The inner world needs to change before the outer world

This reminds me of a quote:

Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change the condition that is within themselves

This I interpret to mean that the universe will not work in our favor if we are unwilling to change ourselves. The most important change is the one that begins from within ourselves that entails a change in attitude and thinking.
However, some changes are external and out of our control and the one way to change that kind of situation is by understanding it and then making it work in our favor.
And like you rightly said we must consider other people when we are evaluating the changes we need to makes as our actions affect the people in our sphere.