Most of us won’t change the world.

We might change our habits. We might change our families. We may even impact our local town but most of us probably won’t change the world. Our tendency is to focus on impacting the lives we have access to everyday and addressing issues that seem within reach. There is a lot of meaningful change that can happen there with no need to further expand our influence. In fact, there is often unrecognized opportunity to serve, empower and impact others right at our finger tips.

Changing the world for good is a noble ambition. Most millennials were gifted not just with a sense of entitlement but also the hope that each one of them has the capability of doing just that. But changing the world requires more than ambition. It’s a massive self forgetting, altruistic sacrifice that often causes so much pain in your lifetime with only some chance of experiencing the joy of actually seeing the change.

So what kind of person changes the world? A person who gives themselves up for it. A person who loves without limits, both friends and enemies. A person whose mission and purpose is worth more to them than their own individual life. With a focus so strong that distractions are futile and a moment held so dear that procrastinating is unimaginable change can happen.

Why is an entire life the price for change? Because change is painful. Change can cause death. Change can mean growth. Change can create new opportunity. All of these take energy which we cannot just create. We can only give it. Give every ounce of our being. Every waking thought. Every resource invested. Every intention focused on the goal. 

One must not forget that the reward is not for you. It is for the generations who get to live in the sunrise of your success. You may never know that the wake of your existence opened doors, tore down walls and removed limitations and boundaries to previously unimaginable ways of life. 

Most of us won’t change the world but I’m still going to try.