Change.  Now there’s the key to the whole matter.  We don’t like it.  We keep on doing the same thing in the same way, hoping against hope that this time the results will be different, risking insanity in the process, all for the sake of not changing.  “Yeah, my job sucks, but at least I know what I’m doing. At a new job it will only be worse.”  I challenge you to say that you have not used some variation of this at some point in your life.  We shun change because “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t”.  Just look at how many people change jobs the moment a new boss gets appointed or how many people switch churches with the arrival of a new pastor (ironically forcing change upon themselves by trying to avoid change).  People will actually refrain from doing something beneficial to themselves, simply because that will imply change.

Unfortunately change is inherent to the cosmos.  Right now change is taking place all around us.  Outside my window the first leaves have already started to change colour while on the other side of the world snows are melting and new green shoots are appearing.  The planets and stars are constantly shifting position relative to each other while new stars are being born and others are going nova. While I’m writing this a few million cells in my body are dying and being replaced by new ones.  In fact, about every six weeks I’m a brand new person, all cells replaced.  The only certain thing in the cosmos, the only constant if you will, is change.  If the seasons didn’t change nothing on earth would grow any more.  If my body didn’t change I’d die one cell at a time.  How then is it possible that we so fiercely resist change and get away with it?

Sure, change isn’t always fun.  It isn’t even always beneficial.  There is such a thing as change for the worse.  But at least it’s change.  It shows that something is alive.  If something doesn’t change we say it’s stagnated, stuck in a rut, and that’s usually considered a bad thing.  Yet that’s where most of us prefer if we look at the prevailing attitude to change.

We need to start doing things differently.  There are so many possibilities and so many opportunities out there.  Yes, change implies risk, maybe even pain.  But isn’t it worth it if you get to experience something new?  At the very least that’s what you’ll get.  At most, you might discover a whole new world that you didn’t even know existed.

What do you say?  Gonna join me in getting out of this rut?  I dare ya.  I double-dare ya.  Do one thing different tomorrow.  Start small.  Smile at the person in the office you like the least and mean it.  Leave home ten minutes earlier and take the scenic route to work.  Get up early and bring your significant other coffee in bed, and talk before you both start rushing around. But do something different.  Either that, or stay insane.

• Motivational