Just change already, really. You don’t need to be a mystic to see how changing yourself changes the world. It’s just science. When you change, HOW you see changes … your assumptions, expectations and attitude all change. This then changes how you process the data you perceive … and then the world is different. Or it seems different. But according to neuroscientists, that is pretty much the same thing.
Creativity gives us the capacity to imagine alternative futures. After all, this is what you do whenever you build a five-year plan … or even book appointments in your calendar for the week. You are visualising something that does not exist: a future.
And then life happens, and you do something else.
But you have the capacity to see the world happening another way. Mostly, we then take action to make the vision come to pass. Like inviting the other person to the meeting, sending a zoom link, doing your preparation and turning up for the meeting.
We anticipate problems, formulate solutions to things that haven’t yet happened, assess the past for clues as to the future.
All of these actions betray a control over our environment that most of us are reluctant to embrace. Separate from whatever socio-economic restrictions we exist under; this control implies that we can actually do or have whatever we want. Man, what a dangerous thought!
So dangerous that many, many rules have been invented since the dawn of humanity to ensure that we don’t think like this and that we do, in fact, follow the rules.
Rules are designed to give us more of what we already have. Like a maths rule, social rules are designed to give us predictability, stability, stasis. The most maverick thing you can do in your life is to reject the rules of the status quo and imagine another future for yourself … and then start to act on it.
The quote, ‘Be the change you want to see’ embraces this thought. And no, it wasn’t Gandhi but writer Arleen Lorrance who said it. Whenever I am feeling disempowered by the reaction to my ideas, the results of my efforts or the red tape standing in my way, I repeat the quote.
It’s not that I don’t accept the existence of these challenges. On the contrary, I accept them and do something different on my side, while still aiming at the same goal. If I am honest with myself, I am not always embodying the principles I espouse, and this quote reminds me to do so.
If you think there is too much plastic in the world, reduce your use, recycle, stop buying it. Sure, you will not change anything overnight, but you will change your environment. And if everyone started making more effort, we would tip the issue in our favour. But we don’t because we feel disempowered.
Take the power back. What change would you like to see? Now start acting as if it is real … make changes in how you live your life, how you speak and what you do.
Soon you’ll find that change is happening. But YOU have to start.
