Let Me Change the World!

When I started this journey of speaking and sharing my thoughts I had no idea what I wanted to do with it all. As I gained more success and more people reached out to me I started to wonder what my impact was going to be on the world. I listen to the positive motivation speakers and I see the countless memes and articles telling me to "be the difference." Be the difference! As more people waxed poetic about what I have done over the past year I started thinking about another common motivational statement, "You can change the world?" That is it! I am going to change the world. I mean, everything is about that "Positive Mindset", the "Speak it into Truth" and even the ones that tell us "Winners Never Quit!" I can change the world damn it. I can make it happen. My 6th grade graduation we sat and said,

If I can conceive it and I can believe it then I can achieve it!

Oh man, even my 6th grade sayings are telling me so. This is definitely what I will do. I'm going to take the bull by the horns and make this world a better place. I'm motivated to do it. To put in the work. To make a change. To put my foot print on the planet and make us all better for it. I have conceived it. I believe it. Now, with that good work and determination I can achieve it too. In fact, there is not time like the present. I'm ready to rock!

Here I am holding the sun. I am ready. The world is ready. All I have to do is have that "Can Do

Spirit." I hope you are now motivated like I am to change the world. To make it a better place. For you and for me and the entire human race. Wait! That sounds like We Are the World. Actually it is. And actually I don't believe all that rah rah I just waxed poetically about. Why? Because I learned something very valuable over this past year that I just have to share with whoever decides to read my blogs. I can't change the world and I don't

want to either and neither should you. Now, I know you are here probably for some motivation, inspiration and, as my book is titled, Just A Thought or two. Don't worry this isn't a bad thing my realization, In fact, it is one of the best things I have learned recently.

Imagine a field of wild flowers as far as the eye can see. You wanted that field to be plush green grass instead. You don't have big equipment or anything that construction companies could use

you just have you, your ingenuity and your drive. You want to change it all because you can see what a much better place it will be when it is all plush green grass. Maybe you find a riding mower or a tiller and get to work. You are charging forward and making big changes to the world. You are doing it. But are you? Are you changing the world or in this case the field? You are changing a part of the field and you have a long way to go if you are going to make it your dream happen. BUT! What if you didn't try to change the world or whole field as the goal? What if you did the smarter thing and changed one section at a time? If you grew up around farming you would know they use grids to work large farms. The same applies to helping the world. You see I can't change the whole world with one fell swoop of my magic brain. I can't even destroy the world with one push of my mighty nuclear button. It will take time for it to be fully effected. What I can do is change one section, or in my line of work, one person at a time.

I realized I needed to be something more than a person set to change the world. I needed to be a beacon for people. I needed to be a place where people could learn or share or grow or whatever they needed to become better people. I had a picture for that! I knew what I needed to be I needed to be this:

I needed to be a lighthouse for others. I needed to simply be a truth. A place to think. A place to spark conversation. A place to share ideas. A place for safety in conversation. I didn't need to change the world I need to change perspective. I needed to change attitude. I needed to change frailty, falsehoods, self-destructive thinking and behaviors and most importantly myself.

If I want to change that field of flowers I need people to help. I need a community. I need a brother- and sisterhood to come and work with me. I need to help one person see what I am doing and want to be a part of it. I need to spread my joy to others and in turn they spread their joy to others. It grows and we change one at a time. We become a movement. We become a force. We become people who can change the field of flowers into a gorgeous field of grass. The same can be said about the world. The same can be said about me, you, us, we and them.

The short and skinny of it is I can mow down the field with big machines and till the dirt until I am blue in the face. Then I can bring in trucks of sod and have my fresh plush green grass laid out in rows until the entire field was plush green. The land would look just like I always dreamed. I've changed it. I used great human brain power and tools. I would be happy. I would be successful. I would of changed it.

However in time, no matter what I have done, the wild flowers will return. Slowly they will pipe through. They will find a way to regrow and if I don't keep on it they will start to spread across my green plush grass. I leave it longer and they will take over all of my green. It will take constant work to keep it only green grass. Leave it long enough and all my changes will be erased. I can't make a permanent change that way. Changing the world is the same way. We can force it and it will bend but give it long enough and it will, once again, return to what it was before it was forced to change.

Today, I only ask to change one person. One single person for the better in that person's own eyes. That is the trick to doing great big things in this world changing one person at a time.

When I focus on just being an inspiration to one person in need then I plant a seed for the person to cultivate and let grow within him or herself. If I take my time with the weeds in the field taking one at a time. I can take its claim from the soil and therefore plant what I wish there. I cannot overpower the weed because it will only grow back stronger. I cannot overpower the world for it will return the force at which I attempt to take control with ten times the energy back towards me. I cannot stand against that power alone. I need allies and in them I have an ability to change the world or in this case the field of wild flowers.

I now know that it is in me to be the change people need to see, to feel and to understand where I am coming from and how I got there. They need the example that made me who I am. I need theirs to learn what made them who they are and together we can make changes. Lets change each other because the world is waiting on us to make it a better place.

More than thirty years after my sixth grade graduation I will change quote we used to fit me better today.

If I can conceive it, I can believe it then I can share it,

cultivate it and WE can achieve it!

There it is in a nutshell my simple revelation of life. One life. One story. One change. One person at a time.