To many of us, this world is closely related to fear—an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous. A sister-word to fear is anxious. Anxiousness is experiencing worry, unease, or nervousness. Others may link this to other words that encircle these emotions and feelings such as despair, regret, unrewarding, frightful, hopelessness, picking up a thesaurus will make these words look like a grocery list. But the question is, where is this derived from? The answer, sustainability.
Sustainability is the ability to be maintained at a specific rate or level. For almost a century, the United States was obsessed with sustainability; it was the only means to survive and flourish. Today we see sustainability as a concept that has retained our abilities to truly exercise our lives to our full potential because of its importance. You see, sustainability causes fear that one day we will become unstable, and our life's balance will become unbalanced. This fear makes us anxious and worrisome about various items like bills, savings accounts, checking accounts, credit card debt, mortgage, losing our jobs, our next meal, our next date, and so on. With the pressure of maintaining our stability, we fall into periods of despair, regret, hopelessness. We feel that what we do is unrewarding. We regret that we didn't achieve more, that we didn't follow our hearts, that we are living our lives on repeat day in and day out. So, how do we make our life more manageable?
Change. To make or become different, to take or use another instead of, the act or instance of making or becoming different. Synonyms to this word are adjustment (the adaptation to a condition, position, or purpose), improvement (the state of being improved), readjustment (an act of readjusting), and development (growth; progress). All these words all share one common synonym, advancement. Change is in our nature. When we resist change, we no longer progress. That lack of progression begins to consume us, causing our bodies and mind to turn. If we remain unhappy, we never become happy. If we are in a constant state of fear, we cannot achieve bliss. If we accept failure, we can never achieve our goals.
Life is a river, and change is our current. Trying to paddle upstream will never allow us to find where the water ends. Go with change. Follow that positive energy, pulling us all together towards the giant magnet in the sky. Take a different route to work. Give instead of receiving. Walk around the corner instead of driving. Try that different restaurant. Call that person up; you've been scared to talk too. Go after that job you want. Stand your ground instead of run. Change your perspective about your situation. Follow your intuition. Wayne Dyer once said, "If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change," perhaps if we all change a little for the better, it will forever be sustainable.
