“Change we can believe in!” That’s Obama’s campaign slogan. That combined with his charming good looks and his movie star charisma has launched him onto the world’s big stage as he battles it out for the White House. In my 35 years, I have never seen anything like it. He has become near deity to many of his hard-core followers. His campaign buzz word, “change,” has brought millions of people out of the shadows to join with him in what has moved well beyond a campaign and become a full blown movement.

Then there’s Mr. McCain. He’s promising reform, prosperity and peace. Now that sounds good too, doesn’t it? Both of them, as different as they are, are promising that with them in the White House, things are going to change. And the sad thing is, tens of millions of Americans have swallowed it, hook, line, and sinker. Might John and Barack be able to do some overall good for our country? I guess it’s possible. But I’ll quote a more credible source on this one.

Best selling author and multi-millionaire entrepreneur, Robert Kiyosaki said this about our upcoming election:

“We are entering into the worst economic time this country has ever known. The next 8 years will be the worst in American history. It doesn’t matter who wins the election. I feel sorry for them. They are going to be blamed for what will inevitably occur.” Later he said, “This nation is toast!”

(How’s that for optimism?)

As scary as that sounds, I concur with his predictions. That’s the bad news. And let me give you one more piece of bad news, and then I’ll turn the corner and give you some good news.

[last piece of bad news]

Whether you are a John fan, or an Obama fan, here is the brutal reality… they may or may not do much good for our country. But know this for sure, they are not going to do ANYTHING for your own personal economy! They can talk about change all they want and give us goose bumps from now ’til doomsday, but that doesn’t help any of us pay the bills. It sounds good, yes. It feels good and, may even give us the warm fuzzies, but it won’t feed your babies. Don’t believe me? Try this. The next time the bill collector comes calling, just play him or her a recording of your favorite candidates best speech and see if that will work. I’ll save you the embarrassment…it won’t.

It’s alarming to me how many people are so ready and willing to relinquish their own personal responsibility to see to it that they and their families are taken care of. So many want someone else to take care of them. Welfare. Social Security. Family. The President. The Republicans or the Democrats. Anyone but themselves. Anytime someone steps to the pulpit of life and promises to take care of another, those drunken with mental and physical laziness will surround and protect him. Something for nothing is such a tasty doctrine to preach, especially these days. But all it does is more fully ensnare the chronically indolent and politically inept.

One question more important than who will you vote for on November 4, is this:

What are you going to do to improve your situation?

No matter who get’s in the White House, things are not going to change for you or for me, until we change. Jim Rohn said it best, “In order for things to change, you must change!” McCain can’t change for you. Obama can’t change for you. Only you can change, and when you change, things will change for you.

As exciting as this election is, the real focus should be on us as individuals changing ourselves. The following story will illustrate my point.

A man comes home from a long hard day at work. He makes his way to his living room and is swallowed up by his overstuffed La-Z-Boy recliner. He’s looking forward to vegging out in front of his big screen TV, but his 5 year old son had another plan. He wanted to play!

“Come on daddy! Let’s play!” cheered his son. But he was ignored.

“Come on daddy! Get up! Let’s play! Let’s play! Let’s play!” he pleaded. And again he was ignored.

So the young son jumped into his fathers lap trying desperately to get his attention. Now he had it. A bit flustered his father tore a piece of the newspaper he was holding, and before giving it to his son, tore it up into a bunch of little pieces, and said, “Son, here’s a picture of the world. Daddy’s resting for a minute, so you take all these little pieces and put them back together again, and when you’re done, then we can play.”

Not quite satisfied, the boy ran off with a handful of torn news paper. His dad,  feeling a bit smug, leaned deeper into his recliner to enjoy his victory, and a little alone time. Within minutes his son was back. He had put the world back together in less than five minutes! He even had all the oceans in the right place! Shocked, his dad asked, “How did you do that son!?” This was his sons reply. “Well dad, on the back side of the world was a picture of a man, and when I put the man together, I put the world together.”

Contrary to popular belief, We don’t “change” the world with politics. We change the world with people. One person at a time, the first person being you.

A man on his death bed recounts his life. “In my 20’s,” he said, “I wanted to change the world. All I could think about was changing this world of ours, but I soon realized that I couldn’t. In my 40’s I went on a crusade to save my country. I walked the streets with picket signs, trying to get others to see things my way, and make this country great. But I feel like I failed. In my 60’s I was reenergized by egocentrism for my home-state. Since I failed at making the world better, and my country better, I thought for sure I could make an impact on my state. But in the end, I never made much progress. Feeling like a failure, in my 70’s I got fixated on making my city the best it could be. I lost every election I ran for, and my colegues mocked me. Upset by all of my shortcomings, in my 80’s I took it out on my family. I nearly drove my children and my grand chidren into a mental hospital. I thought, if I can’t control the world, or my country, or my state or even my city, I can at least get a grip on my own family. So, I ran my family like prisoners in a Siberian work camp. I let them know who was the boss of this operation. I wasn’t well received. They haven’t talked to me in 15 years. Now, I’m 100 years old and I’m alone. And I just realized that had I simply worked harder on me, refining my own skills, and my own personal philosophies in my twenties, I could have had a more of an influence on my family. They could have in turn taken what they learned from me and had an impact on our city, which would have spilled over into our state. And having made our state better, our country could have been better and I could have changed the world, had I only changed me.”

Obama might win the White House. But then again, McCain has a great shot as well. They might do some good in the world. They might not. In the mean time, what are you doing to make your life better? What are you doing to master multiple skills as we move deeper into an unstable economy? What are you doing to enhance your personal philosophy? What are you doing to take charge of your own life? And, what are you doing to see to it, that you and your family are taken care of in good economic times, as well as in bad. If you’re not working to improve yourself, and taking the road of responsibility, it doesn’t matter much who is in the White House. What matters are simply the things we do to improve our own lives. If you work hard on you (we call that personal development), things will surly change. And that is change I can believe in.

I’ll leave you with this quote from Zig Zigler:

“If you will be hard on yourself, life will be infinately easier on you.”

When you change, things will change for you. Believe that.

By the way, I have a couple of favor’s to ask you.

If you enjoyed this entry, or even if you hated, will you take a minute and make a comment and maybe rate it. Also, if you know anyone who would like this article, or hate it :), would you mind sending it over to them? I have a goal to positively effect ONE MILLION PEOPLE with the information on this website. We are on our way, but we have a long way to go. Would you be willing to forward this site over to a few of your friends (or all of them). I would appreciate it, and I bet they would too. Feel free to use the “tell-a-friend” link below. Thanks!

Courtesy Chris Hughes