Sunday 10.02pm
Sheffield
There is no reason for us to do anything, really.
If you don’t believe in a god, for instance, then the fact of your existence is an improbable series of coincidental happenstances.
Or, in other words, you’re lucky to just be here.
But – that doesn’t mean you have to do anything.
Yes, the people around you might want you do stuff, you may feel like you should do stuff and you may need to do stuff to afford money for food and shelter…
What’s the point of all this?
Once you get past the first couple of levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs the quality of your life depends on the choices you make over time.
Now, some people argue that everyone is responsible for their choices. Regardless of background, we can choose to change, if we just had the willpower to do so.
Others say that we have recordings of our parents in our heads and we do things that are consistent with those. For example, if we were told to always clean our plates, we keep eating – even though the sensible thing would be to stop.
And then there is the argument that willpower is a finite resource – like a battery. If we use up all our willpower on working very hard during the day, we have little left to resist the urge to flop on the sofa and order a takeaway.
How do we make important choices – or decisions – when it really matters?
For example, when do some people decide to lose weight, and actually take it off? Or change careers, and actually do it? Or start a business, and do that?
As the old saying goes, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
Wanting isn’t enough. Needing isn’t enough.
The change doesn’t happen until it is a visceral longing, a critical point, like leaping off a cliff – when we commit and there is no turning back.
After that point, it’s going to happen. Before that point, it’s still a dream.
We will all have stories of when we had that moment. When we decided to start a particular class. When we met a particular someone. When we make a decision to leave or go or change.
This is why goals alone aren’t enough, tracking alone isn’t enough – it’s the mind shift that’s required.
If that mind shift is missing, then the energy needed to get us through the change process isn’t there, and it just won’t happen.
But, if you can recognise the moment when it turns up, see and feel the moment as it’s there, and use the energy of that moment to take action – you will change.
Only you can do it.
Handcrafted insight 