You Are Never Too Young To Change The World

[Music]

over the years

the following questions have often

piqued my curiosity

what can i do to make the world a better

place

how can i make my brief existence on

this beautiful planet count

what can i do to alleviate poverty

hunger

injustice suffering where do i even

start

should i first earn wealth and fend for

my family

and then give back or can both go hand

in hand

there are so many people out there in

the world more experienced

and perhaps even more competent and

accomplished than i am

at serving humankind so should i even

try

the scale of global challenges global

warming

climate change terrorism poverty gender

inequality and so on

is so huge that anything i do

will barely scratch the surface so why

even try

we humans are so insignificant

relative to the vast expanse of time in

space

so does anything we do really matter

today as a lot of these questions still

remain unanswered for me

i will share with you my learnings and

experiences

in the hope to stir up faith confidence

and strength in anybody wishing to make

a positive change

in the world around them at the outset i

must admit

that i speak from a place of privilege

and freedom

as i speak there are millions out there

struggling to survive people

who are leading hand-to-mouth existence

who are grappling with curable disease

whose homes are ravaged by war

and for whom living to see the light of

day

is their greatest hope and wish

i’m lucky and i count my blessings every

day

and i speak for others like me who have

the privilege

to even think about and feel connected

something larger than ourselves

we have the freedom to defy social

convention

and truly follow our hearts and dreams

therefore we’re also duty-bound

to labor beyond meeting our immediate

needs

and to actively work towards something

even more

noble and meaningful the question then

is when and where do we start

the following five stage growth journey

has helped me find purpose and given

direction and consistent energy

to that purpose this journey is one

that has evolved over time and it’s

really helped me

i hope that you can connect with it too

stage one of my growth journey is

knowing your why your why

is a statement of purpose which

describes

why you do what you do and why you live

the way you do

it is your calling your conviction

your mission statement a vision for your

life and work

your why is what makes you wake up every

morning

and keeps you going especially when

times are hard

simon sinek in his ted talk in 2009

elucidates this idea with examples his

talk was followed by a book

called start with by which i highly

recommend

he talks of apple apple is so successful

today

because their why is not selling you

overpriced smartphones

but that why is challenging the status

quo

empowering the individual and building

community

this idea is the very core of apple’s

business

it connects with a customer customer

base

and this is the reason why apple is so

successful today

my why is being the best version of

myself

every single day so i can make my

parents proud

what’s yours

stage two of my growth journey is

championing a cause

now you may feel strongly about several

issues around you

climate change gender equality cyber

crime

the refugee crisis and so on and you may

want to do something

on each of these fronts however

in my experience if you truly want to

make

impact at scale it helps

to pick a single cause closest to your

heart

and make your life’s mission take any

leader

from world history mahatma gandhi

martin luther king jr mother teresa

abraham lincoln each of them

championed a single course closest to

the heart and some

even laid their lives down for it

now you may find your true calling so to

speak

sooner or later but what is important

is being conscious and informed of the

choices we make

there is no predefined age or

pre-ordained route to finding your true

calling or purpose

you may find it through meditation or

reading

during hardship or through a trigger

sometimes you just know and most often

it is serendipitous

but that moment will definitely come if

it hasn’t already

my moment of revelation came during

personal hardship

growing up i always dreamt of

representing india

in cricket and until my mid-teens

i was playing at a fairly high standard

one day

i suffered a severe back injury which

really threw me off

but this also came to become a turning

point in my life

as i lay incapacitated in bed

i reflected on the real suffering around

i read and i dialogued with my

grandfather and parents

to truly understand the scale of impact

that they were able to have

and others like them both within and

without the political

realm the year was 2008.

while on the one hand the world was

grappling with the aftermath of the

subprime mortgage crisis

felt deeply troubled by the way in which

we humans plundered resources and the

environment

to feed our greed this concern

gradually developed into conscious

action

when i founded bhajan global impact

foundation

as a non-profit to promote environmental

conservation

and plowpow as a company to promote

sustainable agriculture

my cause is to help humankind

reconnect with nature what’s yours

stage three of my growth journey is

making time

your partner in crime undoubtedly

time is our greatest asset but it can

also turn against us

if we lose sight of its true value in

our lives

we have access to a world of

distractions today that never existed in

the past for our ancestors

and so we often get carried away and

lose sight of the plane

we live in a digital world that moves at

the speed of light

and therefore it pays to slow down and

refocus energies towards things that

matter the most to us

in this context we should take up

high impact habits such as reading

writing storytelling

exercising meditating listening to

podcasts

or doing anything that pushes us farther

and faster

towards our purpose for me

once i figured my why and my cause it

was time to set things in motion

and the way i went about doing it is by

spreading time

across four horizons by having

a long-term vision by setting yearly

goals

determining weekly objectives and

setting daily targets

in doing so i’ve been able to maximize

my productivity

and minimize procrastination a different

process may work for you

so work with your rhythm but do make

time your partner in crime

last year i ran for parliament at age 26

and i lost i did everything right

ran the best campaign yet i lost

i was extremely disappointed

disheartened

and rejected especially as someone who

was so used to winning

my early plans for the next five years

have been thrown into complete disarray

so do i give up do i change course

or do i carry on with the same

conviction and energy

as i did in the past how you respond to

failure

is what truly defines you what really

fails

is the outcome match to your

expectations

and the learning that exists in this

mismatch is far greater than if we would

experience victory always

as you know good days give you happiness

bad days give experience and the worst

days

mould your soul