Avouchments acclaimed by motivational personalities that their speeches, books or videos can bring change in your life might be true, but the zealousness and propulsion in their acclamation are exaggerations rather than truth. Substantially, the reality is that such things are not often possible in our life. Naturally, it is human nature that human beings are afraid of changes and prefer to live in their comfort zone.
Our body works like a machine that needs rest after a specific period of time. Change in human beings is determined by their way of thinking and intelligence. Change depends on various parameters such as the way we think, how we analyse situations and our reaction to them, etc. To change oneself, a person can’t change his way of thinking in the blink of an eye; they need plenty of time. As ice needs a particular temperature and enough time, along with a suitable environment, to change into water, similarly, a person needs specific time, apt environment and a precise strategy to change his lifestyle and way of thinking.
We should never forget that change is a difficult, severe and painful process, and it may sometimes lead to mental depression; so nobody wants to go through this process easily. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly has said that nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change. This process can’t occur due to any force, pressure or avidity.
The first and foremost requirement for a change is freedom of mind and enthusiasm in the heart. Otherwise, you can’t forcibly bring a change in somebody. Change is a natural process and in fact, it is inevitable. The reality of life is nothing but a course of continuous changes, so we should readily accept changes in our life. From our birth to death, we see that both time and situations change continuously and nobody has control over them.
We can’t deny the fact that change is also a beautiful process and those people who pass through this process willingly are least affected by this process. Otherwise, change has to occur whether we are ready for it or not and it will continue as long as we are alive, and even after our death. Almost 98% people in the world can’t change anything except changing themselves and only 2% people in the world have the amenability to change the world. The astonishing reality is that the 98% people who can’t change anything except changing themselves are trying to change the world rather than changing themselves.
Leo Tolstoy has rightly said that everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves. We often forget that real change is the change that we bring in ourselves. Moulana Rumi has beautifully said:
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
We can live happily if we are ready to bring a positive change to our thoughts, way of living, attitude, habits, behaviour and expectations. It is impossible to live a salubrious life without bringing a change in ourselves. Little and small changes are essentially for peace and happiness in our life. According to Albert Einstein, the measure of intelligence is the ability to change; if you are not changing, you are not growing.
Einstein further says that the world, as we have created it, is the process of our thinking, it can’t be changed without changing our thinking. Change is essential for the survival of human beings and their societies. Only those nations in the world progress who change and adapt themselves to new techniques and trends, and those who stand still vanish in the corridors of time.
I will conclude my article with the famous saying of Friedrich Nietzsche, “The snake which can not cast its skin has to die. As well as the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.”
About the author: The author is a columnist and teaches Geography at GDC, Kulgam. He can be reached at rather1294@gmail.com.