If you could erase everything you know about yourself, who would you become?

Imagine for a moment that you could let go of everything that makes up your identity: all your fears and self-doubts, all your past mistakes and experiences, all your family and friends, even the shape of your body and face, and all those weird things you don’t like about your name.

Forget about what you look like. Forget about how you normally interact with people. Forget about how people usually respond to you and how you respond and act around other people. Forget what you think. Forget what you feel. Forget all of it.

Now imagine for a moment that you can start from scratch. You can recreate yourself to become anyone you like, a person with whatever personality and whatever traits you desire. 

If you’ve always wanted to be comfortable around other people, pretend for a moment that you suddenly gain the ability to be extremely relaxed and easygoing. Your confidence goes through the roof and you have no fear of judgement. You make friends easily and you have fun talking to strangers. When someone smiles and says hello, you not only smile and say hello back but you go out of your way to initiate a conversation because you’re excited and intrigued about where it may lead and that alone feels worth more than being afraid.

If you’ve always wished you worried less and spent more time enjoying life and the company of those present, that you enjoyed doing things not because the timing was right but because they felt like the right thing to do, then pretend for a moment that you can suddenly embrace the joy of this moment with no doubt or hesitation, no questioning or analyzing, no reservation or delay.

If you’ve always wanted to speak your mind and be yourself no matter what others may think, pretend for a moment that in any given situation you will always say what’s on your mind. You willingly open doors and you leave room for others to judge you because you’re so confident in your own skin that it just doesn’t matter. You’d rather let others know you for you — no matter what they may think — rather than let them judge you for who you’re not.

If you’ve always wished that you didn’t play it safe all the time, then pretend for a moment that in this newly created life all the characters and props that come with it will be wiped away soon and everything will start anew; it doesn’t matter how risky the choice, how crazy the idea, or how absurd the potential outcome: they’re all worth a shot because this is your only opportunity anyway.

Now recognize that none of this needs to be pretend.

You can start from scratch. Others who know something about you may hold onto what they know and believe, but you can let it all go.

Initiating conversations and talking to people always leads to more interesting and fun experiences.

Enjoying the company of those present and living day-to-day with a focus on what makes you happy and what opportunities lie ahead is always safer than doubting, over-analyzing, and waiting for the right moment.

Speaking your mind, leaving room for others to judge you, and not fearing the outcome of being yourself is always better than pretending to be someone you’re not.

Taking chances on the things that feel right, exploring opportunities that could lead somewhere new, and believing in ideas that speak to you, is always worth any perceived risk; everything you know will turn to dust soon anyway.

Be the person you know you’re supposed to be and stop pretending there are justifiable reasons to do otherwise. There is nothing worth avoiding who you are because who you are is worth more than anything you could risk.

The cage rattled and the creature inside gnawed and pulled at the metal bars. It was a Grey Squirrel, one of several that had chewed a nest into the side of my parents house. My dad was catching and releasing them several miles away with the hope that they would find another place to nest. The trap was designed to cage, not harm, so thankfully the creature inside wasn’t hurt.

Due to the design of the trap, tipping the cage over would cause the doors to unlock and open. The squirrel was definitely big enough to tip the cage over, but instead he paced back and forth and occasionally stopped to gnaw and pull on the metal enclosure.

That’s when I found myself wondering what a human would do if placed in the same situation. Despite there being no indication that tipping the cage over would open the doors, a human would surely try that anyway.

I realized that’s what makes us unique: When the outcome seems hopeless, we test the impossible.

As soon as it becomes blindingly obvious that our current path isn’t getting us anywhere, we do something unheard of in nature. We control and put aside the one thing that all other creatures cannot: Fear.

When all seems hopeless, we don’t give up. We shake our confining boxes. We break free of patterns. We revoke our commitment to the status quo. We evolve.

This ability to overcome fear and spontaneously evolve is part of what makes us human. It allows us to recognize when something is detrimental to our well-being and then take steps to circumvent it.

The metaphorical cages exist everywhere, but two places they can usually be found are in our patterns and commitments. Habits can make patterns not only hard to break but also hard to detect. Commitments can become so much apart of our identity that we forget we have the option of changing them.

If a pattern or commitment is preventing us from growing, if it’s holding us back from experiencing our full potential, or if it’s detrimental to our overall well-being or sense of inner peace, that pattern or commitment is a cage.

Can you think of any patterns or commitments in your life that represent metaphorical cages? What about thought patterns, ways of thinking, or attitudes? (Remember, attitude is everything).

I often catch myself running around, stuck in a pattern that is neither getting me anywhere nor contributing to my overall well-being.

I might be clicking through Twitter looking for something interesting to read, rereading emails to make sure I didn’t miss anything, or planning a healthier daily routine instead of actually changing my daily habits.

