Change Your Life | Rock the World

Have you ever seen the movie Network? You’ve probably heard the line, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Well, that line is from that movie, and it’s part of a larger speech/rant that Peter Finch’s character Howard Beale gives to the camera during his news broadcast. Actually, the whole rant is brilliant, and part of it leading up to his most famous line goes like this:

“We know things are bad – worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’ Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad!”

He’s talking about much bigger things than I mean to right now, but the basic premise is the same. You can’t sit in your living room, blocking out everything that you don’t like and don’t want to hear, and expect to be able to make any amount of difference in your own life, or in the world around you.

I know that it’s really appealing to find a nice, cozy spot to fit into, and I know that most people don’t want to create any uproar or put themselves into an uncomfortable position, and I know that there are times when that’s all fine and dandy, but if you’re really interested in making a change, then you’re going to have to step outside of that nice, warm, cozy spot once in a while.

So, for example, let’s say you want to quit smoking. Smokers find smoking to be very relaxing. But if you really want to quit for health reasons, then you’re going to have to lose that relaxing habit.

Same thing if you want a new job. It’s very easy to keep going to your current job every day. There’s a routine to it, it’s familiar. But you’ll have to give it up if you really want the new job.

We have a way as humans of sticking to the path of least resistance. At least, most of us do. And again, there are times when that’s the best option. For example, you don’t need to go around starting fights with people for no reason.

But there are other times when it’s in your best interest to step off of the beaten path and try something that you’ve never tried before. And if you really want to change, then you’re going to have to take some chances, and that means that you’re going to have risk failing once in a while.

It’s true what they say: that change is difficult, uncomfortable and scary. That’s just how it is, frankly. And maybe that’s how it should be. Completing something difficult makes it that much more satisfying, and makes it feel like that much more of an achievement. No pain, no gain, right?

But it isn’t really as difficult as you might think. It’s not like it’s never been done before. In fact, people make great changes in their lives all the time. So how hard can it really be?

Unfortunately, it’s much easier to fall into a rut, and allow yourself to keep doing the same things every day forever. But when I put it like that it sounds depressing as hell, doesn’t it? So why do it when you don’t have to?

Making a change might seem scary, but it can’t possibly be half as scary as not making a change. So there you go. Some incentive.

Getting out of your comfort zone can be the best thing for you. It means that you’re taking charge of yourself and your self growth. And that means that you’re doing things for yourself, rather than them being done for you. You become a participant in your life, rather than an observer. The master of your domain, as it were.

Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t see it that way. They allow others to sort of decide their life for them because they’re afraid of what others will think if they try something different. And they live in a bit of a fog, and kind of coast through life without ever making any decisions or thinking for themselves.

They don’t bother to learn anything, or learn to do anything in particular other than the minimum to complete their job every day, and to feed themselves, and get dressed and other basic necessities. I guess that’s fine for some, but it sounds like hell to me.

I don’t want to live like that, and I know you don’t either. So the short answer is don’t.

But that means taking a chance that might make you uncomfortable once in a while. But it also means being in charge of your own life and your own development. When you look at it that way, there’s really nothing to be afraid of.

As Howard Beale said, “You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being, Goddammit! My life has value!’”

Related posts:

1. You’re Running Out of Excuses
2. You’re Responsible for You
3. You Need to Know What You Want
4. It’s OK to Fail
5. If You Know it, Teach it