WHAT DO YOU SEE?

"Open your eyes, look within; are you satisfied with the life you're living?"

Bob Marley, 20th century Jamaican singer/songwriter/musician.

If not, make plans to change to a life you will be satisfied living.

And should you find yourself saying "that's not possible", know it is not, only if you listen to yourself.

Don't do that.

GIVE UP TO MOVE UP

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves. We must die to one life before we can enter another."

Anatole France, late 19th/early 20th century French poet/journalist/novelist.

More often than not doors must close before new ones can open.

What is must cease to be to make room for what will be.

Make certain what you want is worthy of replacing what you have.

Then, when you are certain, work hard, plan and execute your plan, move on to a new and hopefully better future.

NOT WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE, WHAT YOU WILL DO

"We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses."

Carl Jung, 20th century Swiss psychiatrist.

You can condemn many things including yourself for failing to take action to change what you condemn.

Don't spend a lot of time doing that.

Accept the need for change and move on to make it happen.

MOVING ON

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

André Paul Guillaume Gide, late 19th/early 20th century French author/Nobel prize winner.

If you sometimes don't let go of what is you will never find what might be.

WITH OR WITHOUT YOU

"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."

Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder.

It is characteristic of Mr. Jobs to have viewed change as something he would initiate.

It's not as simple as that.

More typically we react to a demand for change rather than initiating change, a demand forced upon us by circumstances we often don't control.

Be prepared to do both. 

You can start it, others will start it . . . whatever the case, be prepared, it will happen, change is constant.

MAYBE COMFORTABLE, JUST NOT WHERE YOU SHOULD BE

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves. We must die to one life before we can enter another."

Anatole France, late 19th early 20th century French author.

One of the many reasons people resist change, even that they believe will lead to something better.

WHICH ARE YOU? FOR HOW LONG?

"Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor."

Sholom Aleichem, 19th century Yiddish author/playwright

True enough but no one need be any of these all their life.

Whichever you are, if you're not happy being that, make plans to change.

CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

"Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections."

Saint Francis de Sales, Late 16th/early 17th century Catholic bishop

You need courage to consider your imperfections, even more to accept them, and a lot more to attempt to change them.

But that is what you should do.

WHY NOT YOU FIRST?

"I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?"

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) British politician/author.

Depends on why you're following.

You are if by "follow" you mean leading them to where they wish to be, where they are capable of going.

You are not if you "follow" because you don't want to do what you insist they do.

YOU'RE SORRY, GOOD, NOW WHAT?

"Repentance is another name for aspiration."

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American politician.

Our request for forgiveness includes the suggestion, if not the specifics, of what we intend to become.

What will that be for you?

IF IT AIN'T BROKE . . .

"Striving to better, oft we mar what's well."

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) British poet/playwright.

Change what isn't "well" leaving "what's well" alone.

The difficult part is deciding which is which.

Do so carefully.

YOUR LIFE: WHO DECIDES WHAT IT WILL BE?

"If you haven't the strength to impose your own terms upon life, you must accept the terms it offers you."

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-English poet/playwright.

Substitute "education, planning, and hard work" for "strength" and you have what it takes to "impose your own terms upon life."

It is your life; who better than you to decide how it will be lived?

THE BETTER FUTURE

"The ''good old times'' -- all times, when old, are good."

Lord Byron (1788-1824) British poet.

It is easy to believe that what was is better than what is, what might be.

Easy, but nevertheless a trap to be avoided.

Humans are meant to change, to grow, to become something better, a fact to be celebrated, not avoided.

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

"Without contraries there is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence."

William Blake (1757-1827) British poet/painter.

Opposites attempt to change each other's position and out of this either comes further separation, or new thinking that might not otherwise exist.

Which it will be depends on your goals: resistance to or acceptance of change.

The former will leave you no better than before, the latter with hope for a better future.

MAYBE IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE?

"It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error."

Marcus Tulius Cicero (106-43 BC) Writer/politician/roman orator.

Albert Einstein's take on the same thing:

"The definition of insanity is repeating the same behaviors, expecting a different outcome."

If what you are doing is not working for you, why do you continue to do it?

GOOD ADVICE ASSUMING YOU TAKE IT

"If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fix'd in your present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error."

Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States

Paraphrasing: If you wish to learn how to improve yourself but are unwilling to change your ways, those you wish to learn from will quickly give up on you.

FUTURE BEGINNINGS REQUIRE RECENT ENDINGS

"You must give up the way it is... to have it the way you want it to be."

Unknown

Having your cake and eating it too just doesn't work.

I DIDN'T SAY IT, NATURE DID

"Adapt or perish, now as ever, is Nature's inexorable imperative."

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British-born American author.

Ultimately we all do perish when we, our bodies and minds, are no longer able to adapt.

But you can do much to delay that inevitability in the meantime.

Accept that change is the norm and plan to be a part of it, not fight it.

LET'S MOVE ALONG HERE

"One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority."

Napoleon I (1769-1821) Napoleon Bonaparte. French general.

During Napoleon's time 10 years was probably reasonable, and not just for war.

However now? Not a chance.

I can't think of anything where not changing your tactics much, much sooner than 10 years would leave you anywhere other than way, way behind.

Update, refine, change or be swept aside.

THE MISTAKE OF DOING NOTHING

"To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself."

Seneca (4 BC-65) Roman philosopher and playwright.

The fear of making a mistake is what keeps many from attempting changes they would otherwise like to make.

There's no need for that, it's a certainty; you will make mistakes and the first one will be believing you won't if you never make the attempt.