by Jason Connell, Ignited Leadership

Can you change the world?

At first glance, changing the world seems next to impossible for the average person. It seems so overwhelming and complicated that only the truly great leaders can do it.

Despite the apparent challenge, I believe you can change the world and I want to propose a model for you to begin using now.

1) Focus in on one issue in one part of the world that you want to change. It can have to do with reducing poverty, creating peace, ending hunger - anything. Choosing just one area and one issue to begin with, is critical. The world we live in is vast and plagued with problems that need your attention. By choosing only one, you will avoid being so overwhelmed that you are paralyzed.

2) Begin by creating a ridiculously simple goal for yourself related to changing the world. Our natural tendency is to tackle massive problems all at once. The challenge with this approach is that often the problems are so large, starting them feels impossible. By selecting a small goal, starting will seem simple and you will quickly gain inertia.

3) Begin tracking your progress towards that goal. Just keep track of your efforts. Tracking has a magic quality to it. It draws your consciousness and focus to an issue and begins wiring you to pay attention to it. The simple act of tracking will help you gain positive inertia towards changing the world.

4) Over time, slowly scale your efforts and make your goals more ambitious.

An example will make this method easier to understand. A quick glance at any news aggregator reveals that: unemployment in America is sky high, East Africa continues to suffer from food instability, and Spain is on the brink of economic collapse.

Tackling all of these issues at once would be impossible, so you have to focus on just one area and issue you want to change. Let's say you want to help reduce hunger in East Africa.

Now that you have focused in, the next step is to set a ridiculously obtainable goal. Let’s say your goal is to donate $3.00 to an organization helping with food security every week until no one is hungry. To achieve this goal, all you have to do is find a reputable organization, and pump in your credit or debit card number.

This may take you 15 minutes the first week and 1.5 minutes every other week.

Now begin keeping track of your progress. You'll see that you're slowly building momentum and slowly contributing to the solution. Because your attention is on the change that you're making, and you're beginning to realize how easy it is, it's likely that you'll want to begin doing more.

In this case, the next step is to slowly scale up your efforts.

There are many ways to do this. Perhaps each week you could convince one friend to donate $3/week with you until you have 5 friends doing it. Once you have five friends each making a difference, you could start a club or a group dedicated to the cause. You could meet once a month and plan a fundraiser. As time goes on you could dedicate the club to going abroad and personally helping on the ground.

Whatever it is you do, keep focused on the issue, set goals that are easy to achieve, track the progress you're making, and scale your efforts upwards.

Over time, you will be directly responsible for changing the world.

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Jason Connell is an expert on happiness, confidence, and leadership for millennials. He is the Executive Director of IgnitedLeadership. He tweets @ignitedleaders and writes a monthly newsletter on leadership.

Website: Ignitedleadership.com | Twitter: @Ignitedleaders