I’ve recently found myself researching budget travel destinations instead of accepting that my heart has already made the decision to go back to India.

Sometimes I even find myself planning what to plan or thinking about what to stop thinking about (those patterns can be really dangerous black holes for time and focus).

There comes a time when we need to stop thinking and start doing. We need to stop planning and start taking action. We need to stop succumbing to the resistance that fear pushes onto us and accept that right now, this very moment, is as good as any.

There comes a time when we need to take a stand and start an inner revolution.

There’s a time for thinking and planning and there’s a time for action. When we sense the current cycle of activity isn’t doing anything, that’s a signal it’s time for action.

That’s why doing gets things done. It fosters change and gives us the strength to shape the future. The only change that running in circles fosters is that of creating a deeper rut.

Instead of assigning fear the role of gatekeeper with the authority to hold us back, we need to put that fear to work. We need to use it as motivation to escape the cages of doubt that are constraining our full potential.

After reading my last blog post, Pemala, a Nepali friend and a regular reader, left the following note on my Facebook Wall:

Reading “The Revolution Starts Here” was very insightful. It gave me the moral support that is lacking in our community.

I have had enough with the Nepali community leaders in Boston who were fighting among each other for position. I took a stand and voiced my opinion in front of everybody. I thought, I could go home and talk about it or I could take a stand and let everybody in the community know what was happening.

I am planning to gather [the] younger generation for suggestions to improve the organization and have more youth involvement. And, I am going to propose that they help organizations like Nepal FREED who is doing something worthwhile for Nepal.

It was incredible to see how writing a blog post could help someone feel motivated to take action and possibly translate into things that would help the children I visited in a remote part of the world several months earlier.

Pemala’s message caused me to really dig deep and consider the far reaching effects of our actions. It made me analyze the reasons for my own inaction and gave me the missing piece to the puzzle of why I’ve been feeling stagnation in my life since returning from my trip overseas.

Her message allowed me to see the role initiative plays in instigating change.

The Need for Initiative

The word initiative means to have “the ability to assess and initiate things independently”, to “use your initiative, imagination, and common sense”.

Think about that for a moment and ask yourself how often you’re initiating and how often you’re just reacting to the situations around you or waiting for someone else to take action.

To take initiative, you need to be fearless. You need to be so fed up with the status quo that you’re willing to risk everything in effort to change it.

In my previous post when I talked about the revolution starting right here, within each of us, I was talking about how we need to become the initiators. We need to revolt against inaction and take initiative.

When we see something that needs changing, no matter how small, we need to lead the charge and take initiative.

Setting an Example (or How I’m Not Setting an Example)

The best way to affect the world around you is by taking the initiative to make changes to your lifestyle so that you become a walking, talking, breathing example of the changes you wish to see in the world.

If you hate to hear about animals being hurt, you should not eat meat. If you want to stop the pollution produced by burning gasoline, you should not be needlessly driving a gas guzzling vehicle. If you’re not recycling, you should not be complaining about garbage polluting the planet.

It’s easy to claim the desire for change without actually taking initiative, but that just makes you a hypocrite. If you aren’t doing everything in your power to make your own life a living example of the change you want to see, then your words are just full of air and you’re a fake.

I’m sorry if this sounds harsh or confrontational, but it’s as much for you as it is for me. I need to say these things publicly to put myself in the spotlight.

I catch myself talking about change — talking about taking action and living a healthy life in harmony with nature — but then I find myself doing the exact opposite purely out of habit or laziness.

I talk about the incredible benefits of meditation and yoga, but then turn around and sleep late instead of doing either. I’ll choose to drink coffee over tea, even when I know the extra caffeine is unhealthy for my body. I’ll spend money on lattes that I really cannot afford, all because it’s easier than breaking the habit.

I talk about the benefits of recycling, but then do nothing when I see my family throwing everything into one trash barrel. I’ll talk about overcoming fear, but then turn around and be too afraid to start a conversation with a stranger.

What happened to fearlessness? What happened to courage? What happened to taking action and starting a revolution?

Just Get the Ball Rolling

Talking is easy, but taking initiative requires courage. It takes real commitment and dedication. It takes perseverance and passion of epic proportions. You need to be so dissatisfied with the results of inaction that you’re prepared to risk everything to see something change.

When I quit my job and moved to India seven months ago, I did it because I was so tired of not following my dreams. Just like Pemala got fed up with going home and complaining to her family about the problems in the Nepali community, I got fed up with dreaming about what my life could be instead of actually doing something to change it.

But once I took the initiative to change things, everything else began falling into place. One thing led to the next and the inertia of completing each step pushed me forward; it helped put me in a position to take action on each succeeding step.

