One of our biggest obstacles to putting our pasts away is the way others lock us into the way we behaved in our past. Do you have these people in your life? It’s definitely not just in extenuating circumstances like the ones I’m describing. Family relationships can be some of the most difficult to navigate when we’re in our process of transformation. People that have known you to be one way and behave certain ways continue to expect that you’ll always be the same. It’s as though you can’t change in their eyes, because if you did the new you would place an enormous amount of pressure on them to change as well.
Change is not something that most people do well. When asked to change how they approach their work, for instance, most employees will give lip service to their bosses but continue doing things the way they’ve always done them. Why? Because change is work. Not laborious, physical work but introspective, spiritual work.
Change causes us to look inside at the way we do things and how we view others. It demands that we adapt to a new way of seeing and being. Change is hard to grasp for minds that are resistant to growth.
