Last week I started a series of themes of the week based on a book I had been reading last month by John Maxwell and Rob Hoskins called, Change Your World.
Last week’s theme came from Chapter 1 — “We Can’t Wait for Change.” This week we move to Chapter 2 — “Become a Catalyst for Change.”
Merriam-Webster defines the word catalyst as “an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action.”
So, if you are going to become a “catalyst for change,” you will need to be the thing that provokes or speeds some significant change or action in others or in the world.
I love this concept!
People will often talk about wanting to see changes happening in some aspect of their world. I get it. We all feel this way at times.
My friend, Mark Albert says (and I believe he may be quoting someone else), “If you want change, change!”
Most of the time, change doesn’t just happen. Nothing is going to change for you unless you change.
As Maxwell states in Chapter 2, “When it comes to making a positive difference in the world, change occurs only when someone, somewhere takes responsibility for changing himself or herself and takes action to help others change, too. Without the actions of some person, change doesn’t happen.”
He goes on to say, “Many things in life just happen, but positive change isn’t one of them. Changing anything in our world requires someone to be a catalyst… The first person transformed is the catalyst—the agent of change—and then it expands. That doesn’t happen unless it starts within an individual.”
Think about a change you would like to see happen somewhere in your world. How is it going to come about?
Someone has to be the catalyst.
Maybe there are good candidates out there to be the catalysts for the change you seek. But if you sit around waiting for someone to be the catalyst for the change you want to see, you may be waiting a long time.
Maxwell says, “Change won’t occur unless you step forward and start taking action…you need to seize whatever opportunities you have now, where you are, and make the most of them.”
Waiting for Others to Do It
Yet, if you’re at all like me, you have probably sat back and either hoped someone else would do it, waited for someone else to do it, or decided that it wasn’t an important enough change that made you feel that you needed to be the one to do it.
Unfortunately, this leads to the change not occurring, so nothing of consequence that you were hoping would happen happened.
This type of situation has led me to feel exactly what Maxwell was talking about when he said, “The biggest gap between failure and success is the distance between I should and I did.”
I knew I should have done the thing that needed to be done in order for the change I wanted to see happen.
But I didn’t do anything about it, so nothing got done.
No More Excuses!
There are many reasons why we choose not to be the catalyst for the change we seek. Laziness, lack of confidence, lack of enough desire for the change, excuses, or procrastination are a few.
Maxwell addressed part of my excuses for not starting the project I have been thinking of doing when he said: “Now is the time to do something. It’s okay to start even when you don’t have all the answers. Do what you know to do. You don’t need to know every step of the way. There is no silver bullet. There is no perfect plan. Focus on purpose, not perfection. There is no standing still when it comes to making a difference. You are either moving forward or sliding backward. Start moving forward. And invite others to join you. If you don’t, you may look back a year from now and wish you had started today.”
Holy cow! That was a like a 2 x 4 to the forehead for me! It was exactly what I needed to hear.
No more excuses. No more waiting. It’s time to get to work and start putting the ideas into action.
It’s up to me to create the change I want to see in my world and in the world as a whole.
It’s time to be a catalyst for change.
Your Turn
What about you?
Have you been sitting around waiting for something to happen, when in reality it’s up to you to do it?
Then it’s time for you, too, to take action and become a catalyst for the change you seek.
Don’t wait.
Get up, get moving, and take action…TODAY!
The first action you should take if you haven’t already done so, is to pick up Change Your World and start reading it.
It will set you off on a path that will change you forever.
**Okay – Strange Side Note – The David Bowie song “Changes” just came on the radio as I was finishing getting this post uploaded to the Blog page. “Turn & face the strange ch-ch-changes.” “Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.” Another sign!?