Woooo baby! Holiday Greetings! I wish you lots of love, hoping you stay warm, safe and above all, happy, as the end of the year approaches.
New Years is an influential time of the year and if isn't for you, then it should be. As that countdown it resembles your past and your future meeting. Think of it like a hopeful man looking for a kiss from a beautiful woman on New Years Eve. Your past glares back at you and you are either indifferent, proud or disappointed at what you see. Your future takes you by the hand, and you are either excited or afraid of what awaits. Whether you founded a multi-million business this year, graduated university or perhaps remained tied to your couch watching the television--the question remains the same: could I have done more?
I am not writing this to answer that question, for only you can do that. What I wanted to explore was the concept for change that exists in all of us. How we can easily fall into stagnation, repetition without progress and how change really is just a choice away. Come on, give me a hug, it's free :).
'Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes, really, pressure, and time...' The quote is from The Shawshank Redemption and refers to how the protagonist of the film escaped prison by breaking a hole into the wall of his cell using a hammer. Bit by bit everyday the wall would fall away. He would hide his work by hanging a poster of an actress over the hole on the wall to cover what he done. Eventually to everyone's surprise, one day when the inmates were called out of their cells, he had vanished.
The way I see this is that change does not happen overnight. It is really, as the film provides, like geology. We need certain pressures on us, and time to remind us to get going. The good news is that the latter is sorted for you. You see it on every clock, you see it on the horizon as the sun begins to set, but more importantly, you see it in the mirror. We only have a certain time left, and it is a beautiful life, a precious life, but it is also a very short life. A powerful way of thinking is to contemplate death, not in the miserable sense but in the optimistic sense, that everyday is an opportunity. It is an opportunity for you to change for the better.
While these changes don't give us the benefits straight away, they are there. Like the poster in the film, initially your hard work is covered up and people cannot appreciate your efforts. You will have people doubt you, criticize you, expect the very least from you. In my eyes these are people who cannot change themselves and so seek to prevent others from doing so. Yet one day, in the distance future, you will prove them wrong and you will inspire them. You will have become the change and petty things like proving a point or getting even seem pointless and immature.
It is a choice, really. Either you could sit there in your cell (life) and stare at that poster (distractions) which covers up your hard work, stare at that actresses beauty and her success; relish in what you don't have, relish in regret. Or you can go further than that poster and escape into a world of change for yourself. I don't like the term "Live by example" or "follow in their footsteps" because these imply that the end result is what these great people have achieved. No, you lovely person. The end goal is far greater than you can possibly imagine. There is no comparison. Be the change.
So, this New Years, like the caterpillar in his cocoon hanging from the branch of a tree, we go through change every day of our lives. The key is that we want to come out of that cocoon with wings--we want to come out a transformed person. This is our metamorphosis. Every day should be a change: learning, loving, growing and cherishing.
Happy holidays you wonderful thing, you :D
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