Thursday, January 3, 2013

Change


The New Year seems to bring a flurry of resolutions: lose weight, stop smoking, get out of debt, get more active.  Ever wonder why we wait until the New Year to change?  Isn't each day an opportunity to change, to recreate?  I stopped New Year’s resolutions quite some time ago.  I couldn’t seem to stick with them, perhaps because the resolution was too vague and not focused enough, or maybe because the resolution was too lofty and not incremental enough.  In any case, what I set out to do with the best of intentions, ended sometimes gradually, sometimes with a thud, and almost always without success. 

Instead of changing something I was or wasn’t doing, I decided to change how I thought.  Henri-Frédéric Amiel wrote, “All appears to change when we change.”  I tend to believe that.  I believe that our attitude shapes our response to situations, to events and to people who come and go in our lives. Our frame of reference shapes our response.  Sometimes our frame of reference is automatic, conditioned by time and the repetitiveness of the situations we find ourselves in, sometimes the monotony of the circumstances we place ourselves in.  Because of a past experience with someone, our response to them is automatic without a second thought, without hesitation and without giving him or her a chance.  Perhaps if we took a deep breath, if we paused and gave that someone a chance, our response, and more importantly, the response we’d like to get might change for the better. 

But ultimately, it is dependent upon us: our attitude, our willingness to step out of the box we’ve created for ourselves, and perhaps the box we’ve created for others, and try to do and think differently. Change is sometimes difficult, sometimes unwelcome, and might mean that we think and do something we haven’t thought of or done before.  However, I challenge you to try it: you might like it, and more importantly, like the result.  Start tomorrow- don't wait until New Years!
Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comment. I welcome your thought. Joe