#bloganuary22
Before getting to changing the world part, I’d say there is another dimension to this question: What am I doing to change myself? Is there anything I am doing to bring about some change (no matter how small) in my own life? I’d say the question of changing your life is actually intrinsic to the question of changing the wider world.
Excepting a tiny percentage of extraordinary folks (who are spurred either by unusual strength or extreme desperation), most of us do not have the courage- or necessary cushion- to completely overhaul our current lifestyles overnight and start afresh (not that we always need to). What is important is our acknowledgment of the need to bring about changes in our lives and ourselves, and our willingness to do so by taking little steps, or doing ‘minute restyling’ if you’d call it, on a day-to-day basis.
“Change one small thing today and bigger changes will follow.”
Diana Cooper
I’d say I’m bringing about change by fighting against the nay-sayer in my mind on a daily basis and putting one word after another out here; by not denying that I need to learn a lot more about writing; by gathering the courage to look up ways to learn; by making efforts to cultivate patience that is crucial to learning and distancing myself from self-imposed need for perfectionism (I’ve acknowledged that it’s mostly just an excuse to avoid, procrastinate, escape- exactly in that order😀 ). I’ve found that if putting my two cents out there makes me feel better about myself as a person and induces me to be more productive generally, I owe it to myself to do it.
After all, if I can’t even find it in myself to try to bring about change in a single life (and that too, my own), how can I ever hope to be courageous enough to think about changing the rest of the world?
I am changing the world by trying to be as fair to my child as I can be (in spite of what is generally believed, I’ve found that it is very easy for a parent to knowingly be unreasonable; that it is very tempting to use your child as an outlet for your own frustration because they seem ‘easy’; that it is not a matter-of-course that parents will always be altruistic in regards to their children). I’ve acknowledged that good parenting requires conscious and painstaking efforts. Bringing up even one good and confident human being is doing this world a huge service.
Like the butterfly effect, every single change that you cause, no matter how slight, carries over into the wider world and produces an effect somewhere. So, what I have learned is: any kind of ‘positive’ is worthwhile; don’t shy away from it, and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.
On a last note, one step towards bringing about some change that I believe everyone of us should take starting now, is to not discard our used face masks just anywhere we want! Roads, sidewalks, parks and other public places are now littered with these white, blue, black thingies. It’s like they are trying to compete with the cigarette stubs for place in the streets. Perhaps we could all start making that little distance to the bins to put our used masks ‘in their place’ from today on😀
Not so Complicated... 
Reblogged this on Bloganuary and commented:
A bit late again, but determined not to miss it nonetheless 🙂
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I just read The Midnight Library, and it’s a wonderful story about how people’s lives could be so totally different with just little changes in their past. And I love the quote about doing small changes, because yes, we may not be able to see the divergence now, but the cliched example of two arrows travelling in parallel lines, and how far they’ll end up with just a tiny change always gets me. Thanks for this post!
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Thanks for your encouraging words! Writing and blogging itself is a lot of work; add to it the nitty gritties like developing social media presence, and learning further through reading and researching etc., and it’s quite a splash of cold water on your enthusiasm. Plus, if you are trying to freelance while being a full-time parent.. It really is your grit- or what’s left of it- that perseveres after the initial loss of enthusiasm that makes the difference.
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