You don’t have to move across the world to have a mission. Start with your street.

Your own street has one advantage nowhere else does: you already know who is on it. You know which house has the elderly man, whose car has not moved, who is struggling. That information takes years to acquire anywhere else and you got it by living there. Being useful depends more on knowing a place than on arriving somewhere impressive.

Walk your street this week and pay attention as though you were new. Find one person who would notice if you knocked, and knock. Ask what needs doing rather than offering what you feel like doing.