a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by BLOB_CASTLE
BLOB_CASTLE  ·  4341 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why You Won’t Be the Person You Expect to Be

I think this article dances around what I believe to be the main reason we don't expect ourselves to change: we're afraid of uncertainty.

When we're little kids, we know we're going to change. We know in a few years we're going to go to elementary school. A few years after that middle school, then high school. Then comes the largest change of them all (if you make it be) of going to college. For me it's been the largest change. I go to school 400 miles away from where I've grown up my whole life. Not only do we know we're going to change during college, it's expected of us.

But then after college, what is there? Once we find a job we've settled into, we're told to stay there. The longer we stay, the more of a promotion we'll get, the more money we'll get. Only some of these people have the drive enough to go on to become CEOs. Sure, we could leave this job for another, but we're afraid of the uncertainty unemployment brings. However, if change is really what we want, it's this uncertainty I believe we have to look forward to. Because when we're growing up, it's the uncertainty of what our new school will be like, or our new soccer team, or our new home, that opens us up to the possibility to change.

    She resisted the idea of change...
I think a lot of us do this. We try to make everything so certain, so predictable, that change is forced to go outside and smoke a cigarette and no longer be part of our lives. That's why I love uncertainty. Who knows what kind of a person you'll be after you experience something completely different? It's not that we aren't the best person we could ever be currently, but rather, growing is forever. With everything there is to learn on this magnificent planet, and with more experiences being discovered each and every day, personal change is something we could easily experience. We just have to not preoccupy ourselves with certainty.