How To Actually Initiate Change

“Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.” — George Carlin

As idealists, we often start our passion for changing things that we don’t like in society, our local community, or even our friend groups by imagining what it could be like. We think about what a perfect situation would be, what everyone would be doing in it, and how it would make us feel. Then we reach this point of returning to reality after exerting so much energy into coming up with this ideal. We turn outwards again and become re-familiarized with the actual surroundings we wanted to change. We realize that even though we just spent so much time figuring out how things could and should be that nothing has changed. This can be extremely rough. How is it that we have figured out how to be and what should change yet it seems nobody else has gone down that line of thinking? The answer is that people have gone down this line of thinking, not everyone, in fact not a majority of people, but there are others who are out to improve the world as well and others who want to improve the world but don’t know what that would look like. Getting past this feeling that we’re the only ones is a big hurdle to changing things but nothing has been done yet. I want to talk about what we can do at this point.

One powerful thing to realize is that having these ideas, even though nothing has changed externally, is already a huge step in the right direction. The more fleshed out you can get these ideas and plans the better. Most people haven’t even put in the effort to try to understand the complex issues in the world and try to reach solutions for them but you have. Realize that you are a component of this world and when your mind changes and grows the world is changing and growing. Now that you have these ideals how can you avoid becoming cynical when things don’t change? The answer is by taking action and having the end in mind. Having the end in mind simply means having a very specific vision of what you want to work to amount to and always keeping that in mind. The value of this is not losing sight of what you’re actually trying to do once you start getting involved in all of the details. Holding this value helps keep you on the path you set out on so you can weigh every choice you make against whether or not you’re working towards that end.

Once you have these ideals and have gotten them into a specific vision the first step is to start talking to people about what you want things to look like. Be prepared, not everyone is going to agree with you. While it may hurt and possibly even be a shock given that you, of course, think this plan is near perfect, be willing to hear people out. Listen to what exactly they disagree with, listen to whether or not they share the same values as you, listen to what they might change about your plan or if they have a different plan altogether. Understand that people who are willing to engage in conversations with you about this type of stuff are just like you! This is a good thing regardless of whether or not they agree with you. You have found people who have ideas too and also want to see things change. People like you and them getting together are what actually begins to make change happen. Have these conversations then go home and consider everything they said. If you don’t agree you don’t agree but if they made some good points be willing to move on some of your viewpoints. One person could not have possibly considered everything, meaning you, so be willing to expand your mind on points other people may know more about. We are more powerful together than with a bunch of separate ideals.

Conversations are the solid rock behind all social and political change, the more these conversations are being had the more viewpoints will change. Society is made up of a bunch of one people and the only way it changes is one person at a time. So you start having these conversations, your viewpoints and plans are becoming more coherent and you’re feeling like what you think needs to happen has some agreeance and heart behind it in your local crowds. Sometimes however it feels like we’ve reached a point where we want to spread these ideas to larger crowds we may not be in touch with. How do we do that? Now what?

I think the answers to these questions are different for everyone. We all have different talents and passions. For me, I turned to writing which is why I’m doing this right now. I have always been good with words and have enjoyed expressing myself through words. Others, however, may have talents in areas such as public speaking, poetry, visual art, music, or storytelling. These are and have been the idealists’ forms of powerful change. There are countless more ways to spread ideas but they are all just as powerful. Figure out your way to start spreading your message. Expressing these ideas is how you avoid becoming cynical about the world. Holding your ideal to yourself and not trying to do anything about it is a sure-fire way to become unhappy. Once you have your method of communication start to organize in your community. Create events centered around whatever it is you chose or try to find some that are already happening. Change starts with a bunch of one people but spreads by those people coming together.

Change always comes from idealists, they have historically been the ones to start widespread change because they’re able to look past the current circumstances and problems to envision what things could be like. Their forms of communication are often art and words because these are the ways ideas can be planted deep in others’ minds. So if you want to cause change, get your ideal, keep the end in mind, find your form of communication, do it, spread it, and organize. This is the idealists’ life force and role in society, don’t think that this role is expired or not needed. It will forever be the cornerstone of change.