If I could change the world

If I could change the world and the way those around me think is something that has been spinning around in my head lately. It's like a broken record. I honestly used to believe I could change people and the world until I realised it was really arrogant of me to think that way. The only person I can change is myself. I can't change the way people think or what they do unless they want to change themselves.
What I have learnt over the years and am constantly being reminded of is that all I can do is change the way I react to people when they are not in the same space as I am. Sometimes it can be trying and tiring because I feel it is only with good intentions that I project positive energy and thoughts to those around me to only have it rebuffed in my face. It is at these times that I lose control of my energy and retaliate in ways that I know are not right. Because then I end up fighting so hard to make that person or people see my point of view that I end up in a battle with them instead of accepting the space they are in and honouring the fact that they are in that space.
And I realise that when I do this it is actually my ego stepping in because if I am honest about what I am doing, I am putting myself on a pedestal and looking down on that person because I want that person to see the world from my perspective when in fact that person has the right to see the world in whatever way he or she sees fit. If a person wants to be stressed, angry and disappointed with life, that person has every right to be that way. Just because I disagree with that perspective doesn't make my outlook valid. In some ways it can be demeaning to the person because I have rejected their feelings and thoughts all together. I have not allowed them to experience the lesson they are meant to learn by making them feel even worse about how they feel.
Living a nonjudgmental and nondefensive life is very challenging because all around us there are judgmental people and there are people that come into our lives to want us to have to defend ourselves against their actions. Living a life of love and light is challenging as well because it is not all the time that we want to send love and light to people sometimes we just want to scream at them and make them wake up to their own potential. What I realise now is behaving like this stems again from ego. Ego always wants us to be "right", "the most enlightened", "the best", "the purest", and the list goes on. When in fact what we should be striving for is balance because in life there is really no right and wrong, it is all perspective and what one person has to learn over another.
I know as I move to a more enlightened phase of my life I am constantly being challenged to rise above the pestilence and negativity present in my everyday life but what I must not do is judge or try to change any person other than myself. If I am successful at changing my energy then perhaps those around me will feel it and want to change themselves as well but it won't be through force or coercion. It will only come from pure love and light. Without expectation. Without ego. Without judgment. Changing the world comes from one individual at a time changing his or her outlook. One lesson at a time. One day at a time.