Staring at the mountain and feeling overwhelmed that I cannot reach the top in one giant step will just lead to discouragement and more fear, but breaking it down and focusing on just one small step in the right direction leads to instant progress.

That’s not to say it’s easy sailing once we take the first step. I left home seven months ago without a backup plan. I sold all my stuff and emptied my savings account to make that dramatic lifestyle change. Now I’m back at home with no possessions and an empty bank account. I’m searching for any type of work I can find and trying my best to stay on my feet.

But the ball is rolling and now my dreams are no longer just dreams. I know where I’m going; I know what’s next and I have unrelenting enthusiasm to keep moving forward regardless of the challenges I may face. I feel unstoppable because I took the big first step and got the ball rolling.

From further discussions with Pemala I know that her single action of standing up and voicing her opinion has also led her to take further action. Now she’s well on the way to creating real change in her community.

If she was still going home and venting her frustrations to her family, nothing would be changing; no balls would be rolling and inaction would still be dominating the situation.

4 Places to Start Taking Initiative Today

There are lots of places to start, but here are four general areas where I think everyone can find something. Choose an area where you feel the most frustration in your life and then analyze what tiny improvement or change you can make.

1) At home

I have always preferred to wash dirty dishes by hand. As soon as I bring something to the sink, I wash it. Everybody else in my family seems to let them pile up until the sink is overflowing and eventually someone loads them into the dishwasher.

But that doesn’t deter me. Twenty years have gone by and I still prefer to wash my dishes by hand instead of leaving them in the sink for someone else to wash.

Changes at home aren’t always easy, but they are an excellent environment to practice the dedication that’s needed to make changes elsewhere. It’s a perfect place to test the commitment to your own lifestyle changes.

While family members might be the most likely to resist change, they are usually the most receptive to your thoughts and opinions. If you speak with love, they will listen with love.

In the four spheres of influence — yourself, your family, your community, the planet — being able to implement changes at home is practically a prerequisite to implementing changes in the community or the planet. It’s not a requirement, but the skills and lessons that you learn will prepare you for bigger challenges.

Start small, speak with love, and explain why the change is beneficial. Most of all, don’t just participate in the change, lead the way. Be the initiator. Any flakiness in your own commitment will translate into excuses for others not to follow.

2) At work

Do you have suggestions for how things at work could be done differently? Bring your ideas to management or directly to your boss.

Be mindful of the attitude that you bring to work. How do you relate with your coworkers? How do you greet them? Do you take your stress and anger out on them? Take a deep breath and try converting all your negative energy into love, kindness, and compassion.

If your work environment isn’t conducive to health and harmony, ask yourself how it could be changed. Talk with your coworkers and see what they think could be improved or changed. Collaborate with each other and be the one to take the initiative to lead.

3) In your community

Pemala saw that change was needed in her community and she found the courage to stand up and voice her opinion; she took initiative where initiative was needed.

Communities are everywhere. Your family is a community. Your office is a community. Your neighborhood and your circle of friends are a community.

Do you see something they’re doing that is contradictory to what you believe is right? Take a stand a voice your opinion. Ask yourself how you could approach the situation to initiate change.

If the community isn’t ready to change, or if they refuse to take your opinions into consideration, make a stand by leaving that community.

4) In your lifestyle

Changing your lifestyle isn’t easy. In fact, it’s probably the hardest thing to do, especially if your desired lifestyle is a lot different from what you’re familiar with or if you don’t have any good lifestyle role models.

However, modifying your lifestyle is also the most effective way of initiating change.

When you learn how to become the change you wish to see, you empower yourself with the confidence and fearlessness necessary to initiate further change around you.

I’ve already mentioned several areas of my own lifestyle that need changing and from this day forward I’m going to take initiative to change them. Instead of just thinking, dreaming, and talking about the changes, I’m going to work on actively implementing the changes.

This process has already begun: My decision to sell all my possessions and become a nomad was at the top of my lifestyle redesign todo-list. But now I need to continue building that list and checking off items. I need to continue implementing changes, refining and redefining my lifestyle so that it constantly reflects the changes I wish to see around me.

It’s Time To Take Action

It all starts with taking one step. One step towards changing something that you wish was different. Ask yourself, what’s the next step? Then focus on completing that step.

It doesn’t need to be the most dramatic thing or the step that will create the most change. Taking any step in the right direction is better than being frozen in a state of inaction.

What’s one thing in your life that you want to change? It could be an element of your lifestyle, something at home or at work, or even something in your community.

In the comments below, please describe one thing that you want to see change and then describe the next steps you’re going to take to initiate that change. Let this be your public commitment to take the next step.

“I have no idea why you would be talking to a drunk guy with pink sunglasses at the bar, but anyway what was he afraid of? What was he planning for?”

