Want to change the world? Commit to something bigger than yourself.

As the season of college graduations rolls in, I am hearing more questions about what it means to live a life of purpose, of meaning. It starts, I tell young people, with committing to something bigger than yourself. It doesn’t have to be grand, but the commitment itself will lead you to an ever deepening place of resolve and understanding and, ultimately, of meaning.

We can’t know where the path of commitment will take us. But it can serve as a north star, a guide. At his 1964 Rivonia trial, accused of treason and facing a possible death sentence, Nelson Mandela spoke these powerful words with no tremor in his voice.

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

The example of Mandela set may feel like an impossible standard. But if there is not an idea for which you are prepared to die, what is the idea for which you are prepared to live? Some are lucky enough to know the answer from a young age. Some find it later in life, and some sadly never do.

Committing yourself to something beyond yourself, of course, is not easy. But nothing of importance is. It requires resilience and grit and, at times, the courage to face rejection. It requires periods of what Dorothy Day called the “long loneliness.” Ultimately, the commitment itself, ironically, will set you free.

A lot of us have felt a deeper weariness in this season of division and fear. The talk of winning all around us has become a toxic mantra. Too many leaders focus on what is good for them and not for their community or country or world. No wonder we are losing trust in institutions and so many of our so-called leaders. No wonder I receive so many emails from young people who tell me how hard it is to stay the path when their peers rise in rank, status and income doing what is easy rather than what is right. I remind them that they did not sign up for easy.

Our world has moved from interconnected to interdependent. We will rise together and we will fall together. The changes occurring in every industry, every society require a redefinition of how we think about everything from the nature of work to the way we use resources to the way we define our economic and political systems. No one has the answers. Our best leaders are those with the courage to live the questions and move, not from a place of certainty, but from a deep moral core grounded in a commitment to what is best for the larger world, measured not by how the rich and powerful fare but by how the poor and vulnerable are included.

Our best moral leaders are those who commit to an idea as their north star. For Nelson Mandela, it was human equality and a democratic and free society. My own life has been a path toward understanding at an ever deeper level the idea for which I live – that of human dignity. You might not know the idea for which you live. Not yet. So find a leader whose values and commitments resonate with something inside of you. Follow her or him and learn. Get close to the problems you most want to solve. All of this requires being curious about the world rather than focusing on yourself and your career. Before you know it, you may find yourself living a life of purpose, one connected and committed to an idea worth living for.