Today is my last day of being 47 years old, so you will need to bear with me as I reflect and share with you what I have learned. That is my role in life – to share what I have learned with you so you will not have to learn the same lessons the hard way or continue to wonder why. You can learn from my EXPERIENCE or at least have a point of reference as you experience or reflect as I am. It is critical in life to summarize learning points into statements that people can remember. For your ‘mmmhmmm’ moments and comments, I offer the following:

First, the statement I offer most often as the understanding of why things remain as they are in the face of unbelievable need for change:

“Where there is no GAP, there is no need. Where there is no need, there will be NO motivation to change”, even in the most dire of circumstances and where the greatest needs truly do exist. Most people, unless the need is direct to them (them, their kids, their spouse, their relatives, their house, their car, their finances, or someone close to them), will NOT be motivated to do anything about helping to change a situation. This is why bureaucrats (wherever they are) CANNOT affect change. As long as they get a paycheck, they have great benefits, their house is whole, their kids go to the best schools, have food on the table, clothes on their backs, a car or two in the drive that run and money in their bank accounts THEY WILL NOT CHANGE. They will not even take drastic steps if the circumstances CRY OUT for it. Put federal officials on Social Security, Medicare and for them to use traditional health care for themselves and their family and the programs WILL be sustained and health care reformed. Send their kids to PUBLIC school and our educational system WILL BE revamped. Put them on a commission job the only pays them barely above a minimum annual salary for PERFORMANCE of our country and you WILL start to see things change. As long as human beings are comfortable, they will continue to plod along, doing just enough to avoid pain and gain “enough” pleasure.

However, there is a SMALL group of people who are able to EMPATHIZE though and these people are able to feel the pain for others and work to make a difference. These are the ones who scratch their heads at the bureaucrats and wonder why there is not more action. They STRAIN to make a difference. They rail against the bureaucracy that stifles them and feel the plight of others in their guts. They may even have all that they personally need, but they still want to feed the hungry, clothe those in need, house the homeless, educate the uneducated, provide for the needy, make changes to help our society and our world to be a better place. I am not completely certain of what motivates these people, what creates these people, or I would want to clone more of them and put them all in offices that make a difference. I am sure there are many good-hearted, good-inteded people in high places and who want to do better but have compromised their very souls away to the point that they are impotent to make the changes needed. Maybe they have butted their heads up against the wall so many times that they are just doing the minimum necessary to keep doing what they are doing and to remain in place. Or maybe they are like the elephants who forget their power to break their chains and end up with just a string holding them in place and at bay. We all have the power to make a difference and do better than we do. If you are comfortable, get uncomfortable. Let the knowledge that, although your house is not on fire, OTHER PEOPLE’S HOUSES ARE and work like you would if it were your own. People’s houses are on fire and they are losing them. People’s kids’ dreams are dying and we’re not saving them.  People’s minds are being lost to hopeless desperation and we’re not reaching them. There is more that is possible to be done so why are we not doing it? It goes back to my original statement above: “Where there is no gap, there is no need. Where there is no need, there is no motivation to change.” – Tracy

If you have the ability to make a difference today, do it. Make a DRASTIC step change as though YOUR life or the life of someone you know depends upon it. Because ultimately, even though you don’t know them, someone’s life does.

To Being Uncomfortable and Making A Difference,

Tracy

Related posts:

1. Why is there no motivation to change????
2. Sabotage…
3. December 21, 2012
4. Wisdom to know the difference…
5. Quote of the Day