“He just came up to me and started talking. He said there’s a revolution coming and the whole world is going to change. He’s getting ready and planning for the worst. I wasn’t really taking this guy seriously, but I’ve heard a lot of people talking about a revolution. Rumors mostly, but lots of people seem to think something is going to happen.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of messed up stuff going on and something needs to change. I don’t know. A revolution might happen but I don’t think people are going to be on the streets with guns shooting and robbing each other.”

I overheard this conversation between to guys sitting at the table next to me in a coffee shop in Boston. It got me thinking: How many other people might be “talking about a revolution coming”?

And if lots of people were talking, why wasn’t anything happening? If so many people knew “there’s lots of messed up stuff going on and something needs to change”, why wasn’t more being done to change it?

A revolution doesn’t start with rumors or whispers or conversations in a coffee shop. It doesn’t start by chatting about the way that other people might start a revolution. It doesn’t start by vacillating between what is, what was, and what could be. It doesn’t start by perpetuating fear, puttering about, and passing time.

No. The revolution starts when you decide you’ve had enough. It starts when you stand up and choose to become your own beacon of hope. It starts when you resolve not to give in to negative influence, laziness, and complacency. It starts when you stop waiting for it to start.

Your small acts of resistance — your stubborn defiance against your inner pessimist and your refusal to accept from the world anything less than what you believe is right — that will start the revolution. That will create the momentum that’s needed.

You can be a bystander. You can watch from the sidelines as the world around you changes in response to the actions of a few. You can complain, criticize, and condemn all the negative things that are happening. You can feel powerless to make a difference. You can sit back and watch life pass you by like a movie, waiting only for the end to arrive before you stand up.

Or you can stand up right now and take matters into your own hands. You can throw the status quo overboard and become a leader and a trendsetter. You can become an innovator and an instigator. A fire starter. A changemaker. A revolutionary. You can stop being afraid and become the person you wish you saw in everybody else.

You can refuse to accept things as they are and do what’s necessary to start changing them. You can empower yourself by any and all means. You can take charge. You can refuse mediocrity and rectify injustice. You can stand tall, keep your head up, and hold onto your beliefs.

Ask yourself what you would die for so that you may know the reason you’re living.

Identify what your revolution needs and start working towards creating it. Set high goals and march in their direction with relentless dedication and commitment.

Anything your life may need to support your revolution is yours to be had. Expertise, influence, health, wealth, knowledge, experience. The only limits are the ones that you set for yourself. Nothing is out of reach.

The revolution starts when you choose to become a revolutionary.

Imagine a city where every resident was someone who had changed the world in a big way — Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Alexander the Great, Mother Theresa, The Wright Brothers, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, and any other famous person who has ever changed the course of history.

Now imagine you’re strolling around that city and watching all those great people walk around, except that none of them know who they are; none of them realize the impact they’re going to have on the future of the planet.

Right now this world is full of people like that. People who are powerhouses of potential. People with an incredible capacity for greatness but who walk around seemingly unaware of that fact, unaware that they have the power to become passionate leaders, creative innovators, magical healers, and moving motivators.

People like you and me.

Do you think Einstein was thinking about the impact he would have on science when he was coming up with the theory of relativity? Do you think Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Theresa woke up every morning and thought about how much people would talk about them after they were gone?

They believed in what they were doing and they refused to give up. They refused to back down in the face of adversary and they resolved to continue if not even a single person joined them. They weren’t concerned with changing the world. They were only concerned with being the change itself.

Every human that has ever lived was just that: human. They were no different than you or me. Their potential wasn’t any greater than ours. In fact, with so much knowledge and technology at our disposal, we have more potential today than any famous person who has ever lived on Earth.

The world is full of potential changemakers. They’re everywhere. Almost seven billion of us at last count. For those of us who take advantage of the opportunity that’s available to us, the world will change in response to our actions.

We may only be able to change our small world. The history books might not remember our names. The only thing we might be able to change is ourselves. We might only leave a positive impact on the lives of those around us. What’s important to remember though is that’s enough.

Each of us is like a tiny raindrop. We might only make a little ripple in the sea of time, but collectively our ripples become waves of change. The size of the ripple isn’t important, but it must be consistent. It must be relentless.

All great changemakers recognized that they could only do so much, but that what they could do should be done with great passion, dedication, and fearlessness.

You don’t need to be a genius. You don’t need to be born into royalty. You don’t need to be surrounded with perfect circumstances. The power to make a difference — the power to be powerful — is in your hands. The only person holding you back is you.

Live your life the way you’d like to see the waves build. Initiate movement. Lead the flow. Shake the system. Challenge the status quo. Make a ripple. Make a ruckus. It’s up to you now.

In the past six months I have lived in four countries and called more than twenty-six places home. I’ve traveled more than twenty-five thousand miles using cars, buses, jeeps, trains, airplanes, rickshaws, taxis, motorcycles, and my own two feet.

