Change Your World: How Anyone, Anywhere Can Make A Difference

by John C. Maxwell

Lao Tzu said, “If we don’t change the direction we’re going, we are likely to end up where we are headed.”

transformation is possible for anyone willing to learn and live good values, value people, and collaborate with others to create a positive values culture.

We want you to adopt a change-my-world mindset. You have much greater control over your ability to accomplish difficult things than you might believe, but you must have hope and believe in yourself.

The world is not looking for more dreamers. It is looking for dream makers.

Dare to Dream, but please also Do. For Dreamers are many, but Doers are few.

transformation occurs both top-down and bottom-up. From the top, leaders must possess good character and earn trust from their people.

From the bottom, people’s dreams, beliefs, core values, and skills empower them to climb the social mobility ladder into the middle class, which they term the engine room of greater prosperity.

The negatives in life may attract our attention and open our eyes to the need for change, but only by being positive and by helping to create and offer a better way can we positively change our world.

Good leaders focus on people’s strengths and help them to develop those strengths. They don’t focus on their weaknesses.

Have you noticed that the people who make things happen in this world value and share a similar sense of urgency?

Change begins on the inside.

“Success requires both urgency and patience. Be urgent about making the effort, and patient about seeing the results.”

SUCCESS REQUIRES BOTH URGENCY AND PATIENCE. BE URGENT ABOUT MAKING THE EFFORT, AND PATIENT ABOUT SEEING THE RESULTS.” —RALPH MARSTON

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not because the nature of the thing itself has changed, but that our power to do is increased.”

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.

We need braver leaders and more courageous cultures.

Leadership is influence—nothing more, nothing less.

When you add courage to your leadership, then you create opportunities for change, which in turn changes culture.

IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW OLD YOU ARE. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU HAVE OR HAVEN’T DONE YET. IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO DO SOMETHING TO CHANGE YOUR WORLD.

The reality is that we can make excuses or we can make changes, but we can’t do both.

Harriet Tubman said, “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

Small actions, made consistently, lead to big changes.

Initiative on fire accomplishes more than knowledge on ice.

Mother Teresa said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”

five frogs sitting on a log. “Four decided to jump off. How many are left on the log?” he would ask. The first time I answered, “One.” “No,” Dad replied. “There are five. Deciding is not doing. You have to do more than decide. You have to take action!”

what ultimately matters isn’t what we intend to do. It’s what we actually do.

the biggest gap between failure and success is the distance between I should and I did.

Peter Drucker said, “You cannot predict the future, but you can create it.”

We need to both do something to change the world and see positive things happening in the world. When you think like a possibilist, you are actively on the lookout for the possibilities in the world.

None of us is as smart as all of us.

YOU WILL NEVER BE WHAT YOU OUGHT TO BE UNTIL YOU ARE DOING WHAT YOU OUGHT TO BE DOING.

Focus on purpose, not perfection.

There is no standing still when it comes to making a difference.

I can do what you cannot, and you can do what I cannot; together we can do great things. —MOTHER TERESA

Everyone felt involved and shared a strong sense of community.

To inspire them, Sam put up big screens with their goals for the day that updated every time they finished another box of shields.

“THE ONLY THING THAT LIMITS US IN A TIME OF CRISIS IS OUR LACK OF CREATIVITY. THAT AND RECOGNIZING THAT WE ALL NEED ONE ANOTHER.” —SAM YODER

The greater the vision and the more difficult the cause, the more we need people to work together to accomplish it.

“One is too small a number to achieve greatness.”

WE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ME

A group of people becomes a team that can make a difference when the majority of its members make the transition from thinking “The group is here to benefit me” to “I’m here to benefit the group.”

“The fundamental change that occurs during cultural transformation is a shift in attitude from ‘What’s in it for us (me)?’ to ‘What’s best for the common good?’

To make this thing called life work, we gotta lean and support. And relate and respond. And give and take. And confess and forgive. And reach out and embrace. And release and rely. . .

I also learned that the people who love me, the people I really depend on, were never the critics who were pointing at me while I stumbled. They weren’t in the bleachers at all. They were with me in the arena. Fighting for me and with me.

Nothing has transformed my life more than realizing that it’s a waste of time to evaluate my worthiness by weighing the reaction of the people in the stands.

“IT’S NOT THE LOAD THAT WEIGHS YOU DOWN, IT’S THE WAY YOU CARRY IT.” —UNKNOWN

What we focus on expands. If we focus on our differences, our differences increase. If we focus on what unites us, then our unity increases.

LET BOTH SIDES EXPLORE WHAT PROBLEMS UNITE US INSTEAD OF BELABORING THE PROBLEMS WHICH DIVIDE US.” —JOHN F. KENNEDY

Edwin Markham wrote, There is a destiny that makes us brothers: None goes his way alone: All that we send into the lives of others Comes back into our own.17

rate yourself on a scale of one (weakest) to five (strongest) for each: Passion Experience Knowledge Skills Relationships Influence Vision Time Resources