Woke up with demons clinging through states, consciousness rubs them and sleep off, a new day dawns but as the day breaks, bigger monsters await.
Taming the monsters within
Changes are essential, to grow, to learn, to adapt, to lead. Changes lead to progression, but changes can only be initiated and followed through by overcoming monsters, the intangible ones.
Never in history has man seen a monsterless time, Straight from the Jurassic era to the monsters unleashed by Xerxes and Artemesia against the Greeks. From the horrifying Kraken to the duel monsters released on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Monsters have always made their presence felt in one way or the other. But a visible enemy can be fought against. The most dangerous monsters are intangible. The ones which dwell in your mind. These dont let you unshackle yourself from the mundane-ness of the routine progression of life, persuade you to take the easier and more comfortable route. This invisible monster poisons you with ills like indecision and self doubt. It saps you off confidence, breaking you, till you give up. The monster justifies your state of comfortable normality, retarding every attempt that you might make to change.
Overcoming the inertia of comfort?
The first step in earnestness, towards any objective is as consequential as it is exigent. Overcoming the inertia of comfort and deciding to change, in any form or way, requires mega joules of energy.
The change can be as simple as waking up early, going to the gym, eating healthy or learning a new skill. The decision to alter your comfortable reality, and put an extra effort towards an endeavor, takes some making sense to oneself, at first. This is why the first dive is the most difficult when you decide to learn how to swim. If you keep wondering how warm or cold the water is you will never give yourself the opportunity to find out in actuality. So don’t go close to a pool till you’re sure about yourself. And when you are, dive in.
It’s always friends who teach…
We were unaware of what we were up against, when some friends and I decided to pursue our haleness objectives 5 years back. We were ignorant to the intangible monsters. And as it is, how difficult would it be for us to do something that we all knew would be beneficial to us in the long run?
As time revealed, some of us didn’t find the time others didn’t find the right fitness studio, a few had other important things to take care off. Well the excuses run in the millions. In short very few of them could leverage their energy resources to overcome the inertia of comfort. The demons that they ignored or were unaware of prevented them from changing for the good. Now 5 years forward I see them over worked, over stressed and overweight.
Among the ones who did find their way to the fitness studio, there were quite a few who made it through the first few weeks but almost none of them made it through the first 2 months. These people had overcome the initial inertia of comfort but they wanted to achieve too much too soon. Pushing themselves beyond the threshold too early led to their downfall. They became disinterested when they saw no physical results for their disorganized hard work. The change that they initiated wasn’t followed through with enough dedication. Their lack of faith incinerated the little inspiration they had managed to accumulate. Over time, they too succumbed to their monsters.
Some monsters cannot be tamed, just treated
In actuality it is impossible to terminate the intangible monsters inside you. You can only change to adapt to their existence through a pocket full of will, an ounce of self-belief and relentless perseverance. Your strength of purpose should guide you through phases when you feel like quitting most.
Observing my friends, I realized the mantra for initiating any health oriented change is not one which bears immediate results. The superficial results take care of themselves once you develop the right mentality and approach. This doesn’t happen overnight, it’s a work in progress which has to be reinstated to oneself over a period of time. So for the ones who look forward to initiate any sort of a chance in their lives, here are some tips which would put you in good stead:
- Believe in yourself and your purpose- These will be your ulties when the monsters start pulling you back.
- Learn to walk before you run- The ones who give up early are the ones who expend a lot of energy. The art of progressive overload requires patience but it is better than getting frustrated and quitting too soon. You are bound to follow through more often when you make small changes at the onset, and extend these over a period of time.
- Seek inspiration from multiple muses- By anchoring many muses you give yourself the opportunity get inspired from many sources.
- Seek guidance- This is really important. Everyone who has managed to fight of the inner monsters didn’t do it alone. If he says he did, he is lying. He was guided by someone or the other, hence it is his moral duty to guide others seeking a similar help. Anyone who knows anything about your sphere of change won’t mind helping you out because someone helped him once upon a time.
- Once you have adapted to the change help others to the same. This will lead to an endless loop of inspiration.
Evolution pays testimony to the fact that the ones who managed to initiate and sustain change, adapted and survived. The ones who fail to change have only themselves to blame. They haven’t been able to combat the inner monsters, which prevent them from overcoming the inertia of comfort.