Our Human Stubbornness

Have you ever missed out (or nearly missed out) on a great chance in your life, by framing things in terms of your own expectations?  Perhaps it was a person who, at first glance, you judged negatively, and who later turned out to be somebody you would have liked to have known.  Or perhaps it was a business idea that a friend once offered to share, and which you rejected as being ridiculous.  You know, the friend that just opened her 50th store, in New York, and her 51st store, in Paris.

Perhaps a new thought or idea was just too far outside of your expected frames, and you rejected it without really even considering it with an open mind.  Perhaps you were just overly content with your worldview, and you didn’t want to leave the security of your comfort zone.  After all, who wants to question what they’ve known all their life?  Who wants to invite potential disappointment in the realization that maybe—just maybe—you might have been somewhat off-base in your long-held position on a particular matter?

In my book, The Enlightening, a series of extraordinary, eye-opening experiences is the impetus for a full-out paradigm shift.  The nature of the shift is both personal and universal, and my desire as the author is to share this personal change, and this new way of thinking about the universe, with the reader.

In real life, finding the inspiration and fortitude necessary to make a sea change in position or attitude is very difficult, and nearly impossible, for most people.  Have you ever found a way, yourself, to surmount these struggles in order to make positive changes in your thoughts or actions?  How were you rewarded for your openness to a new way of thinking?  Or have your failures to do so come back to haunt you when you discover, too late, what might have been, had you given it a chance?  What was the price you paid for the stubbornness we, as humans, seem to inherit in our nature?

2 comments on Our Human Stubbornness

  • I think my stubbornness holds on to my self-identity based on my perspective and memory of my life. I feel that this holding on to the past has not let me evolve to my highest potential in many areas of my life. I have experienced many rewards by being open to new ways of thinking, especially the realization I can control my thoughts.
    And yet, and I believe this is human nature, clinging to the identity I have been growing in my mind since childhood has not let me change as much as I could have…

    • I think that is a very wise self-assessment that probably applies to just about everybody who has ever lived. Change and/or self-realization can be so very difficult, and even scary in a subconscious-type way. Fortunately we are able to evolve in our thinking and behavior gradually. We can carry our old selves around with us until the parts we no longer want shrivel up and blow away in the wind. The fact that you are consciously working towards that tells me that you are on the road to success in your efforts, as excruciating as that can be.