Artistic Footprint

How we change.

people who live day by day have seasonal or part time jobs, pay rent, buy used and make do. They’re more instinctive, realistic, animal, quick on their feet, and have instant fixes for the issues facing them. as opposed to year by year folk who have careers, marriages, salaries, mortgages, debts, educations, retirement plans, investments, holiday arrangements. They scheme, plan, and sort out the pros and cons of problems to sort out a stable resolution. they are always looking ahead and are rarely surprised.

The more this thought pops into my head, the more often I see that we cannot change who we are, what we do, what we enjoy, what we hate, what’s attractive, scary, fun, logical, or insane. Whether we choose to or not, everyone has something they want to do, somewhere they want to be, someone they want to become. We have a definition for the perfect human being that none of us can achieve.

Are you not cool enough? Are you mean or annoying? Do people not get you? Are you healthy? Are you honest? Do you have an addictive personality?

The first half to solving these problems is to acknowledge the existence of these flaws, and figure out where they came from. But the second half, the one I am concentrating on here, is… how do you fix them to become this impossibly flawless person? Of course I am cynically arguing that it’s not possible, you are you because of your experiences. But one thing is for certain. When we notice our problems, we don’t dig deep inside and make a conscious effort to change. When has a new years resolution actually worked? Instead, we change our environments. We seek out friends, hobbies, habits, and homes to train our minds to adapt. Perhaps its forcing yourself into what you don’t like in order to like it. Maybe you face your fears to see yourself overcome it. Maybe you avoid it entirely by making new friends.

However you overcome your flaws, my point is that you don’t change them directly, you’re smart enough to alter your environment, but in reality, it’s the environment that fixes you. This would explain why a vacation from work refreshes your motivation, or an excess of drugs or alcohol brings unfortunate light into your life. It would also explain why meeting someone new after a tiresome and destructive relationship teaches you a few things.

Change is good for the lessons it teaches you and for the hopeful peace that comes from finding your niche. But changing too much can be stressful on the mind and cause it to shut down, just as damaging as living a placid, colourless life.