I'll begin by ranting about a sad truth I have experienced and how I learned that improvement truly must come from the inside and that there's no point in helping others unless they really want to be helped and to make the compromises to do so.
I've always been an idealist trying to think the best of people and fighting to improve society around me, particularly during high-school I used to be leader of several self-improvement clubs with the intent of helping people. I find very inspiring to watch people talking passionately about their dreams and striving to reach them that I went so far as to spend resources to help them reach their goals.
I was such a fool...
Sadly I could only see my resources waning away as they just continued with their lives making the same mistakes and seeing no improvement whatsoever and complaining about not getting any improvement despite suggestions to improve and act to get their goals done. I found out that when they talked to me about their dreams and what they wanted to accomplish they weren't thinking about the steps needed to reach their goals or even considering the cost implicated to get the life they wanted. In truth the only thing they were expecting was to magically get their desires without having to make any effort and doing no work at all, not even thinking.