Positive Change - Everywhere
2022-12-31
The greatest lie of all is that people can't change.
Why do people believe they can't change? That we can't change? Are they just buying into a widespread social myth?
Why do people believe they can't change? That we can't change? Are they just buying into a widespread social myth?
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These days, why do so many of us think about change and growth? And why do so many people say that the world can’t change, that people can’t change?
One set of interrelated reasons comes from observing the world we live in. While there is surely so much good in the world, it is hard to ignore that the world we live in is awful to and for so very many people. We live in a system that fails most of us, if not all of us, to different degrees and in a lot of different ways. And most of us recognize this. We recognize this as we endure the steady diet of negativity that most of the mainstream media feeds us, and we recognize this as we are surrounded by people who endure the same diet of negativity. In many cases, we act as conduits (or channels) for this negativity, passing on or creating our own negative spins (or takes) on the world and the way things are. Meanwhile, as we observe the world we live in through this onslaught of negativity, most of us are nonetheless asking, What is stopping us from changing the system? Some of us say that we don’t know how to change the system. Some of us say the system can’t change or be changed. Some of us say everything has already been tried. And some of us say people are just bad. We even say that the system can’t be expected to meet everyone’s needs. The truth is, we say a lot of things that simply aren’t true. If we look carefully, this is what we’ll see: We are changing. Each of us is changing. The world is changing. It always has been. The natural state of the Earth is change. The natural state of all beings, including human beings, is change. Could it be that we just haven’t yet had enough experience and practice collectively (as well as individually) to learn how to manage change and how to manage changing together? Indeed, there are signs throughout the world that we collectively are beginning to learn how better to manage all the changes around us and all the changes within us—and also to choose the positive changes that we are currently bringing about—all in the context of people everywhere, throughout time, working tirelessly for a better world. There are tools, too, with which to participate in this initiative of positive change—toward learning how to thrive, flourish, and grow well, as individuals in our world, and as a world of interconnectedness. We are learning how to use those tools, from openness to growth mindset to positivity to gratitude to perseverance to perspective-taking to storytelling to the wisdom in nature—and so much more. These tools each deserve attention and practice, and will be explored here (on this site) along with other tools and practices. |
Photo by Donna White on Unsplash
For now, to conclude, let’s return to the questions we started off with: These days, why do so many of us think about change and growth? The answer is that we think about them because we are ready for change and growth, and we recognize that we are ready for change and growth on a scale that we are only beginning to imagine. And why do so many people say that the world can’t change, that people can’t change? Well, that’s the greatest lie of all, isn’t it? Negativity might sell media and even manage to lock us in for more viewing or reading than we really want to engage in. But we are definitely ready for change, ready to embrace the love and hope that exist everywhere and that keep us going every day, expanding our world toward new horizons of positive possibility. Postscript This piece of writing is not a calling for a revolution. It is the acknowledging, naming, accepting, and embracing of a revolution that is already happening, that has always been happening, that always will happen. The Learning Word will explore positive change through tools, through ways of being, and through media, especially media available online. Some of the tools and ways of being that initially will be explored include openness, growth mindset, positivity, gratitude, perseverance, perspective-taking, storytelling, and the wisdom in nature. Along with some explorations, links to various resources (both within and external to this site) started slowly becoming available in January of 2023 and will continue to become available as the foundation of this site is grown from its initial seeds. |
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Last updated January 2023
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