Gotta do much more than believe

In his song "Waiting on the world to change", John Mayer sings,
It's hard to beat the system 
When we're standing at a distance 
So we keep waiting 
Waiting on the world to change 

I love this song. It has a melody that just begs you to sing along.
I understand the frustration that leads to the lyrics and do not dispute them.
But they also make me sad.
They speak of a feeling of hopelessness to change things.
However, later in the same song he sings, 

Now if we had the power 
To bring our neighbors home from war 
They would have never missed a Christmas 
No more ribbons on their door

and,
 One day our generation 
Is gonna rule the population

So we keep on waiting 
Waiting on the world to change 

Thus he offers hope and a belief that change will come.

Is that enough?

Another favorite singer/songwriter, Dave Matthews sings in "Gaucho",

We gotta do much more than believe
if we really wanna change things
We gotta do much more than believe
if we wanna see the world change

and,

Please wake up
Please wake up
Please wake up

Together, these lyrics speak of the frustrations with the way things are, a doubt that we can effect change, the pain of waiting for change to occur, the belief that change can happen, and a call to wake up and effect that change.

We have all been frustrated with situations we felt we could not change.

We have all felt the feeling of waiting for the world to change.

It's hard. We want to get on with it. We want to sing the next line of the song. We want to believe, to wake up, to change the world.

Again, is that enough?

We have to believe, we have to dream big, but we also have to take care of the little details day in and day out that can lead to the change.  To take care of those details requires us to make a plan, and work that plan.

That takes careful thought, and time.

It's not sexy, it's not the fun part, but without it, we don't effect change, we don't change the world.

They say patience is a virtue.

It's one I'm trying to work on.