Why People Don't Change (Get Results)

 Most people are incredulous when you tell them that they should get immediate results (feedback) from what they are doing -- so used to having other people (usually self-professed experts) telling them what to do -- as if they knew any better.  Usually, they are merely repeating what everybody else is saying -- regardless if it works or not, and often preferring that it not work so they can have a lifetime of providing advice that doesn't work.  Surely if their advice did work, there would no longer be a problem guaranteeing lifetime job security by creating ever worsening problems and conditions.

So one has to ask from the very beginning -- whether that product or service ensures a lifetime dependency to that other, or is that piece of wisdom allowing them to go on without the baggage of a coterie of lifetime assistants and associates?  Of course the worst of these are the professional advisers to be found in publications and media ostensibly offering their advice for "free" -- guaranteeing their readers a lifetime of problems.  Along with that advice is the commandment to listen to no one else, and no different perspective that offers escape from that lifetime dependency and dysfunction.

Thus the greatest wisdom, is to discover the truth of any matter for oneself as much as possible, and then to distinguish which sources of other information is reliable and trustworthy -- from those who merely wish to exploit them for as long as they can.  That's one way of doing business and conducting all one's human affairs -- but is obviously a Zero-sum game in which in order to win, everybody else must lose -- and not that everybody can truly win, and move on to permanently higher levels of functioning and being. with 

Fortunately, that is just the beginning lessons one must learn in anything, and not the final straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back at which the house of cards all come tumbling down -- and one finds themselves with absolutely nothing and starting over -- at an advanced age in life with diminishing resilience and capacity to recover.  That is everyone's worst nightmare -- that at that critical stage of life, one is totally at the mercy of others and everything, with no power of their own.  So wisely, one is developing those formidable capabilities all one's life -- so that with advancing age, one is more capable, and not totally incapacitated.

That's what "fitness" is -- at any age and stage of life -- and not having spent it all in youth to end up an empty shell of what they formerly were -- as though that is going to do them any good.  No, life marches on, and all one can do at any age and stage of life, is prepare oneself to make the best of whatever life throws at them -- and surely life will.  That is the nature of life -- and living, but more importantly, what each makes of it -- individually.  That is the major differentiator above all else -- distinguishing the winners from the losers, the survivors from the extinct.

In most cases, life is fairly obvious -- if not overwhelmingly so.  Doing the right things are immediately apparent, just as doing the wrong things are equally manifest.  But if one is in the habit of depending on others (demagogues) to determine those things for them regardless of what are senses and better judgment tell us, then one moves further and further away from the truth of their own being and doing, and more into the sway of those who determine the truth of everything for them.  That is not a good way to be -- and that is what the collective wisdom of humanity tells us is worth knowing and pursuing.

The rest of life tells us if we are right or wrong -- and it is not for us to determine that unilaterally despite what results tell us.  By far, the people in the worst shape and condition, are people who are most certain that they know everything they need to know -- but are not doing it.  Most probably, it is because it doesn't make any sense or they would be doing it -- and wouldn't be doing whatever they are doing that is spectacularly not working.  That should be obvious -- to anyone who knows anything at all.  You don't put your hand on a hot stove because you know better -- and don't require years of experience before one finally realizes that.  It is instantaneous -- as with most things in life -- but we can be convinced otherwise by those who claim to know better.  But usually, what they know, is all they know -- and is not better.

Let's see what the actuality tells us.  If it worked 50 years ago, but no longer works now -- it is not that it is because of our age -- but that it didn't work before, if ever, and there might have been some other reason they experienced the results they got.  But often, we don't understand the real reasons something worked 50 years ago -- but not now, when we most need it to work.  That is not good enough. The truth of the matter is discovered in every present moment -- and is not just the accumulation of past knowledge, no matter how voluminous it is.  It must stand the challenge of the present moment -- which then becomes the foundation for all the future moments.  It is not lost and wasted -- although many people think that way -- or convince themselves that that is so.

That world view is expressed in the thinking that the sole objective of every human activity is to burn and waste as many calories (resources) as possible -- as an end in itself -- rather than doing something productive and beneficial.  That is like the person who thinks that the objective of their job is merely to perpetuate their job -- rather than to achieve something more beneficial that enables them to take on an even higher and nobler task -- because they ave laid down the foundation for that ascent to the next level.  For such people, life and all its activities are not just about endless repetition and never evolving to the next level because of that change.

Instead, everything merely gets worse -- starting from 50 years ago, or whatever milestone they use to denote their own peak -- if ever.  A few will even claim a downhill slide from the moment of their conception -- and then life never gets better -- and then they just die a miserable death.  Thus, they proclaim knowingly, there is no hope for humankind -- and we must depopulate the planet in favor of some lower species.  And then things will be better.  Until then, all human efforts are futile -- and especially theirs, so why bother?

Of course, that is the portrait of despair -- which many express to varying degrees and extents.  That is the belief that they cannot make any difference -- because nothing they do ever shows immediate, direct results -- when in truth, everything does.  That is the infallible guide.  It's not about needing unlimited funding dollars conducted with thousands of people over ten years -- to know anything definitively.  Instead, it is more like a game --  in which one either scores a goal or one doesn't -- and one shouldn't give up trying if they don't have the ball.  One has to be prepared and ready for their moment and opportunity.

When most people get favorable results but they never do, it's not that they have a rare condition that makes that unattainable for them only but maybe what they think they are doing, is not what every other successful individual is doing.  So one should be paying attention to not what everybody is doing, but only what the successful individuals are doing -- that make them so, and that is a continuing refining process and not just learned once and then one never needs to learned anything ever again.  All in life is not that way.  What one learns at 20, is not what one needs to know at 40, 60, 80 -- especially if it is not working anymore.  One needs to meet the challenges of the present moment -- in order to remain viable at any age and stage of life.

That means  continuing learning -- largely on one's own, and never that they learned everything they need to know 50 years ago, and everybody else needs to learn what they know -- and that is all they need to know.  If it is working, then that is what others should know about, but if it is no longer working and maybe never did, one needs to know what does work -- even if they have to discover that for the rest of the world to know.  Hopefully, that is the work that everybody is doing -- and making a difference -- and not merely parading around as though they know better, while their civilization is declining in all measurable aspects and qualities.  They are not the bastions of enlightenment they tout themselves to be -- for all the world to emulate.  That is merely hubris -- pride and arrogance with no good reason for being so.  That changes nothing.