I am an introvert.
That means that I get most of my energy from being alone and that when I spend time with people I tend to get tired. This doesn’t mean that I don’t like people, I do, I just want to be alone more often then I want to be with others.
This has created problems for me in the past. I have never wanted to put myself out there or do things that make me surrounded by people all the time. Every time an opportunity like that comes around, I want to go hide away and hope that I don’t regret it later.
And then I take a look at what the world is doing right now. What controversy is happening, what are people arguing about, and what change do people say needs to happen.
Then the hero comes out of me and all I want to do is help people to change the world. I daydream of a utopia where people always love one another and no one ever has to fear another’s actions.
I do know that that reality could never happen (you could prove me wrong) but I still want to make the world a better place. How do I do that when the introvert inside of me want to stay inside all day?
David Maxfield, a writer for Chief Executive said that we must first focus on our own behavior. “Leaders who simply repeat vague values drive little change.” When we identify our own behaviors, we can change ourselves to show others the change we wish to see.
Maxfield continues saying that we need to take time for ourselves and invest in our own skills, “most leaders see influence as a matter of motivations. Influencers invest more in building ability than simply motivating the masses.”
Change starts with ourselves and when we start understanding the little change we can make than we can start changing the world a little at a time.
I was reading another article from Courageous Leaders. I really loved when they started talking about the change within ourselves. They said that being a leader requires that we are “willing to be vulnerable, real and honest” with ourselves and those around us. They clarify that vulnerability doesn’t mean “open to attack or weak but rather” that we trust ourselves enough to “show up and go for the truth in a situation no matter what comes up and challenges [us].”
I think a great example of this is Martin Luther King Jr. I recently when to an exhibit near me that talked about what he had done and how we can replicate it.
Although I don’t have exact quotes and I don’t know exactly what it said, I know that if we “have a dream”, whether it is a small change or one that will change the world, if we can enact change within ourselves by holding on to values and building ourselves rather than others while being vulnerable to stand up for what is right, we can truly change the world.
