“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality. (“Was wir innerlich erreichen, verändert die äußerliche Wirklichkeit”) ~ Otto Rank
Otto Rank, now forgotten by many, was a psychoanalyst and Freud’s closest assistant for many years. And while I was hoping this piece of advice was from antiquity (it’s often attributed to Plutarch, though I could find no source for it), it was definitely said by Rank. And of course, it does sound like something a psychoanalyst would say!
But that doesn’t make it less potent. Change really does come from within. This is handy because the one being we have total control over is ourselves. We can change ourselves when we try, and it is through inner change that we achieve outer change.
Now if it were only as easy as deciding to change! It does need work, and constant vigilance, to effect change but it is indeed an act of will. Committing to it is the first step.
Patchouli Haze--New Age Insights for the Rest of Us 