Gails Blog

“If in the last few years you hadn’t discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead.”  Gelett Burgess

 

I love quotes. I love the way smart people find a really pithy way of expressing an idea. This quote is one of my favorites. I particularly like this one because it deals with change and expresses perfectly how I feel about growing.

There’s another one I really like that goes hand-in-hand with this one.

“To grow is to change. And to change often is to have grown much.”

I’m not exactly sure who said this one - ancient Chinese proverb, maybe - but I really love the sentiment.

Consistency is applauded in our world. Staying “true” is equated with staying “the same.” I consider that a bunch of hogwash. If you stay the same, you can’t possibly be learning any of the lessons life is trying to teach you. If you’re getting the lessons, there’s no way to stay the same.

I’ve changed a lot over my life. Motherhood changed me immensely. Death changed me too. I lost people I never expected to lose and that not only shook me to my core, it grew me.

I try to explain to others that change, while hard, is a necessary part of growing, that we need to all embrace change, look for opportunities to change, help other people to change. Change makes us stronger, kinder, healthier. Change makes us grow.

Change can come naturally. Or it can be forced upon us. Or we can go looking for it. Aging is a natural change - one we often fight against. I’m not sure why. I love getting older. I’m like a fine wine or a good cheese - better with age. I’ve also had change forced on me, and I didn’t like it one little bit, but I coped and grew stronger. And I’ve sought change. I read a ton - maybe 100-130 books a year. I love to talk about the books I read and I have some friends who are my book-buddies. We call each other up and say, “Get this book and read it so we can talk about it.” We learn from what we read. We learn from the ideas we share. We change.

Whatever you choose to do differently, know that in the end you will be a more fabulous person. Just the act of looking at your life, assessing what you want, and planning how you’re going to get it will make you more fabulous.

So what would you like to change in your life? What would you like to change about yourself (if anything)? What would like to change about your circumstances?

I’m not talking about money here. Nope. Money isn’t everything, and it certainly isn’t why most people are in financial trouble. They’re in trouble because they’ve got life lessons to learn and they’ve been avoiding them by going shopping.

I’m talking about you … who you are… who you want to be.

This year, I’m working on being like a stone in the river, letting the rush of stress, frustration, anger wash over me. I won’t rise up and rail. I’ll aim for calm. 

It won’t be easy achieving this calm. Nope. It won’t be easy. But I’m determined to make a change. I am no longer happy letting negative emotions push me and pull me. I don’t like the cost to me. And I don’t like the cost to my relationships. So I’m going to be a smooth, cool stone in a clear river. That’s my picture.

Wish me good luck. And good luck to you too. 

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 11:43 am and is filed under Thinking Out Loud. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.