01/02/12 - Changing Oneself

Today is my last day of rest.  Today is the Rose Parade and an evening at my cousin's house watching football and celebrating my aunt's 86th birthday.  She is an inspiration and embarrasses me with constant praise on how great she thinks I am.

I don't feel like I deserve it.  Up until this point I feel that my life has been one failure after another.  The key is that I have never given up on my dreams.  I also believe that the key to my success will come from the improvement of myself and making myself change into the man that I want to be.

There is a parable that I keep up on my wall that seems appropriate to this line of thinking.

"When I was a Young man, I wanted to change the world.

I found it was difficult to change the world,

so I decided to change my nation.

When I found that I couldn't change my nation,

I began to focus on my town.

I couldn't change the town and as an older man,

I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change

is myself,

and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself,

I could have made an impact on my family.

My family and I could have made an impact on our town.

Their impact could have changed the nation

and I could indeed have

changed the world."

I don't know who wrote this, but being neither a young man or an old man, I have decided to change myself. It's time to become George Washington.  Tomorrow, I make it back to the gym to start my day, then plan to work hard organizing and implementing my list of goals.

Tomorrow, I begin to change myself, and maybe, just maybe, someday I will be able to help change the world.