, really love this thing, to the point that nothing else seems pleasurable enough, and wherever you are, your heart keeps going back to that thing, then that’s probably what you’re born to do. That’s probably what you should actually be doing for your whole life, if you ask me.

Once you find your passion, your drive, go all in. Don’t hold yourself back, don’t play low, don’t try to undermine your abilities, just. Go. All. In.

3. REALISE THAT HARD (AND SMART) WORK PAYS OFF AND THEN KEEP WORKING

I was listening to this motivational podcast a few mornings ago. The speaker said this amazing thing that I just had to make sure I remembered all my life. He said that his favourite acronym was HWPO. Hard work pays off.

That’s something we all need to know. No matter who we are, what we are doing, if we are even doing anything or not. We deserve to hear this because all of us are working freaking hard, or are thinking of working freaking hard, or have worked freaking hard, and some time or other we all get tired and want to quit because we see our efforts going down the drain because we don’t know the heck we are doing wrong.

I tried to blog regularly. I really did, I swear, even when school got in the way. I tried to do everything, watch SEO course videos, read books that could increase my productivity, stopped doing other teenage things and just focusing on this blog, and one year down and I still didn’t see the results. I didn’t know what I’m doing wrong.

So the statement, hard (and smart) work pays off, it really hits hard.

And I can see that so many of us want to hear someone say this to us, to tell us that even if our efforts aren’t bringing us any results right now, even if we are clueless as to what’s even the problem, even if we are losing hope and motivation and the will, our hard work will pay off.

So I’m saying this right now: whoever wants to hear it, hard work does pay off. One day. Definitely. One day.

In our drive of changing the world, we need to continuously tell ourselves that our efforts aren’t all going to waste. It’s not in vain. There will be the results. The positive results of our work.

Ordinary People Change the World

I’ve seen many people be enthusiastic about change, about moving mountains, developing ideas, creating a different model of the world. I love those kind of people.

I’ve also seen many people look at this idea with an air of indifference, a pessimistic attitude saying that you can’t change the world.

Well, here’s to the latter category, I’m sorry, but I disagree one hundred freaking percent. I’ve always disliked those kind of people who are always there before the work has even begun to put in their “realistic POV”, saying that You know what, it isn’t possible, you know what that can’t happen. Of course, one person can’t do anything. Guys, you can’t change the world.

I’m sorry, but shut up.

Ordinary people do change the world. Ordinary people are the ones who end up changing the world. You don’t have to be extraordinary, more spectacular or a superhero to change the world. That won’t work.

What I believe in is that hard work, dedication and creativity can move mountains. Actually move mountains. Can definitely move mountains. No room for debate.

Call me optimistic, call me unnecessarily optimistic, but I believe in change.

“Nothing shall be impossible to he who believes.”

The Optimistic, Ressimistic, and Realistic Approach

We can look at the three approaches to changing the world, to show ypu how the world is made up of these three kinds of people and these are the ones, the ordinary people who change the world in the end.

Now, there are three kinds of poeple, as it has been already established.

The optimists, the ones who try to see the positive in everything. The pessimists, who try to see the negative in everything. Then there are the realists, who see things as they are, who have no biases towards the positivity or negativity. They’re real. Ideal.

Let’s just day the world is bad, or we don’t like the world, or it could get better, it has room for improvement. (Actually, we don’t need to say that because we all already know that).

Now, let’s see what everyone thinks about this.

The Glass

The realists, they accept the world as it is. They don’t question anything. They accept what it is, adapt themselves to live according to it. It’s a nice trait for survival, lay low, never up your game, keep playing the same game all your life.

Their glass is half full and half empty. There’s no other way of saying it, any other structure given to this statement might end up making it biased and one-sided towards either the glass being half empty or the glass being half full and blah blah blah.

The pessimists, they just criticize the world. They don’t do anything else, they’re bloody pricks, if you ask me. They don’t accept the world, they don’t change it, they just say bad things and complain about everything they see or do or see others doing. This is a bad place to be, in fact, worse that the realists. The pessimists never stay happy. For them, the glass is always half empty.

The optimists. At last the ones who actually change the world. They don’t sit around accepting what’s being thrown at them; they don’t complain about what’s not being thrown at them either. They act. They work. They decide. The optimists, they change the world. They see the glass half full, and then they search for ways to fill it completely. To become an optimist, you gotta be the change you want to see in the world.

It’s not a difficult comparison, really. You decide who you want to be.

Conclusion

I truly believe in change, as I said before. And I think you should too. I can’t back it up with a real proof, because you probably wouldn’t believe me until you yourself end up changing the world. And that might happen sooner than you would’ve thought.

We all have our different ways of changing the world, of being the driver of change. It depends on us what method and formula we employ.

Are you serious about changing the world, getting to know more about this fantastic idea? Become a part of our blog series My Formula for Changing the World. You’re welcome (in advance), since you’re going to enter the amazing journey and might want to thank me after it all.