Thought of the Day - Change Best from Within

Out of a plethora of mangled dreams last night I somehow ended up on a serene, single thought hours before sunrise.  I thought "change is better from within."  This seems a simple enough truth.

You've heard people say "...this person changed me" or "...they made me a better person," but was it not a change within themselves first that brought them to that person and brought them to the fork in the road that opened them to change based on an external force?  I do not believe a woman can change a man for better without him first changing in himself.  He would need to be ready for and willing to change before the woman even enters the picture.  Then he is open to the inspiration he finds in her.

There have been times for me when I really want to make an impact on someone.  If change is truly better from within then is there anything I can really do for someone?  Yes and no is what I came up with.  No, because that person cannot change by your flinging words of reform or inspiration at them; and Yes because it is the change within you that can create true inspiration and plant new ideas within something else.  Change may be best from within a single person first, then see it expand outward to those around him or her.  Before 1952, could you take a runner and say "You can break the 4 minute mile! Now Go!"  Chances are, it would never materialize unless the person you tell believes it.  Now Bannister believed it in himself and did it.  After that, a handful of others made the same accomplishment because they actually believed it could be done. You can have a lot of people believe in you but if you don't believe in yourself, chances are it won't happen.  Alternatively, if you believe in yourself and tons of people don't, chances are it will happen anyway.

The whole idea goes back to being the change you want to see in the world.  Don't worry about "helping" someone if they don't ask or care for it, even if they seem or say they are miserable.  The story about a little girl helping a butterfly out of its Chrysalis too soon, resulting in a lameness and soon death because it cannot fly, comes to mind her...  Instead be that change you'd like to see and the world will change starting from within yourself. dac.