How To Change The World

Hey, this is Leo for actualized.org. In this video, we are going to talk about how to change the world. Alright, so this is a deep topic, a pretty big topic. But this is a quick self-help segment, so in about fifteen minutes I’m going to cover my key thoughts about how to go about starting to change the world.

If you’re listening to this, and you’re interested in this idea, I applaud you. Because so many people out there are so concerned about themselves, so caught up in their own problems, in their own emotions, in paying the bills, in looking good in front of their family and their friends, or living up to society’s standards, that they really are not even thinking about ways to change the world, to improve the world.

I think that is going to be a major shift that happens in the next century. In the next 100 years, more and more of us, as we’re getting our basic needs satisfied, are going to start to ask the question of,

“What is there beyond just living a comfortable kind of life where we’re secure and we’re safe? What is the next level of evolution from that?”

And that is, the self-actualized life. That is the purpose-driven life. That is the life where you are very clear about the kind of impact you want to have and you’re very passionate about committing your life energies towards creating a better world. In whatever kind of way that is, and that can be in subtle ways or it can be in very dramatic ways.

Subtle or Dramatic Change?

A dramatic way might be to go out there and start a company that produces electric cars. Maybe your vision is that you want to eliminate petroleum use in vehicles around the whole world. That’s a very big, positive vision that you’ve got. That’s a bold, inspiring vision. Maybe that’s the kind of change you want to create and you want to be a part of. You want to be the mastermind, the visionary, behind that. Or maybe you just want to contribute to that kind of cause. So that’s one big dramatic way.

Or maybe a more subtle way is through being a personal role model of how you want other people to act in the world in the future.

Do you want to set an example for how to live an inspiring life?
Do you want to set an example of how to be passionate?
Do you want to set an example for how to be compassionate?
Do you want to set an example of how to become loving?

Because everyone that you come into contact with throughout your life, as simple as your friends, and their friends, so friends of friends, that little social circle that you’ve got, you’re family members, people that you’re talking to, even the grocery clerk that you’re interacting with when you’re buying groceries, all those people are interacting with you. Those interactions, each of those interactions, are opportunities where you can influence them in any kind of way that you want. Positive, neutral, negative, anything can happen.

So what kind of impact do you want to have there? Maybe you want to demonstrate something, some sort of value that you want to embody. And you want to have that rub off on other people. Perhaps you’ve had a mentor like that in the past. Maybe an old teacher from high school or college or a parent or grandparent, somebody that you really admire, someone that was a role model for you. Think about how that impacted you and how your life was changed and the trajectory of your life has been altered. That’s why you’re now grateful to that person. Maybe you want to have that kind of impact.

Self-Mastery

Whatever it is, changing the world is where real fulfillment comes from.

So I applaud you for even thinking about this idea. The problem with changing the world, because I’ve always been driven to do this, I’ve always had this need to go out there and do something really positive. Not because I want to be a Mother Theresa type figure, but because I get enjoyment out of that. That sense of contribution is such an amazing feeling. There’s hardly any other feeling like that in the world. When you actually go out there and you see the smile this puts on other peoples’ faces, and the impact it has and how this progresses humanity, how it honors some sort of higher ideals, it’s just so, so rewarding, very fulfilling.

It’s not the kind of shallow success that you get from earning a lot of money. So the idea here, is that this is a really, I think, one of the most powerful goals to have for yourself, is to change the world in a positive way. The trick of course is that when the rubber meets the road, it’s not that easy to change the world. This goes back to the very beginning when I was talking about this point that most of us are so concerned about ourselves, we rarely have the opportunity to go out there and make a big difference. I find that that’s very, very true. That’s the biggest thing that’s going to prevent you from changing the world, is mastery of yourself.

Mastery of your own thoughts and your own emotions. Because if you cannot master yourself, if you cannot master your own addictive, compulsive behaviors, if you cannot master your own negative thinking, if you cannot master your own self-sabotaging behavior, you can’t master your own finances, you can’t master your own fitness, your own health, and you can’t master your own relationships, if you can’t handle that and be comfortable, there’s no way you can ascend to the next level.

It’s really Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This is what it goes back to, because on that hierarchy, Maslow talked about the needs that people have, the psychological needs. Of course we have the need for very basic things like food, water, oxygen. But then we have the next rung up, which are things like shelter. A certain sense of security, the idea that we aren’t going to get harmed or stabbed in the back.

The next level up is having some social connections, some friends, some relationships where we get some love. The next level up from that is belonging to a larger community than just yourself. Then the next step after that is the peak, the peak in the pyramid, and that is self-actualization.

That’s when you’re going out there, and you’re life is about something greater than yourself. It’s about creating an inner self-mastery, then taking that and channeling that energy. Because now you’ve got the rest of it taken care of. You’ve got your basic financial security handled. You’ve got your health handled. Your relationship’s handled. What’s next? Next, is making that big change. It’s making that big impact. To do that, you really need to summon the best in yourself because to change the world is a difficult thing.

Why?

