TO CHANGE OR NOT TO CHANGE, THAT IS THE QUESTION
Monday Dec. 31, 2018
The eve of anything, the night before, only this time it isn’t the eve of tomorrow as much as the eve of an entire year – with it we pack away another year’s experience, another year’s ‘what was’ and ‘what can never be again’. One last rearview mirror peak, then we trot merrily off into a new accounting period …
A new year, one of accountability.
Say what?
Yes. Personal accountability.
Are you entering this year consciously, deliberately and for a purpose?
Surely we all want to do more than simply exist, so what are we going to do?
For those who aren’t grasping what I’m driving at, let me simplify. If your goal/expectation is to lose 20 lbs. you will measure it. You will celebrate your progress by regularly stepping on that scale and you will happily tell others when you’ve reached your goal. And you’ll be quiet as a mouse every time you miss a target …
OK, now take that logic and apply it to some other subject; might be a new year’s resolution or conscious decision you made to change something, improve something or purge something (or someone) from your life. How will you define that, measure that, celebrate that? And how will you know when you are done?
Who do you want to be a year from now?
And, how will you be ‘different’ in the world?
No need to reply – don’t look for me to post my list here – my point is simply that we ought to hold ourselves accountable, at least unto ourselves. Make a list, post it on a wall. Make a list, show it to someone.
Or make no list at all, but realize that is an avoidance choice …
We are all accountable in theory, but if we don’t make ourselves accountable in a real sense we won’t make many changes and we won’t be any different a year from now except we’ll be older – which is simply taking up space without contributing …
Go ahead, make a list. Change it as often as you need to, but keep the list – keep yourself accountable, because nobody else really can and very few really care because they are too busy with their own list (or lack of commitment) to worry about you.
Change a little, or change not much – that’s our choice.
Ours choice alone – appearing to be more complex than a choice to ‘live or die’ … but surely you can see that not changing is a form of dying, is it not?
How can we possibly measure how well (or not) we are doing if we don’t first define our expectations?
Reader feedback:
WHY WE GIFT
Hi Mark. I’m not sure Life is meant to be understood. It is certainly meant to be cherished. All life. All lifestyles. What we understand or believe isn’t as important as respect for life and how others celebrate it. Understanding segments and snippets of the big picture is in itself an accomplishment. Even that is a fleeting step in an endless river, never repeating. The epiphany is often followed by an equalizing uncertainty because the moment of insight triggers a change in our perception. It’s often said the only things we can be sure of are death and taxes. A very secular point of view. I am more inclined to the position taken by Heisenberg which allows for certainty between only two choices. Where are you, or how fast are you on your way to where you are going?, DM, Ladysmith, BC
