“Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but also get better.” ~Sydney J. Harris

There are basically four times when people choose to change.

According to a psychiatrist—whose synopsis I stumbled upon in some of my old notes recently—human beings have what he calls, “four change seasons.”

He says that these seasons are the times—and circumstances—when people decide to change.

People change when they:

1. See enough that they’re inspired to
2. Learn enough that they want to
3. Receive enough that they’re able to
4. Hurt enough that they have to

Let us hope the first three out number the last, and you would think so—that it only makes sense to see and learn and receive—but you’d be shocked at the number of folks who wait until #4 becomes true.

Ah, pride. The great underminer…

And #3… lots of folks have trouble with that one—receiving—because it usually requires asking for assistance. That’s hard for all the rugged individualists out there.

But it’s hard to receive with clenched fists; open palms serve better.

And if we really want something to be different, or better, or changed in some way, we get to choose which ‘season’.

We get to decide when and how we’ll change and for what reason.

Hopefully, because we’re inspired, or want to, or are able to change.

And not because we hurt so badly we have no other choice.

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change” ~Albert Einstein