Change It

How often do we find people cribbing about bad habits, circumstances or people around them? But hardly do we find them taking action to bring about a change. They like to maintain the status quo because they find it difficult to change. There are three basic reasons why people avoid change- 

1) They strongly believe they cannot change.

2) They don't find a strong enough reason to change.

3) They don't have discipline to bring the change.

First reason is the commonest of all for people not to change. Most of the people very strongly believe in being the same person year after year. They think old habits are the result of years of actions & it will take same number of years to get rid of these. This is a wrong notion. We don't form habits intentionally; they just happen. And because we don't have power of intention behind formation of those habits, they take a long time to form. On the contrary, when you want to change something, you have an intention which propels you to a jet-paced change in the desired direction. As long as you believe you cannot change; you don't change. So, change in the mindset is necessary for any change to take place. 

The power of intention comes only when someone has a powerful reason to change. Quite often, people don't change because they don't find a strong internal reason to change. It has been seen time & again that the moment someone finds a reason to change, even the most obstinate habits give way to new ones. It doesn't take much time. At times, it happens in a moment. So many times we see in a family that despite our best efforts a child doesn't get up early in the morning. You give him all kinds of reasons to get up with the lark & study, all in vain. But the day you have to go for a picnic early morning, he is the guy who wakes you up! How did this change take place?  It all happened because he got a strong reason to change his old & obstinate habit, albeit for a day. So, if you want to change something in you, find a strong & rational reason to do so & the rest will take care of itself. Also attach a lot of pleasure to the benefits of change that will take place. This will work as a big motivating factor to go in the direction of change.

Third reason for change not taking place is lack of discipline. How often it happens that we start something new with much fanfare but it goes up in smoke? Quite often! And the reason for not sustaining the new habit is that we don't have the required discipline to go the distance. We operate most of our life by desire, by impulse. Discipline teaches us to operate it by principles. Discipline, therefore, is the most important cog in the wheel of change. 

If we strongly believe that we can do something repeatedly, knowingly, for a strong reason & for a certain period which is long enough to develop a new habit that is based on principle rather than on desire, we would bring a meaningful change in our life.