I’ve gotten lost walking at night in Bombay. I’ve watched thousands of giant bats descend on the great city of Udaipur. I’ve walked through clouds, surrounded by fields of corn and I’ve climbed ten-thousand feet into the Himalayan mountains, covered in sweat, sand, and sunburns.

Sitting down to write a summary of the most incredible six months of my life, I found myself faced with the task of telling a story of epic proportions, one that felt on par with the Lord of the Rings and The Odyssey. I considered limiting it to the story of my inner journey, but then I realized that was even more grand than the physical one.

As I reminisced and pondered what to write, my journey reminded me of these words by the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy, written almost exactly one-hundred years ago:

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon — do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)

I like to think of my Ithaca as that moment before I die where I look at back on life with a feeling of contentment; that moment where I say to myself with confidence that I was happy for everything I had done, everyone I had met, and all the people whose lives I helped change along the way.

That’s my Ithaca. The journey between this moment and Ithaca is pure opportunity, pure potential, pure life. I might be lowering my sails and preparing to set anchor in a familiar cove for a few months, but the journey itself is far from over.

This journey began when I decided it was too important to postpone and although the journey may have been epic, there wasn’t anything extraordinary about its beginnings — this journey simply became the most important thing in my life.

Are you postponing something that your gut is telling you would be epic? Have you been putting something off that you know deep down inside needs to be done?

The journey will only begin when you decide it’s too important to continue putting off. There will be people — Cyclops and Lestrygonians — who try to deter, distract, and discourage you. Pay them no attention. There will be seemingly insurmountable challenges that you need to face. Do not feel intimidated.

This is your journey and your great voyage through the sea of life. You choose who to share your journey with and what stops to make along the way. You choose when to raise the sail and when to set anchor. You choose what Ithaca means.

She smiled and asked in a somewhat sarcastic tone, “Do you live here or something?”

For her, dropping $250 in a single day was no big deal. For me, that’s my whole budget for food, transportation, and lodging for an entire month.

Over the course of the past week, we had both spent several hours a day at the same cafe in the backpackers district of Kathmandu and on several occasions exchanged glances without speaking a word.

The free wifi and excellent coffee made the cafe a great place to use my laptop and for the past week it has been my home while I work during the day on my upcoming ebook, Small Ways to Make a Big Difference.

I returned the smile, simultaneously surprised and happy that my out-of-control facial hair — which I refuse to cut until the end of my initial six-month journey — had not scared away yet another person.

We continued talking and I learned that she grew up in Canada, has a degree in education, and has been traveling for the past ten years holding jobs in various countries.

She talked about how nice it was to work in a foreign country where she was not only paid well but also provided with free health insurance, free lodging, and given two months vacation every year.

She uses her vacation every year to explore various parts of the world. She’s currently vacationing in Nepal where she is taking yoga and painting classes, going on trekking tours, and hanging out a cafes reading and trying not to get bored.

Her current job has her working in the United Arab Emiraties (UAE) as a first grade school teacher for children with whom she cannot even communicate due to the language barrier.

The UAE, which she describes as being “like the twilight zone”, has the world’s seventh largest oil reserves and possesses one of the most developed economies in the Middle East.

I told her about my previous four months of travel and explained how the poverty, suffering, and inequality that I witnessed had driven me to start looking for ways to help.

When I asked her to tell me more about the UAE, she told me about the extreme riches and extreme poverty that exists there. She explained how the laborers were not supposed to work when the temperature rose above 120F degrees, but higher powers more interested in progress than human life made sure the temperature was always reported as 119F degrees, regardless of the actual temperature.

She talked about how expatriate laborers would come from countries like India and Pakistan in search of work, hoping to send money back to their families. Upon arrival, many of them would have their passports illegally confiscated.

These people would then be forced to work in grueling conditions for 14 – 16 hours a day while mothers and children, like the two in the photo above, would live in makeshift houses, oftentimes in overcrowded and unsanitary housing conditions just a few kilometers away from luxurious palaces they themselves were helping build.

Ferrari’s and Lamborghini’s could be seen driving next to the repressed people who were working to build this empire. Despite this, many of the wealthy people in the United Arab Emirates would say to your face, “there is no poverty here”.

I starting talking to her about my ideas for how I thought we could bring awareness to the problems, brainstorm solutions, and provide small steps that could make a difference in the long-term.

But instead of the enthusiastic response that I expected, she shot down each idea with an example of why it wouldn’t work. She kept describing specific types of people who were more interested in their own problems than those of the rest of the world. As far as she was concerned, the situation was hopeless.

