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Five Radical Principles On Becoming An Influencer

Whatever you are doing right now, professionally and personally, you must see the potential of being a game changer. If you don’t, then you’re asleep at the wheel. You need to wake up or pull over.

Most of us go through life in the passenger’s seat. Passively we’re driven where we do not want to go leading us to being someone we don’t want to be.

If you can relate to that statement then please read on. This article is what you’ve needed.

The challenge to become an agent of change is not just for you personally. It is also for your family, friends, community, and the organization you represent. You can become a champion for real change. But, first, you have to recognize the need and decide to do something about it.

To be blunt part of the problem is you don’t see your potential as a _______ (fill in the blank). If we are going commit we also need people alongside us to make a difference where we live.

To be clear let me state something upfront. I do have an agenda. I intend to be a game changer and challenge you to do the same. I am clearly here to tell you that we have been given a great opportunity. The information provided below is meant to arouse you from your malaise. It can also help you take that first step towards fulfilling your purpose.

Radical Principle #1 – Committing To Being A Game Changer

Buying into the idea that you can become a game changer is not a choice. You have to fully commit to this premise. If you do not, everything written from here on out will make little or no difference.

I can assure you that the first radical principle is recognizing that the inner itch or drive exists. You want to do something about it. You may not yet know HOW to make that difference. However, you sense that you are missing out on something. There must be more to life. You’re hoping something will eventually materialize.

It is one thing to be a person who wants to make a difference. It is another thing to know how to make that difference. These principles are meant to help you find the HOW of becoming a game changer.

This itch we feel isn’t some “outside-of-us-mystical-force.” Most of us spend a lot of time waiting for some “guidance” or inspiration.

But that itch is, metaphorically, part of our DNA and our DNA is deep within us. The itch stems from the nagging question, what does it all mean? Life? Purpose? Everything?

Anthropologically speaking, something within us makes us seek for something bigger than ourselves. Right or wrong, as a species we have only done this. It creates the wish to want to belong to family, society, institutions, god, etc. This desire is ingrained within us. Some say that it is nothing more than an outmoded trait we no longer need.

But we haven’t evolution-ized it out just yet. It’s there and whether we like it our not we are stuck with it. Rather than deny its existence, I’d rather work with it. But I would rather do so without getting caught up in semantics. I don’t care if it’s a by-product of evolution or somehow implanted by some higher power. In my life I have run the gamut and have settled on the former.

It hasn’t lessened my will. I still recognize and welcome the desire of becoming a game changer. Regardless, I now find it more useful and fulfilling. Many factors contribute to the circumstances that brought me to this conclusion. These factors are as unique and common as anyone.

I have always had a sense of wanting to make a difference. At the ripe-old-age of 11, I was asked by an adult what I wanted to “be” in life. It’s hard to expect an 11 year-old to make a decision about the rest of their life. This expectation is more than a little unfair. At that age I hadn’t a clue for an exact answer. But I knew it had to involve helping people. I wanted to make a difference in their lives.

However, in my early twenties I still had a tough time coming up with a definitive answer. It wasn’t until I started teaching in my early 40s that I hit on the definitive answer.

The desire to be a game changer must come before everything that we say and do from here on out. We can be an influencer in our families. We can influence our neighborhoods, and even our institutions. However, we must first decide and determine to be one.

Change is needed everywhere. For example, credibility and trust in our institutions is at an all time low. As Tom Nicholes outlined in “The Death of Expertise”, some of that undoing is the fault of the institutions. There are a plethora of other reasons. One is the proliferation of the erroneous belief that “everyone who has an opinion is a *scholar*” (emphasis mine).

I encourage you to get and read his book. It has become a valuable resource for me.

If we are going to be game changers in our families, neighbors, and organizations then we have to start with ourselves. How much trust do you have in yourself? Once we’ve taken stock and are committed to being a game changer we can then work on the following suggestions. 

Change does not happen in a vacuum (but the scientific cause and effect model does apply). Nor does change necessarily have to happen all at once or in a linear fashion. There is nothing that demands we fix everything before implementing any of these strategies. Just like no one is perfect, no organization is perfect either. Sometimes the best we or an organization can do is to limp along until things get better.

But we dedicate ourselves to trying and begin to make a difference right where we are at.

Read Becoming a Game Changer Pt. 2