Having The Desire
Mar 4Nobody will go through life without changing. Sometimes that will be a physical change (e.g., exercising more) while other times it will be a character change (e.g., keeping secrets better). Personally, I think that it’s great to want to change for the better once you realize that there’s something that needs to be changed. It shows that you don’t don’t think that you’re perfect. And nobody likes someone who thinks that they’re perfect!
What about when other people dictate how you should change? When you’re young, it’s fairly normal for your parents to tell you what to do. That’s what they do. They instruct you on what to do in life. Without them (or perhaps sadly even with them) you don’t learn about things like manners and a good work ethic. But even more than as a child, there are all kinds of times when people are trying to tell us what to do. There are policies in the workplace, subliminal messages in the media, and even some form of instructions in politics. Everyone is trying to say how we are to be.
More than having people tell you how to be, I think that it’s supremely better to have the desire to change come from yourself. It is so difficult to cause someone to want to change. Take losing weight as an example. There are countless people (especially in the United States) that are obese. Do they wish that they were healthy? On some level I’m sure that they do. Unfortunately, that desire isn’t strong enough to enact actual change (otherwise they wouldn’t be in the state that they’re in). But someone who is motivated to change will get so much more done. The key for all of the obese in America is that they need to stoke that fire of desire. Nutritionists and health experts can only tell them so many times about portion control and exercise. If they don’t desire it for themselves, they won’t do it.
Okay, okay. I must admit that I’ve been watching The Biggest Loser.
That desire surpasses everything else in importance. Skill? Sure that helps. But I’ll take a hard, less skilled worker over a lazy skilled worker any day. Status? People who get caught up in status are too content with that status to really do anything. Opportunity? People who really want it will make their own opportunities. And they will keep on trying until it happens.