Reform must come from within, not from without. Nobody can convince you to be better or to want to be better. That must come from within you. A sort of spiritual change must take place.
Just as other people can’t convince you to change, so you should realize that you can’t change others or make them better.
It’s a strange dilemma because when you have a genuine desire for good toward others, it is impossible to let them destroy themselves without trying to interject. Even when you know those interjections will be fruitless, there is a deep inward force that practically compels you to try to do something, anything.
When a close friend, child, or sibling picks up a bad drug habit, or stops caring for their children, or any other number of things that are openly and apparently destructive to themselves and those around them, do you have a right to speak out? Or should each of us stand by quietly and wait for the destructive phase to pass and help clean up the mess?
Rightly or wrongly, you will often be labeled "controlling" or "nosey" (or any number of colorful epithets) by those whom you care for. The assumption is that you don’t really care about them. The assumption is that you simply want to control what they should or shouldn’t do. But the reality is that everyone else is thinking about themselves as much as you are thinking about yourself and therefore no one has any time to think about you and worry about controlling you as much as you think.
To watch a loved one fall into a destructive phase of life is sad and painful, but it’s impossible to help a person who doesn’t want to help themselves.