Thursday, December 04, 2008

Desire is the only way to effect change

I have been trying to put into words what I go through when I am trying to solve a personal performance roadblock, and it came to me that most roadblocks while personally imposed are also personally removed. So let's go back a bit to understand what is meant by this statement.
 
First the process of human progress comes from the one source, and one source only:
 
DESIRE
 
You will only change your lot in life if you have the desire to do so. Nothing complicated, nothing mystical. If you are comfortable with your lot in life, you will not change; if you don't feel motivated to change, nothing will happen.
 
Just being dissatisfied with your life is NOT enough to effect change. Most people are dissatisfied with their lives as the renowned American philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau once mused in his essay called Economy:
 
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation..."

Without the desire to change, life continues as a series of "repeating yesterdays." When you come to the end of your life, will you look back and see a never wavering line of yesterdays, or will you see  that you took some chances and made some changes to alter your then unknown future?
 
Unmotivated, comfortable people don't change. History is replete with stories of this premise. A country stops growing and progressing when its people become comfortable with their lot in life. Has your life become comfortable, really not too bad, or just not bad enough to require change.
 
In the end, its the desire to change that will force the issue.
 

Revelations come when needed to those receptive

Revelations come when you are:
    1. Relaxed
    2. Alone (most often)
    3. Mentally receptive
    4. Needy (in problem solving mode)
 
These characteristics hit me usually when I get up in the early morning and am alone in my office area. This is something you need to consider having: an area that you can inhabit that contributes to your being able to have revelations. Revelations can be missed when personal distractions or "personal noise" keeps the creative insights hidden from your introspection. You must be ready to receive the revelations or they will be missed.
 
If your life is too busy or crowded and you don't like what is going on in your life, then you NEED some QUIET TIME! There is no way around it. The TV persona of the Danny DeVito's character in the comedy film "Other's People Money" running around being active except when sleeping is a misnomer. You have to be quiet to hear your inner revelations, you have to be receptive, you have to be ready for the insights.
 
Find a place, make a time, and do it regularly: every day, or every week. Do it today!
 
The renowned American philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau once stated about finding a quiet place to ponder his lot in life and ability to live what he called life:
 
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation..."