Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The Challenge of Change

        We are all slaves to our own emotions, to our deficiencies and shortcomings, to that about ourselves which we cannot control. Or so one assumption goes. The unchangeable self is an all-too-common assumption/perception, especially among those with low self-esteem.        

There is another set of assumptions, sometimes called the growth mindset, that says the self is not fixed. The mind can can grow and change. That which we dislike about ourselves can be altered through thought and effort. Breaking habits, changing conceptions, regulating emotions- None of these are easy to do, and their perceived difficulty increases with age. When we are young, change does not appear difficult because our lives change all the time. We face a new teacher each year, form and break friendships, grow in physical ways and adapt emotionally to new surroundings.

        Children are built to adapt to change because they generally lack the power and consciousness to control their realities. I believe (though this is not substantiated by research-based evidence) that the way children perceive and react to difficulty in their lives will largely influence the perceived challenge associated with change as an adult.         When adults fall out of practice of adapting to their environment and changing themselves in response, they become more set in their ways as inertia increases.         In the end, it is up to each person to make their choice. Life, after all, is but the culmination of a serious of choices made. Will they stay comfortable with their flaws and choose the path of least resistance because change seems so impossible? Or will they push themselves past the difficulty and resistance into a better version of themselves?         What will you do?