Change your world
Most people wake up in the morning, do a ‘9 to 5’ job, come home, sleep and do the same thing all over again the next day. Others wake up and go and change the world.
In the ‘Think Different’ advertisement narrated by Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder, chairman and CEO, he presents the audience with those who he deems superheroes who changed the world. In this commercial we see glimpses of Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King Jr., Richard Branson, Muhammed Ali and more. Some have impacted the world through discovery and innovation, some have touched people’s lives through music and poetry. Either way, changing the world is not about changing the planet – it is about having an impact, a positive impact, on your world as you see it or live in. This can be as far as you community, your family, an organization, and so on – the world that you want to thrive in.
However changing your world is not just about the world you live in, it is also about how you will do it. For example, it is easy to see someone like Nelson Mandela or Charles Darwin as legends – they are – and the reasons why they are, are quite transparent. However, how about J.K Rowling, who brought the genre of fantasy back into mainstream? Or Pele who serves as one of the best soccer players of all time?
The way in which you change the world is as important as the world you change. Now let’s look at how you can achieve it.
Working 9 to 5
Looking closely at the maxim of perception, most people assign security to a ‘9 to 5’ style job which has lead to too many people, in my opinion, simply existing within that routine. The tragedy of this is epitomized by Henry David Thoreau when he says “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
Passion
Leading a life driven by passion is completely different. Those who have passion are driven. They don’t just meander or float through life, riding the waves of everyday routine, they have purpose – they have something to live for. Passion generates an intensity that is immediately recognizable but all too rare. Given that we spend more time at work than we do at home, ensuring that what we do in the form of work can have a large impact on our happiness and, those who are driven by passion and have the courage to pursue their passion, inevitably are more fulfilled.
How to change your World
Taking risks is the only way to really be successful. It is never the ‘right time’ to do take a change of direction in life when you analyze every crevice of your life that would be impacted if you did. The ‘right time’ therefore has to be created by you and the only way to enforce it is by taking a risk.
Go for it and be driven by passion
Passion is arguably one of the most powerful motivational tools which feeds into the cycle of what is needed to succeed; ultimately, simply loving something isn’t enough to lead to success, it needs to be supported by focus and hard work. Staying focused and working consistently hard requires motivation and so the cycle begins, passion will keep you motivated to do what you need to do in order to be successful.
Look through your lens
Everyone has a different perception of the world, opinions about life and so on. There will always be people who disagree but, in order to remain focused and bring innovation to the table , you must ensure that you keep looking through your lens. After all, if the people who believed that the world was round succumbed to the majority view of it being flat, we never would have known the truth.
Changing the world doesn’t always have to be radical. Inspiration comes in all shapes and forms , even if what you drive forward is an extension of an existing idea or a close but alternate view to something, the most important thing is that you are being true to your passion, to your perspective and to your self and inevitably you will change your world.
