Start. You just need to start.

Have you ever felt like you aren't given an opportunity to help? You know, you aren't asked to be on committees, you aren't asked to rally the troops at work, or you aren't allowed to use your special talents to enhance the lives of your coworkers or people in your community. This is a quite a common feeling, specifically for those in Gen Y. A lot of it has to do with the fact that as a young person, you generally aren't placed in a leadership role. But the funny thing about leadership is that sometimes you have to take it by force. And if you aren't tripping into any leadership opportunities to help others, then you need to create your own.

There is something refreshing about ambition and achievement. Ambition is the desire and drive to do something more than you are currently doing. And achievement is the end result of acting on your ambition. The crazy thing is that most people get lost in the middle. Somewhere between identifying desire and finishing a journey is where people usually fall off the horse. Which means that many times people don't ever actually ever get on the horse. Expressing desire to help or lead, without actually doing anything is weak. Don't get me wrong, good for you for having the desire to help or lead, but shame on you for keeping it only as a pipe dream. It kinda goes back to the concept of dreaming of winning the lottery without actually buying a ticket. It cost $1 to dream, and it only takes a little action to achieve.

Do something. Do anything...to set you on the action track. Organize a can-food drive at your office. The achievement would be quite gratifying. Start writing a book. Why the hell not? It's fun. Just don't ever say that you are thinking about writing a book. That means that you are too lazy, stupid, or scared to type one word into...well...Word. Just start. Helping and achievement are addictive. Just get started. Set a goal to do 10 push-ups per day for a week. Just do something to get some achievement momentum. Once you have that momentum (and confidence) then start expanding your projects (helping).

Feel free to continue to coast along, but I assure you that doing lots of big things is a hell of a lot more fun.