Within you, without you

I've got a colleague who chooses to look at others more than themself. They see all the room in the world for improvement in others, and yet are all too satisfied with themself.

 I'm the opposite. I trust my colleagues' professional judgement, and don't worry about what happens in the classroom. I trust that I'll make the world, and my school, and my classroom and my students and myself better, if I worry about improving myself. I'll never finish, but I might as well start.

 What is saddest of all is that those who focus so much on changing others without an honest evaluation of self tend to break apart rather than create, to form chaos rather than harmony, uneasiness rather than happiness.

Yet, in their eyes, the problem is all mine because I'm unwilling to adjust the big problem. But how can I fix others when I need so much fixing and improvement myself? How can I enlighten others when I remain incomplete in my own quest? Yes, I'm more than willing to discuss, to enter intelligent discourse on how to change us all, but I can't enter such a dialogue with those willing to change me only, and not themselves.

Funny how the beauty of change - call it enlightenment, growth, or any other buzzword new and old - must start from within, and such a focus on improving self is what scares away so many others. Those who aren't afraid of being themselves, who forge ahead to become the best person they can be, tend to scare those who need strength in numbers.

 Where do you even begin to help them?