Movement is Life

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." - M. Scott Peck

     Change, a word that can bring great hope to people.  Hope that tomorrow will be a better day.  Hope that the pain and suffering will go away.  At the same time, the word also strikes great fear in so many souls.  Fear that doing something different than you normally do will only make the pain you feel now worse.  There is almost no middle ground in the concept.  People either wrap themselves up in it or shy away from it like the plague.  Yet, there is only one right answer... and that's to embrace it, to welcome it, to put it on your plate, gobble it all up and then ask for more.

Marcus Aurelius was Roman Emperor from 161 A.D. to 180 A.D.  He was the last of the "Five Good Emperors" and was one of the most important Stoic philosophers.  He wrote this:

"Keep constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have witnessed changes already. The universe is change, life is understanding."



     My eyebrow always raises when I hear people say things like, "I can't change" or, "I won't change" and, "This is who I am".  Change is reality.  It is the way of the world.  You don't have to work at change, it is here to stay, it is a fact of life, and life will move forward without regards to you.  The best thing you and I can do is adapt, learn, and grow.  My eyebrow raises to the statements above because to me they translate to, "I can't learn" and "I won't grow".  Once you've quit, given up on yourself, and lost all hope you've just relegated yourself to standing on the sideline.  It is the death of your spirit.  You've decided that enough is enough and you will embrace the pain and suffering deep down until the day you die.  The reality is, you get the spend the rest of your days stuck in the past, living with failure, blaming yourself, and being a shell of a human being.

     Below is a scene from the movie Rudy.  You could say this was the climatic moment in the movie.  Had this scene gone any different Rudy Ruettiger might not have graduated from Notre Dame, might not have been carried off the field by his teammates, might not have ended up as a motivational speaker, and certainly wouldn't have a movie made about him.

     Charles Darwin kind of had it right when you developed his theory on Natural Selection.  The belief that those that are the strongest and best at adapting will survive.  Human beings are a little extraordinary when it comes to this theory though.  We've all seen the people that have been given everything and have failed.  We've also seen the people who have been given nothing and succeeded.  For us, it almost always comes down to will power.  That belief in yourself.  That little whisper in the back of your mind that you have developed during your life that either says, "I can't" or "Bring it on ... I'll take some more!"  Nike explains the whole concept pretty well...

Change is constant.  It is a fact of life.  Nothing stays the same.  You can embrace it by growing, or become stagnant and slowly wither away out of fear.  Facing that fear is the only way forward.  Think about all the great people that inspire you and ask yourself what they would do.