The Possibility of Change
Posted: Monday, March 16, 2009
by Chris Brennan
For the last ten years or so I have being contemplating change. I guess when your world isn't exactly in sync with the beautiful image you have of how it should be then you look to what needs changing to bring about the utopia you know you are entitled to.
So we think, we make decisions, we rush here and there, and the truth is that nothing ever really changes except one's emotional state. This is the kind of life cycle that produces yo yo diets and depression.
When you decide to change you are most probably focusing on rearranging yourself so that you fit in better with a preconceived image you have of how the world should be and more pertinently how you should be within this world.
So firstly you want to change the world which means you have to control billions of people and trillions of other creatures, not to mention the weather and everything else that is influencing your world. Of course you aren't stupid enough to believe that this is a possibility, are you. Well when I look back at myself I have to admit that I was. True I didn't look at it from the perspective of controlling everything outside of myself. I was more or less annoyed that things weren't going to my plan and was intent on sulking until they changed their ways.
Secondly and much more pertinently your focus of change is on changing yourself to fit in better with the requirements of your perfect universe. To become a well adjusted societal member. This is tantamount to admitting to yourself and any God who cares to listen that you are not happy with yourself as you presently exist. Or to put it bluntly you don't like yourself.
So my great remedy for change is to look to what you can change.
You can't change the world.
You can't change yourself.
You can however change how you look at yourself.
Michael Jordan was a below average baseball player, an average golfer and the greatest basketball player possibly ever. And in this is the cusp of self investigation.
If Michael had decided to dedicate his life to being a great professional baseball player he would have struggled to achieve his goal and would have looked to change to achieve his goal. If he had looked to change baseball or to change himself then he would have achieved little. However if he looked to accept himself or change the way he looked at himself and put the person that he found himself to be in situations and environments best suited to the person he was then he would have discovered that he had a natural talent for basketball and by dedicating his life to basketball he would achieve his goal of being a supreme athlete in his chosen field.
So many people accept the environments they find themselves in and go about changing themselves to attain a modicum of success. So few look to who they are and change their approach to suit the individual talents that they are.
You are not Joe Blogs or Jane Doe. Rather you are a talent pack that has been give an identification tag. We don't expect a tractor to race in the Indie 500, we don't expect a Ferrari to pull a cart through mud. Horses for courses.
So instead of looking blindly at the world and bending yourself out of shape in an effort to fit in. The trick is to look at yourself and place yourself in situations that best suit your talent package and thereby present you with the best opportunity to operate to your maximum potential.
All stress is a choice. You are choosing to not accept the reality of the current moment and because you are a minuscule dot and the universe is immense you are in fact wrecking your head because you in your dotness can't control the immenseness that envelopes you.
Recipe for the pie of your life
Ingredients:
1. Choose to accept the inevitability of the moment and the reality that the universe is.
2. Choose to accept the inevitability of who you are and know what you have to offer.
Instructions or Method:
Add 2 to 1 and mix thoroughly for 70 to 100 years.
Final revision:
- You cannot hope to change the universe. It is what it is.
- You cannot hope to change yourself. You are what you are.
- Therefore your only hope for change is to change how you see yourself and how you view the enviroment that is acting on you.
You are a Ferrari trying to pull a heavy load through mud. The load is how you see yourself. The mud is the universe resisting the adjusted you (how you see yourself).
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Change is essential as the great Darwin said - "it is not the strongest that survive it is the most adaptible to change". This is still true for humans. Anyway great article - the rating reflects this.Hi Connor,Thank you so much.Chris
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