Discover How You Can Improve Yourself
Posted by Master of the Universe on May 8, 2008
Sometimes, things look better when they are a little farther off. Take a painting, for example. Would you be able to appreciate it if you held your nose just inches away from it? No! But if you stand at a distance, you will certainly be able to understand and admire what it was all about.
This happens a lot in life too. We sometimes need to change in order to improve ourselves. But the problem is, we do not know what the change needs to be. Think about it. Are you observing things too closely again? Putting some distance between things will essentially help you to properly determine what you want from life.
When things happen suddenly in life, we are generally not able to adapt to things. Just like a frog that might suddenly jump off if he or she were to be suddenly put into hot water, we too cringe at sudden changes in life. But if things happen gradually, we might not find the pinch that much, like a frog that is kept in a vessel of normal water and then slowly boiled over a stove.
Consider an example of Michael who works in a company with many employees in it. On Monday, Raymond says he doesn’t Michael’s efficiency at work. Michael does not mind; Raymond is just a colleague. On Tuesday, Neil says the same thing to Michael. Michael still takes it in his stride. On Wednesday, Sara might say it, on Thursday, Daniel might. But Michael will not think the issue is that serious because it is all happening gradually. The essence of self-improvement will not be felt in Michael with that imposing urgency that it should.
Pain and defeat teaches us the most poignant things of life. We see things going in a downslide. People do not accept that they need to exercise in the early stages. Only when none of their jeans fit them, they think they must do something. People do not realize they need eye treatments early on. Only when their sight begins to dwindle, they think seriously about it. Smokers will never think there is anything wrong with them until it is too late.
That is how it is with self improvement. We do not realize we need to improve ourselves until and unless there are crashes, booms and bangs everywhere around us. We blind ourselves to situations only because we find it very difficult to make changes in our lives.
But situations will change, whether we like it or not. We are going to have the crazy detours in life that we might well know about. And that time we need to make improvements within ourselves so that we can keep up with the speed. This feeling must be thought within ourselves, and not because someone else is cajoling us into it.
If you are characteristically a happy person, then you will not worry about the changes that occur in life. That is because you will accept the changes, and what’s more important, you will accept that it is necessary to change yourself to keep up with the changes that are happening around you. Never hide behind the statement, ‘But that’s how I am!’. That is the refuge of a person who is fearful of things. These are the people who will face the most difficulties in life.
See how people can intimidate us into things. When Hester was a kid, she felt that she was not comfortable with people. Her parents did not encourage her; but instead just told all guests that she didn’t like being with people. Hester carried this attitude to school and it became popular among her friends and teachers that Hester is a typically shy girl. The same thing continued in her place of work. Now, Hester remains shy. And this is what has been driven into her mind through years of conditioning.
But, only is Hester had never thought about it in that way at the start! Only if she had changed herself, at any point in life, and started meeting people! Things would have been so different! Hester lacked the spirit to make the change, and so she remains with the same problems.
It is true that people do not like the idea of self-improvement very much, because they don’t want to think something in them actually needs improvement. But, it needs to be done. In each and every one of us. The sooner the better. It is worth sitting back and enjoying the ride until then. If you have joined a gym to cut that flab, enjoy your visits to the gym. Read books to enrich your knowledge. That is when you will begin discovering true happiness within yourself.
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