Farewell Transmission

After meddling with overtly theoretical posts, I’ve decided to come back to earth by starting to write not of the psychological obstacles standing in the way of psychological development. Instead, I will pursue ways of making changes to my current way of life. The reason is that, for the last couple of months, I’ve been losing touch with the guiding light of morality and I’ve been consciously hiding behind the veil of ignorance, apparently unwilling to make change happen in my day-to-day life. Therefore, I’ve decided to finally get back on track – and blog about the process. Not only will this allow anyone to see through any lies I might be telling myself in this (perhaps a bit naïve) pursuit of mine.

The first step is, naturally, to find an area which I feel might be in need of perfection. This is also the easiest step. Equally important, though, is to have a clearly defined strategy as to how to approach my current wrongdoings. I am not in the clear as to what strategy to implement, so I decided to figure out my views of the two polar opposites within this category;

Incremental Change: To take small steps which may finally lead up to a major readjustments of living habits. This might be the most realistic way of approaching unhealthy habits. However, as I’ve struggled to become self-aware during these few years of living that I’ve experienced, I’ve come to realize that incremental change certainly won’t take me anywhere. Henceforth, the strategy with the highest likelihood to succeed is…

Radical Change: Some people would describe it as “purging”, but radical change gets rid of every kind of step-by-step process and deals with the problems head on; the process is also the goal. If one decides to make a change, why not do it straight away?

Is radical change only for the stubborn people? Does it presuppose that the people implementing this strategy already have dealt with the psychological obstacles before taking real action? I would say no. Why?

Humans thrive on their habits and the illusion of security they give us. People will always be afraid of change, be it positive or negative, unconsciously or willingly. Are we not, by trying to change incrementally, giving in to our habits and therefore feeding the hand that eventually will pick up that axe and decapitate us? I want to be free of my reliance on habits, not gradually create new ones to satisfy my id. By fully giving up my former habits, or being thrown to the wolves (whatever you prefer), I imagine myself being able to fully control myself. Gradually creating new habits means that one will always rely on the habitual stability it brings – and letting go of the new habits will be as hard as letting go of the old ones.

So, a couple of paragraphs later, what have I achieved? Nothing. I am still lurking about in the limbo of theoretical decisions. As long as I allow myself to wait in this grey zone of passiveness, my life will be no different and I will still be living the biggest paradox of all; the life as my own subordinate. What, then, is the next step?

Radical change.