Personal Growth: The Core of True Change
Mohammad Zain is an International Relations student at NUML, Islamabad. With an associate degree in English Literature and Linguistics and a BS in International Relations, he brings a unique blend of analytical and literary skills to his writing.
There once was a man who decided he would change the world. Not with weapons or revolution, but with the simple hope that people would stop doing wrong. He worked with all his energy and sincerity, but the world remained untouched. So he narrowed his ambition and thought, perhaps, he could change his country. Again, he gave everything he had. And again, he failed. Not one to give up easily, he thought that changing his city might be a more reasonable goal. He tried and yet again found himself standing before the same wall. Then he turned to his family. He poured his time and heart into guiding them, teaching them, and correcting their ways. But even this close circle resisted him.
Exhausted, alone, and disappointed, he finally sat down and asked himself what he had been missing. And then came a thought so obvious that he almost laughed at himself. What if he had been doing it backward all along? What if he started with himself? That shift in perspective changed everything. He realized that while he was busy trying to fix the world, he had neglected the one person he had full control over. His own self. The story sounds familiar because it is the only story that matters. It is the quiet revolution, the one that never makes headlines but has the power to shape the course of history.
We live in a time when everyone wants change. We talk about reform, protest, social justice, national revival, and global transformation. Everyone wants to change the system. But very few are willing to ask what part of the system lives inside them. The idea that we can change the world while staying the same inside is an illusion. One that keeps us loud, restless, and ineffective.
To change society, one must first become the change. Buckminster Fuller once said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing........
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