The Equation of CHANGE

Change is inevitable. Management policies to hierarchy; children’s needs and demands; behavior and attitude and inputs of relations change and transform over time, mature and age demanding us to react or adapt accordingly. Often we notice when we stay in a fixed position, we start to get comfortable in it and hence starts stagnation. On a practical front when a person eats food but does not want to let go of waste, the waste accumulates in the intestines; harms the overall digestive system; gives birth to numerous parasites and diseases but if the same waste is allowed to go, the same body remains fit.

The only rule of nature is that change is inevitable i.e. unavoidable and constant. When a baby is born it is extremely tiny but gradually it changes as new cells are produced and old ones perish to form a child, then adult, finally elder and continues to change till it perishes one final day. When our body is not a constant how can anything may it be wealth, health, success, relations, marriage etc be constant?

But, our nature is to avoid the changes calling them unnecessary and uncomfortable just like a frog that boils in the water of its well but doesn’t leave the utensil when the temperature of water is made to rise. Thus, change is a combination of avoidance, fear i.e. resistance and effort required to adapt to it.

A student progress is year by year academically. Thus, her ability to understand and grasp variety of subjects increases over time. But, if she is resistant i.e. unwilling to study or lack of desire to grasp new subjects; failure or say dismal academic performance follows because she is not willing to change and accept. Similarly if you leave an investment ignored for long there may be three outcomes; either the return would have increase manifolds or the return would have dropped drastically or there might have been a high point of return bringing back the investment to low returns. Hence, our primary and default equation is:

Change = Resistance + Effort

Let us now draw 2 postulates:
1.Positive emotions are absorbed in the process of change
2.Negative emotions need replacement for correct change.

Resistance is the feeling of discomfort experienced on adapting or noticing changes made around. You might notice how bank employees react to policy changes or how public reacts to fiscal or monetary policy of the government due to loss of their security called insecurity.

In some cases you might notice that people want to speed-up or accelerate the process so that things pass quickly so that their inner resistance doesn’t get to know i.e. fear from change. There is insecurity that what is existing might ease or increase uncontrollably on a deeper level. Resistance exists because people fear how they’ll adapt to new things, rules or situation. They don’t want to let go and feel secure in the current situation. There are scared of accepting something new that has not been explored already by them. This leads to negativity; a need for willingness to rewrite their reality and stretch one’s comfort zone.

Resistance = Discomfort + Fear + Insecurity + Inertia + Pain

Effort = Sincerity + Faith + Dynamic Attitude

When we come to components, we would notice that since our childhood we have been taught and told to be sincere in our efforts i.e. efforts without short cuts and cheat codes. Sincerity in efforts is said to make the process of reaching the goal easier. Our goal here is adapting to change and sincerity ensures purity in effort. One has to have faith in the process that takes in life and detach from the past. One needs to gather all energy to develop, maintain and regenerate a dynamic attitude within. A dynamic person gets out of his comfort zone easily and experiences the new zone to achieve something valuable.

Once upon a time, there were two professors; both in their fifties, successful and loved by students at a prestigious university. One of the professor, ‘A’ had a habit of preparing fresh notes year after year, day after day for his lectures and classes whereas professor ‘B’ relied on age old notes for years; changing them once in few years. One day suddenly there was a course change that led professors baffled. Professor A adapted to this change as he was dynamic ever since which made him secure, persistent, comfortable and free from fear and inertia. Whereas, professor B went crazy and took time to adapt to the change which not only affected his popularity and performance but also the quality of his teaching due to inertia and fear of the new.

As parents we believe that in order to discipline our children we must impose time tables on them after school so that they remain focused but when do we teach them adapting to changes. Resistance must be dealt with during childhood right from weather to other small things. If the roots are grounded well, the tree is bound to grow strong.

If you carefully notice, every financial concern or business operates in an open to change environment that consists of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal forces. A political interference affecting the company may reduce the value of its shares, a new law may increase or reduce your return; a technological progress or social improvement can reward your investment or leave the company behind due to its productivity or latent attitude. We can only deal with it if we are active, open and willing to face changes.

Relationships change and mature over time. A major change that takes place is movement or expiry of people. A lot of people cry, feel left out or emotional due to attachments or sentiments but the real villain is resistance to change and preparedness to let go of a near and dear one. Hence for any successful change, let us subtract resistance from effort to make this a corrected equation.

