By Dr Attia Anwar
According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, “It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives, it is not the strongest that survives, but the species that survives is the one that is most adaptable to change”. It is pertinent to mention that the most accepted definition of intelligence is “How swiftly and how easily one can change behaviour according to new circumstances determines how intelligent one is. Therefore, the ability to adjust behavior in response to changing environments is a hallmark of intelligence.
For most of ancient history, people did not believe the world had changed much. They never thought that change was a positive thing. They believed in stability and repetition. The same stories were told again and again. Time was thought to turn like a wheel rather than a straight line. Technology was hardly advanced, and social order remained the same for centuries. Then the Industrial Revolution came. Its motto is that change is the only permanent thing. This means everything changes. Our perceptions about things, our emotions, our surroundings, our feelings, and who rules the world change all the time. However, our adaptability to change is neither given nor always entirely straightforward. If we talk about humans, there are two kinds. One is constantly afraid of things being changed. They resist every change in their surroundings, whether it is for betterment or, in some cases, for worse. The second type of people welcomes every new idea and tries to adapt it. But whatever people think, change is inevitable. If some people had not gotten up and found new ways of living, we would still be hunter-gatherers. Some people may think we were better off like that. But the truth is they were not.
They were in constant fear of famine, shortage of food, diseases, and wild animals. All the changes that happened on planet Earth mostly made it a better place; problems arose with changes, and solutions were found. We underestimate the value of change in part because human life is short. If something new starts to happen, we generally directly witness a few revolutions in it. So we are fooled by the impression of stability. We get used to our tidy orchards and are afraid of an inferno coming here. Lingering beneath our lack of adaptability is the dread of change. But if we do not overcome that, we will be wiped away. Even inside our bodies, there is a constant process of change. We are not the same as we were ten years ago, and we have to adapt to these changes.
If you have a hard time accepting change, moving forward, and embracing change, it will prevent you from living your life to the fullest. As the only thing that is certain in life is change, resisting change is resisting life itself. When change happens, many people struggle to accept it. They keep their fingers crossed that things will return to what they were. But the longer you take to accept that change more difficult it will be to move forward. It means if something in your world has changed, you should not entertain the false hope of reverting it. Accepting the reality is the first step to moving forward. Resisting inevitability is futile. You may feel satisfied for a brief period but ultimately it is very frustrating.
In recent years, changes have been towards digitization and social media. Moreover, on the social level, many things that were considered great virtues in the past, and people were very proud of them, are not considered so good now. Examples are working extremely hard, burnout, cutthroat behavior for promotions, and the hire-and-fire policy. These things are being replaced by self-care, compassion, and opportunities for all. If you think I am living in a utopian world, believe me, people are talking about that and they are proving scientifically with evidence that these sorts of behaviors are better for individual happiness and the collective happiness of society.
When people first talked about individual happiness, it was a very odd thing for everybody then. But then the Western world made a whole model of society based on individual happiness and personal rights for everyone. And it worked, and now people are thinking about the whole planet. Because they are free and fulfilled. So if human beings are released from cages and boundaries, miracles do happen. Now this is the future of humankind, and this is the future of Earth.
To be at ease, we must try to learn new things with an open mind, and if they are good, accept them and adapt them to our behavior. As life is not stagnant, we should be open to new ideas. Even if you say that material gain was the total goal of the Industrial Revolution. It has taken people to a very advanced level. It has produced so many luxuries for the people. It has made life easier for millions of people. People rely on science to answer every question. But along with that, we have to protect planet Earth and our sanity. That requires a few actions and changes in our thinking, and if we want to survive, that has to be done. Now we have discovered that helping others and lifting others will lift all humanity. It is not a race but a collective journey for us. We are going towards spiritual awakening for our survival as a species. As the human race, we have reached a point where, despite having everything, we do not feel fulfilled. Many people have a sense of emptiness after having all the worldly success. We have reached the point where something needs to be corrected, and I think that is our mindset.
To accept a change or to bring some change in your life, you have to consider three things. Knowing human behavior and why they behave in certain ways will help us to understand ourselves. There is a rational side of us that plans our future and sets our goals, but it has a drawback: overanalyzing things and finding threats in everything. Then we have the emotional side, which works on instant gratification, and we can harness that energy also towards positive aspects of change. Then there is the environment around you that includes people around you, and how helpful they are to you in embracing change.
Change never seems natural; we naturally repel it and want to go into our comfort zone. However, embracing change in work and life is essential for our growth as individuals and being a better person than yesterday. Embracing change encourages development. Change will always be there in our lives, even if we are very happy with our current circumstances. The way we handle change is the essence of our existence and the key to our happiness. Life moves forward like a river, and you cannot touch the same water that was one moment before under your feet.
The author, Dr. Attia Anwar, is a consultant family physician with a postgraduate degree from the Royal College of GPs UK. She is a strong advocate of health and well-being and wants patient participation in decision-making regarding health.