Now before I continue, let me say that the position of a school teacher — especially one that teaches young children — is held with very high regard in my mind. I strongly believe there is no better way to change the world and affect the lives of others than through teaching children, so this post is in no way an attack on this person. Rather it’s simply an observation that I made about her attitude towards the problems in the world.

She had already accepted defeat. She had already accepted that nothing could be done about the current state of the world.

With all the difficulties, all the obstacles, and all the challenges blindingly obvious, it was easier to just say that it can’t be done. It was easier to talk about how difficult the changes would be than it was brainstorm solutions and be willing to sacrifice comforts.

***

The attitude that we bring to any situation heavily influences the outcome of that situation.

If we go around with an attitude that nothing can be done, it’s more than likely that nothing will get done. But if we approach a problem with the attitude that something will be done, then there’s a damn good chance that something is going to happen.

As my focus in life makes a huge shift towards figuring out what I can do to help make the world a better place — as I read, research, and talk to others about the problems the world is facing and the efforts already in progress — the scope of the situation is becoming more and more clear to me.

The sheer scale of the challenges and obstacles — the incredible forces of greed and ignorance; the hugely influential power of governments; the political control the wealthy — they’re are all beginning to feel unmatchable.

As I sat there working on my first ebook — a tiny piece of digital media designed to help give people ideas for ways they can make a difference in the world — this person sitting across from me was making it sound like it was all for nothing. And I was beginning to believe her.

She continued talking and I glanced down at the ebook on my laptop. For just a moment, I began to feel hopeless. I began to feel as though maybe all this work was for an unattainable dream.

Maybe there really was no hope for all those poor people dying of starvation. Maybe those children were doomed to a future without opportunity. Maybe the inhumane abuse of power in the UAE will continue indefinitely, crushing the dreams of workers going there in search for a better life for their children.

And then it hit me.

Like a virus taking control of its host, I was allowing this negative attitude to infect my dream of possibility. I was letting go of optimism; letting go of confidence; letting go of hope. I was letting go of everything that was driving me.

I was letting go of the one thing that all those suffering people are holding on to — the one thing that nobody can take away from us so long as we choose not to give it up.

***

To complain and say that it can’t be done? That’s easy. To hold your ground and take action when faced with a seemingly insurmountable challenge? That’s difficult.

Only one of those two paths leads to progress and if progress is what we seek, then the choice is clear.

Nobody said that changing the world would be easy. Nobody said that working towards a better future would be comfortable and without sacrifice. Nobody said that we could sit back and wish away all the problems in the world.

We need to maintain an attitude that we can make the world a better place, that we will work towards a world where nobody goes hungry. We need to accept that poverty and injustice exist in the world and then believe that we can do something about it.

If we combine that attitude with purposeful action, progress towards a better world is inevitable.

Photo credit to JakeBrewer

All the little things we do throughout the day may seem insignificant, but they add up to big changes. Here are twenty-one ways that you can start improving your health today and create a healthier, more pain-free you for tomorrow.