Change = Sincerity + Faith + Dynamic Actions – (Discomfort + Fear + Insecurity + Inertia + Pain)

1.Since, sincerity, faith and dynamic actions are positive emotions and efforts that get absorbed.
2.Components of resistance are negative and need replacement
3.Inertia, fear and insecurity need to be replaced by willingness to change and persistence; so that we get adapted and security is built over time.
4.Discomfort must be replaced with adjustment and accommodating behavior
5.When inertia, fear, insecurity and discomfort are dealt with, pain simply evaporates.
6.Insecurity and fear and be relieved by exercise, concentration building, team exercises and meditation.

Equation of FAILURE

Failure is the gap between Expectations & Achievements

For ages we have been taught to build benchmarks and goals in our life. These goals range from returns on our investments, children’s academic or co-curricular performances; never-ending support and love from relationships or objectives and ambitions such as increased wealth or happiness. All these standards that we define are our expectations coming out of our actions, efforts or instructions, from ourselves or from others in the presence of internal and external stimuli that are controllable and uncontrollable. These benchmarks and standards are nurtured and often poisoned with attachment and other emotions.

Once we define our goals, we strive towards attainment for the sake of our satisfaction. For instance, parents motivate, teach, monitor and instruct their children to study and score well in examinations; investments and share prices are tracked to avail best selling prices or premiums; relations are built by immense care, affection, attention, value, feelings and efforts over time to attain a certain status as promising or not promising etc; we people work upon ourselves with goals like bank balance targets, personality development, performance in meetings, level of charisma or confidence cultivation etc. These all form our expectations that are constructed in the presence of controllable as well as uncontrollable factors. Therefore, our default equation becomes:

Thus, FAILURE = EXPECTATIONS - ACHIEVEMENTS

Before we go on to decoding the equation, let us make a few postulates or assumptions.
1.Nothing in the process of life is constant or permanent.
2.Not everything is controllable.
3.Attachment is never positive.
4.All positives are absorbed by the Supreme in the process.
5.Emotions are both positive and negative.
6.Conditions lead to disappointment.

Now, when we all really want to achieve a particular goal, we attach energy, conditional or unconditional attachment for accomplishment. We also add emotions to targets and thus the equation of expectations becomes:

EXPECTATION= TARGET + EMOTIONS (Positive & Negative) + ATTACHMENT

Coming to the achievement aspect, we invest a lot of hope, effort, energy and sincerity.  Thus the achievement or result becomes:

ACHIEVEMENT= HOPE + EFFORT + ENERGY + SINCERITY

When absent, hope becomes hopelessness; effort becomes laziness; energy is conserved and sincerity is replaced by insincerity. Sincerity means dedication to the target whether Conditional or unconditional.

Now subtracting ACHIEVEMENT from EXPECTATION;

E - A = TARGET + EMOTIONS + ATTACHMENT – (HOPE + EFFORT + ENERGY + SINCERITY)

The result comes in the following manner:

1.To fulfill targets, effort and energy get used up to give some achievement because there is zero achievement without efforts and energy. 

2.Since, emotions are positive as well as negative and positive emotions are absorbed in the process, hope and sincerity get absorbed and what remains are negative emotions.

3.The negative emotions that remain like sediments are residue insincerity, disappointment, sorrow and attachment from expectations that combine together to form a misery house called failure.

Further, we can take failure in two different ways, positively or negatively. If we kick off negativity in the form of attachment and replace it with love for our work, child, self or money; we are in for positive dealing with failures. But, if we take failures to ego and then perform sourcing from a negative outcome towards a positive outcome, our achievement may not be iterated over time and be a one-time wonder. Thus we must take responsibility for failure and ensure that the components of our main equations are more positive than negative.

On a deeper note, our life depends a lot on how we deal with failures. Some people are persistent while some are escapists who end up failing consistently and end up trying in the long run leaving no space for success. Thus, to bring success, expectations must be replaced with targets, sincerity and hope but not attachment or emotions. Thus, 

SUCCESS= TARGETS + HOPE + SINCERITY + ENERGY + EFFORT

Now, hope and sincerity will be absorbed in the process and targets will be achieved with energy and effort. Also, success will be achieved only when targets are less or equivalent to energy and effort. If targets are greater than energy and effort failure will arise again!