I don't deal with change very well. I mean, I like to think I do, but if I choose instead to be honest with myself, change is OK as a big picture goal...you know, like to fix the problems in Washington or to work towards elimination of poverty...as long as I don't have to change too much personally.
The ironic thing is that many of the big picture changes in the world don't really require any substantive changes in our lifestyles...just a change in how we think. Ironic because elimination of world hunger is probably a more attainable goal than changing the way some of us...myself included...think and act. We really are a stubborn lot...but I digress.
The point is that most of us prefer the way things were...a known state of affairs, regardless of how miserable that past state may have been...to the alternative: THE UNKNOWN. A future where anything might happen.
The irony there...sad truth really...is that place...the place where dreams just might have a chance of coming true; that place where our problems might just stand as chance of being solved... That place is right there...Where ANYTHING could happen.
So each day I try to open my mind a little wider. I try to throw off the shackles...the limits which I impose upon myself, by allowing the "same as it ever was" mentality to poison my future by trying to cling to the past.
Maybe I try to see the world through someone else's eyes, or to look OBJECTIVELY at an opposite viewpoint to my own...shedding my preconceived notions as best I am able.
You'd be surprised what can happen...We actually LEARN NEW STUFF. That's right...new. A new perspective. A better understanding. Maybe even the occasional 180° pivot to a whole new way at looking at something we've seen a thousand times before. And THAT is where the magic happens.
That's where creativity takes over and miraculous solutions are found to what turn out to be simple problems. That's where new inventions and medical breakthroughs come from. The flux capacitors of our generations are waiting for us to stumble upon them once we learn to tear down our dependence on "what's always worked"
I'm not a proponent of change for the sake of change itself. Neither am I wont for too much change all at once. But if we want to begin a new American renaissance...something that is long overdue in my opinion...we need to adjust our attitudes on change. Even if it means we have to change the way we live just a little. Or even a lot.
Change. It starts with me or it doesn't. If you really love where you are, then fine. Stay there and don't bother changing. But if I want tomorrow to be better than today and I do nothing to effect that change, should I be disappointed when things never get any better?