1. Walk frequently. If your job has you sitting down all day, get up and walk around as often as you can without being fired. If you spend most of your day at a desk or driving in your car, form a morning, evening, or lunchtime routine of walking for at least twenty minutes.
2. Take the stairs. Do you work on the second floor of a building? What about the eighth floor? Take the stairs, every single day. When I started my last job, taking the stairs to the eighth floor the first time had me gasping for air. Fast-forward one year and I was running those stairs and beating my elevator-riding co-workers to the office! Stairs are an excellent way to seamlessly add exercise to your day without even going near a gym.
3. Drink water. You’ve heard it before, but this doesn’t get old. Water is magical. To stay healthy you need to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Try replacing unhealthy drinks with a glass of water when you’re feeling thirsty. Carry a bottle of water with you wherever you go so you never have an excuse to skip it!
4. Eat breakfast. Yes, breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Even if you’re not hungry, you should be trying to eat something. Don’t have any healthy food in the house? Eat anything! Breakfast is the one meal of the day where it’s better to eat unhealthy than not at all. However, a nice bowl of oatmeal with blueberries, raisins, and bananas would be ideal. Grab an apple or orange on the way to work for a mid-morning snack.
5. Get some sun. The sun has all kinds of healing properties. Yes, it can cause skin cancer, but I’m not telling you to go outside naked and bake in the sun for eight hours. Just go outside and grab a few extra rays during your lunch break. Spend the weekend in the yard or hiking a forest trail.
6. Stretch every day. Your muscles are like elastic bands. The less they’re stretched, the tighter and more ridged they become. Stretching causing your blood to flow and carry nutrients to various areas of your body. Think of the positions your body is normally in and stretch in the opposite direction. If you sit down a lot, stand up and stretch your hands overhead. When you get out of bed, spend at least two minutes stretching before you head to the shower. You don’t need a yoga routine. Just do whatever stretch feels good.
7. Eat whole foods. This seems to go without saying, but it’s absolutely vital to our health. Whole foods are healthy. When we eat them, they make our body healthy. It’s really that simple. Whole foods are basically anything that hasn’t been processed or manufactured by a machine: Fruits, nuts, vegetables, grains. Try forming a habit of eating one apple every day. Keep a bag of nuts in the car and snack on those during the drive home.
8. Be conscious of your posture. Everyone has a different posture, but there is a such thing as “proper posture”. Take a moment to evaluate your posture. Are you slouching over? Are you walking with your head down? Imagine someone tying a string to the top of your head and then pulling on it (no, you’re not being hanged). Do that with your posture: pull your shoulders back, push your chest out, stretch your neck up, and breathe. Try to be aware of your posture throughout the day and correct it once you recognize that it’s out of balance.
9. Modify your eating habits. We all need to eat. By the time you’re an adult, eating has become a habit — it’s second nature. However, small adjustments to our daily eating habits can have huge long-term affects on our health. Do you normally eat a poptart for breakfast? Try cereal with fresh blueberries and bananas instead. Do you normally have coffee with two creams and four sugars? Try coffee with one cream and two sugars. Slowly move your eating habits in a direction that is healthier and before you know it, you’ll be eating and feeling a lot more healthy.
10. Meditate. This doesn’t mean you need to become a monk and dedicate the rest of your life to a spiritual calling. Collect your thoughts. Spend a few minutes quieting your mind and bringing it back home. Take deep breaths and relax your entire body. You can try it in the morning (before stretching) or just before bed. Even during your lunch break is a good time. At my last job, there was a small quiet area with a patch of grass underneath a tree. I would spend a good ten to fifteen minutes there after lunch collecting my thoughts and meditating.
11. Avoid feeling “stuffed”. The goal of eating shouldn’t be to feel stuffed. It’s an uncomfortable feeling and it’s detrimental to our health. If you normally feel stuffed after your meals, try eating slightly smaller portions. It’s OK to feel slightly hungry after a meal. You’re not going to die. Worst case, you’ll feel a little hungry between that meal and your next meal! Science has shown that there are many benefits to eating fewer calories, so try not to stuff yourself — you’re not about to experience a famine!
12. Treat physical inconveniences as mini-workouts. If you have to move a heavy box to another room, pretend it’s a mini workout session. If you couldn’t find a close parking spot and have to walk further than usual, treat it as a mini cardio session. Many physical inconveniences can be treated as opportunities to improve our health. Instead of complaining, think about how it’s making you stronger and healthier!
13. Get enough sleep. Our bodies need sleep to recharge and regenerate. If you’re skipping out on sleep, your body will naturally be more stressed than it needs to be. Stress causes aging and releases chemicals into your body that are harmful. Everyone has different sleep requirements, but you will know if you’re getting enough sleep. Go to bed a little earlier than usual if you need to. Try not drink caffeine at least five or six hours before bed. Also, eating a big meal or watching TV can prevent you from falling asleep. Regular exercise will also ensure that you fall asleep early!
14. Walk barefoot. Your feet contain many nerves with pressure points linked to various parts of your body. Walking barefoot stimulates these and increases the blood flow throughout your body. If you normally spend all day in shoes, try walking barefoot. If possible, walk around at work with only your socks on (make sure you feet aren’t smelly). The next time you bring the trash outside, try going barefoot. Take your time though and be careful. Your feet may be extra sensitive from living a life of comfort in those shoes!
15. Try something you’ve never done before. Our bodies and brains require stimulation to remain healthy. If you repeat the same routine every day, or do the same set of activities on the weekend, you’re severely limiting your growth. Join a martial arts class. Take a yoga class. Try trail running. Rent a mountain bike and discover the forest trails from a new perspective. Listen to a new genre of music. Read a different type of book. Explore that street you pass every day but have no idea where it leads.
16. Move frequently. Objects in motion remain in motion. If you want to be healthy, you need to be in motion, whether that means physical motion or mental motion. Try to be as active as possible (again, mentally or physically). Try not to sit in one spot for more than thirty minutes to an hour. Get up, walk around, stretch, squat, jump, whatever. Think of activity as life and inactivity as death in progress (once again, physically or mentally).
17. Do something relaxing. Set aside time to relax as frequently as possible. This could mean anything: spending quality time with family, reading a book by the ocean, going for a weekend camping trip, or just siting outside enjoying the moment. You should make time to relax every day, but even an entire week’s worth of stress can be released in a few hours on the weekend by doing something that you find very relaxing.
18. Breathe deeply. A deep breath provides ample oxygen to your body, calms your muscles, and releases stress. This is something you can do anywhere and at anytime. As you go throughout your day, try taking a deep breath whenever you feel even the slightest indication of stress. Battle the stress with air!
19. Laugh often. Like deep breathing, laughter is an excellent stress-buster. Science has even shown that laughter has the potential to physically heal our bodies. It’s the purest expression of joy and happiness. Even if you have no one to laugh with, try laughing to yourself. It feels great!
20. Watch children play. Spending time watching children play reminds us what it’s like to live without worry and stress; to live carefree and content with the moment. We all have an inner child who never dies and watching other children play makes our inner child come out from hiding. This helps us rediscover the joy and beauty of the moment.
21. Think long-term. The reason we want to be healthy is so that we can enjoy life without discomfort and pain. If we think short-term, we won’t see the value in improving our health today. Ask yourself what the you of tomorrow, or next year, will think about the you of today. Will that person look back with pride and admiration for the effort you spent improving your health? The future starts with today.