Because the world is the way it is and it has a certain inertia. That doesn’t mean you can’t change it, it just means that you’ll have to go up hill in many cases to change it. So if you want to change the petroleum industry, and you want to change the way cars around the world work, and you want to get them all working on green energy, you’re going to have a lot of obstacles to do that. There’s a big system in place already, you have to change that system. How are going to do that? It’s going to all start with you.

Assessing Your Skills

First of all, are you motivated enough to do it?
Do you have a vision for how you want to do it?
Are you going to be healthy enough to do it?
Are you going to have the money and the time to think about the problem rather than be thinking about how to pay your bills?

These are fundamental logistical challenges you’re going to have. Not to mention the higher level challenges of convincing people.

Are you going to be able to go out there and convince people of your vision?
Are you going to have skills, the technical skills that you will need?
Do you need to have engineering skills?
Do you need to have communication skills?
Do you need to have some other sort of technical abilities to get this kind of vision passed? Are you going to have the financial capital to get it passed?
Are you going to know the right people?
Are you going to persist past all those obstacles?
Are you going to know how to keep yourself motivated?
Are you going to know how to think positive thoughts when you’re feeling negative?

All of those are going to be huge, huge factors. That’s why people do not accomplish more change, because they have not mastered themselves well enough to be able to get even halfway through that process I just described. They just never make it that far because for them it’s mostly like,

“Okay, I need to pay my rent next month. I have to pay down the credit card bills. I need to make sure my friends are not going to leave me and hate me. So I’m going to do something to appease them. I’m going to try to appease my family. I’m just going to try to fit in to my community.”

Most people stop there, that’s their whole struggle in life. It’s a struggle just to get that done. Health, I didn’t mention that but that’s a big one. People struggling with their health. So if you’re struggling with all that, how can you be thinking about changing the world? Or changing the petroleum industry or doing something big like that? You can’t. It’s not going to happen. You’re too self-centered. What you’ve got to do is say,

“Okay, if I really want to change the world, it would be nice to be able to go out there right now, and maybe join a soup kitchen or maybe start on that big project. Start my own business. Screw it, I’m just going to go for it.”

The challenge with that is that to change the world is going to be something you have to do over the long run. You can’t do it in a week. You can’t do it in a month. You can’t even really do it in a year. It’s going to take a long time. That being the case, you have to ask yourself to do that, to get that kind of sustainability, what needs to happen? What are the changes that need to happen in my life? What you’ll probably start to notice is,

“Well, damn, if I really want to make that kind of change in the world. I’m going to have to start at the beginning. And the beginning is right here, with me. Because if I’m addicted to television and food or drugs or alcohol or smoking or depressive thoughts, anxiety, if I’m addicted to those things, there’s no way I’m making any difference. So I’ve got to fix all those first. Then, maybe I need to go out there and actually learn, study, acquire some skills so I can have the ability to shape my life in the way that I want. Just so I can open the doors for myself.”

Because right now you probably don’t even know how to go about creating that kind of change. Maybe you don’t even know what that change exactly should be, you just know that you have that kind of drive and are ambitious. And that’s good. I think you’ve got to start somewhere. The fact that you’ve got that drive is amazing. You’re in the top one percent already. I really want to encourage you because you’re listening to this and I want to plant the seed.

Start With Yourself

This is critical. If you get this down, this will make the change between you wasting your life in mediocrity and you living an amazing kind of life and really going out there and changing the world in a positive way. I want to plant the seed that you have to start with yourself.

Start becoming more aware. Start reading books about psychology. Start studying the psychology of success. Start practicing with yourself and understanding how you work. Start mastering your health, your relationships. Start mastering your financial situation. Start mastering your career.

Get those things handled, because when you get those handled, you’re going to have a foundation from which you could have a massive impact. But you’re not going to get that searching for that massive impact right off the bat. Having a shaky foundation, it’s like trying to build a skyscraper. You cannot build a thousand foot skyscraper, a hundred floor skyscraper, on a bed of sand. It’s not going to work. It needs to be a lot more solid because that thing has weight to it.

That’s what’s going to happen here. When we try to change the world, the world is going to bear its weight back on you. Whether it’s physical barriers you are going against or technological barriers, human barriers in society, obstinacy, or people not accepting you. That’s a big weight, a big pressure on your shoulders. You are going to crumble just like a skyscraper on a bed of sand if you do not master yourself and you do not understand how to withstand that. You need to build up yourself to be able to withstand the kind of pressure that you will have to change the world. Then you go out there and you will be able to rock it. You will be able to give us something amazing in the next hundred years. I really look forward to hearing about what that is.

So I’m going to wrap it up here. These are my thoughts on how to change the world. This is personally my mission and my strategy that I’m taking. Go ahead, I’m really passionate on this topic, so leave me some comments on here about what you guys think. Please share and “like” this, that’s why I release this content for free.

Then, if you are really serious about this and you are interested in learning more about the psychology of success and mastering yourself, you don’t need to look very far. Because I got actualized.org available which is a huge free database of all the information that I’ve been studying on how to master yourself. You can go there and find some amazing resources that are not always available in other places. Exclusive content’s there, and you can sign up for the free newsletter so you can get these videos and newsletters every week.