How to make a difference with 6 billion people?

[Marth]

How can you possibly make a difference in the world when 6 billion people just like you want to accomplish the exact same thing of growing and making a notable difference in the world?

[Parthon]

“If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one.” - Mother Teresa

It depends what you mean by 'make a difference'. The simple answer is 'yes'.

If you want to make a great, massive difference then of course it's going to be harder. The impact in the world you can cause is a direct correlation to the pwoer you have focussed. Someone with a lot of power, like Steve, could be a great influence, but someone with less power, like myself, much less so.

Any positive difference in the world though is worthwhile, depending on what it costs you. If you change the world for the better then the world is better. Full stop. That's the reality of it.

What it comes down to is -
How can you leverage your skills and abilities to increase the amount of impact you have?

[magi13]

By being a good example, and achieving one thing at a time.

^,^

[bbdream8]

Originally Posted by Marth

How can you possibly make a difference in the world when 6 billion people just like you want to accomplish the exact same thing of growing and making a notable difference in the world?

Hi Marth,

We can always do what we can instead of worrying about what we cannot do.

Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

[Angela]

Originally Posted by Marth

How can you possibly make a difference in the world when 6 billion people just like you want to accomplish the exact same thing of growing and making a notable difference in the world?

With such a tremendous support system, how can you possibly NOT?

[timothydrake]

Just remember that you are unique. That in itself is the most significant thing you can contribute.

[Dharma]

All 6 billion are a mirror of you. So, change yourself, you change the world. Yes, it's that simple.

[sirkinm]

Originally Posted by Marth

How can you possibly make a difference in the world when 6 billion people just like you want to accomplish the exact same thing of growing and making a notable difference in the world?

You can approach this many different ways. I'm sure you feel really good when you positively impact the people close to you, so you might question the necessity of impacting the whole world.

Moreover, I would question our ideas on what we commonly think of as "positive impact." If you won the lottery, is that objectively a good thing? Google lottery winners and you'll see that many curse the fact that they won. It could be that a $30+ million winner lost his daughter to expensive drugs (true story), or that a man simply got hit by a truck on his way to pick up his winnings (also true).

We can all agree that Steve's blog is awesome, and that has a net positive effect...right? Personally, it's been inspiring, but at the same time I could be out doing any number of things rather than on here, some of much may have led me to happiness or enlightenment.

Indeed, Steve's blog could be the catalyst for any number of "good" or "bad" effects: Maybe Mr. Smith is so caught up in reading it that he misses his train and comes home to find Mrs. Smith fully engaged in coitus with the mailman -- the enraged Mr. Smith deals the mailman a fatal blow to the temple with his briefcase. Later that day, a mom on welfare doesn't receive her monthly check due to the mailman's deceased state, and she drowns her four kids in the resulting nervous breakdown. And the cascade continues from there... Thanks Steve!

Many people think that people like Ghandi and Mother Teresa are overrated. There is no doubt that our estimation of their contribution is vastly out-of-line with their inheritant worth to this world, if worth is something that can be measured. What % more beneficial is Ghandi than the bum who I pass on my daily subway trip? I think both Ghandi and the bum probably have equal worth in all ways, including benefit to the world. Personally, I feel that just being here and being human is ENOUGH. I'm not saying I don't aspire for more, but I doubt we will truly be judged by the petty differences in our actions. And when we do aspire to do good, the streams of possibilities eminating from our actions -- whether it be throwing out a piece of litter or fighting for the poor -- are too numerous to predict a certain beneficial effect. In other words, causality is just to confounding a phenomenon for us to go on about striving towards a positive impact.

In the end, when people struggle with the question of, "How can I contribute," I'm just trying to answer with a different perspective. I'd love to hear what other people have to say.

[RT Wolf]

Originally Posted by Marth

How can you possibly make a difference in the world when 6 billion people just like you want to accomplish the exact same thing of growing and making a notable difference in the world?

You're assuming that first all 6+ billion people are trying to make a difference and grow? That's just plain wrong.

Secondly, the implicit message there seems to be: "It's too hard to make a "notable" difference because there's so many people out there trying to do that, too." It's sorta like applying to a job, "why would they hire me when they've got hundreds of people applying to the job who're more qualified than me". You just selected yourself out of the running, then.

Now here's my further point: do you really want to make an impact on the world because you care about other people and the world, or do you want to do it so you don't have to face the fact that you'll die and there's a good chance no one will remember you? Is it just an ego boost or do you genuinely, honestly, truly want to improve the world and people's lives?

You don't have to take that as a judgment or a rebuke. I'm not there yet, for example.

[RT Wolf]

Forgot to add, in the implicit message: "It's too hard to make a "notable" difference because there's so many people out there trying to do that, too. And I can't do it, cause I'm not good enough or it's too hard or whatever.

[Brutha]

Actually few people try to change the world. Wayne Dyer said something like: It's never crowded on the extra mile.

Personally I feel that procrastination is the biggest factor that holds me back from changing the world.
Einstein published his most important work with 26 so I have still three years or so
But honestly you have all the time in your life to do something worthwhile.

You just actually have to actually act.

[vMike]

Originally Posted by Marth

How can you possibly make a difference in the world when 6 billion people just like you want to accomplish the exact same thing of growing and making a notable difference in the world?

Actually it's closer to 7 billion now
But none of them is like you and very few actually care about making any difference

[RT Wolf]

Originally Posted by Brutha

Einstein published his most important work with 26 so I have still three years or so
But honestly you have all the time in your life to do something worthwhile.

Haha. those targets move based on how you feel about yourself. If you feel like crap, then you always compare yourself to those who've done more who are younger than you (that quarter life crisis thread for example). If you feel good, then it's always those that did stuff when they were older than you. Funny how that works.

[rocksupreme]

Everything you do changes the world in some small way for some small number of people. Those people then do things that change others. That change ripples through all of humanity a lot more quickly than you might expect.

Just do your best and try to make those small changes align with your deeper purpose. Then you'll be adding momentum in the right direction.

[Vaganova]

Originally Posted by Marth

How can you possibly make a difference in the world when 6 billion people just like you want to accomplish the exact same thing of growing and making a notable difference in the world?

Find 4 people that want to do what you want to do and start affecting things. Six billion people isn't that hard to affect when you remember that very few people are the only ones actually affecting anything.

[Luvyourlife]

So many people want to make a positive change in the world but don't have the self belief to take action (myself included).

If only everyone who felt this way just got together and took action, positive changes would happen really fast

I would like to make a contribution to a more positive future by educating parents on concious birth and parenting. Hopefully this way, we can create more consious future generations.