There are lots of ways to improve our daily health, but just reading about them isn’t going to do much good. Choose any number of these steps, whether it’s just one or all twenty-one of them, and try to integrate them into your daily life.

Do you have any other tips for improving our daily health? Share them in the comments below!

From the moment you wake up until the moment you sleep, you’re creating art.

Brushing your teeth? Art. Putting on makeup? Art. Getting dressed? Art. Eating breakfast? Art. Kissing a loved one? Art. Driving to work? Art. Doing your work? Absolutely art.

Speaking to a friend? Art. Walking to lunch? Art. Reading email? Art. Writing email? Art. Browsing the web? Art. Daydreaming? Art. Brainstorming? Art.

Every single thing you do is art.

You cannot escape it. Whether you choose to believe it or not is irrelevant. The very fact that you’re human makes you an artist. You have the gift of conscious awareness, the gift of choice, the gift of creativity.

You can spend your entire life denying you’re an artist or you can whip out your paintbrush and start acting like Michelangelo.

Nobody is going to push you to make this choice, but nobody is going to stop you either. It’s entirely up to you.

If you’re feeling incapable of greatness; if you’re feeling unsure of yourself; if you doubt your potential; the paintbrush and the canvas don’t give a damn. They have all the time in the world and they’re not going anywhere.

On the other hand, your paint — your life — is drying out.

You’re an artist. Life is your canvas. One way or another, you’ll be creating your masterpiece until the day you die.

What are you doing with your canvas? Are you gawking at the work of other artists and watching your paint dry or are you painting your life with diligent exuberance and radiant passion?

If so, the first thing you’ll need to do is stop being like everybody else and start focusing on what makes you, you. If you try to be like everybody, you’ll end up being nobody.

We are all unique; each and every one of us has a history that is uniquely different from everyone else. None of us have the exact same past. The combination of things you’ve experienced, people you’ve met, choices you’ve made, and tough situations you’ve been through are one hundred percent unique to you.

Your history — your past experiences, successes, and mistakes — make you uniquely capable of handling specific situations and solving specific problems in the world. You are so unique in fact, that the only path in life for you to take is your path.

By doing what everyone else is doing, by following the crowd or choosing to follow the path of someone else, you’re not going to change the world; you’re not going to make a difference; and you’re not going to be happy.

Step out of that box that you, your family, your friends, and society have created around your life. You’re a powerful human being, with incredible abilities and superior skills. Why are you letting those go to waste? You are your own master. You are your own God. When it comes to living your life, nobody else even comes close to competing.

Everything you need to be, you are. You don’t have to change or try to be something or someone different. Life provides you with all that is needed to succeed and make a difference. Anything you don’t already have will be provided along the way. All you have to do is step out of the way, stop trying to follow the goals and dreams of someone else, and take the initiative to be yourself.

Stop trying so hard and just be.

Follow your heart and intuition and they will guide you. If it feels like they’re guiding you towards mistakes, then those mistakes are probably vital to your growth and progress. The right path in life isn’t always obvious or easy.

When life throws you lemons, make lemonade. When life throws you a truck-load of lemons, start a lemonade business. But please, don’t give up and let those delicious lemons rot away!

Embrace yourself. Right now. It’s OK, no one is watching. Close your eyes and try it. Wrap your arms around yourself and give yourself a big hug.

That person loves you more than anyone else ever could. That person will be there with you forever, even on your death bed. Such dedication deserves a little appreciation and love in return, don’t you think?

There are so many people in the world right now who would benefit from what you’ve learned in life. You have the ability to make a permanent impact on their life. These people need you to stop ignoring yourself.

Allow yourself to be yourself. Find the courage to be yourself. Learn to love and take care of yourself before anyone else. Let your unique beauty shine through and touch the hearts and souls of those around you. Genuinely care. Be compassionate and respectful to all life.

Do this and I can promise that you will not only make a difference in your world, but also in the world of those around you.