Path to Healthy Growth

We are often faced with situations or encounter scenarios that force us to change. But there are a number of internal inhibitions arising either from the conscious state or the subconscious state of the mind that delay the evolution from past to the present.

Here are some common reasons why people resist change:

• Couch potatoes do not want to move.
• Folks very much used to the current life style and the routines and do not want to change.
• Fear of change due to long periods of active or new pursuits
• Take the resort that time will change

Some examples of such situations (both for an individual and for couple/team):

• Work: Stuck at work and deep down inside you feel need to change. But what happens: path of least resistance - self doubt. Deep inside you doubt if you can make it out there or if you are still capable to make the cut.
• Between couples: Marriage not going anywhere and you feel you have tried enough. You think the other person is hard headed and you are the flexible person, but you want her to be ‘Happy’. But what happens: path of least resistance - walk away. The standard reason would be "we tried, but did not work out." Note: Actually they would have not been open for help or suggestion for the fear that these external forces change their perceptions. They might think "how can this person be more right than me who is actually involved in the situation?"

The examples are endless, including  employer-employee relationship, relationships between colleagues, friends etc.

All these are paths of least resistance that have no pain involved. But rarely do these paths take your towards success. The basic premise for healthy growth is ‘No Pain - No Gain’. Here are some of my thoughts on how to move from a path of least resistance to a path of health growth

• Need to constantly challenge and evaluate yourself in life.
• At each stage when you feel things are not going well in certain areas , review the situation from an observer point of view.
• Be highly critical of yourself and your actions.
• Have a "no holes barred" analysis of situations that you think are beyond your control.
• List the observations and your analysis of it.

Agreed- the analysis might or might not make sense, as you are the doer and also the judge. But the idea is to just throw everything out there.

• Try to sort them in ascending order.
• See if you can revisit any of them and set them right either by changing your viewpoint about the incident or your inference.
• Talk to people- atleast to your close friends
• Do whatever it takes to atleast give it your 100% effort to move towards a path of healthy growth
• Last but not the least, take help if you need to.

There are many self-help techniques out there that will help from this point onwards, but the target of this article is to

show some proactiveness. I perceive this proactiveness as a virtue that should be constant and consistently revisited  in life.