Change showing up in our lives is about as absolute a guarantee as life culminating in death. But just like death, change is probably one of the features of life that can feel the hardest to face into. Sitting pretty in our comfort zones hypnotised by the illusion of things always staying exactly as they are, can make an unexpected change very difficult to pivot successfully.
We don’t live in a static world. Whatever is the need of a particular time will often be the dictating force behind necessary change. And so, it’s critical we know how to successfully adapt when the change comes. I watched a new film this week called The Wild Robot which elucidated this wisdom for me. Roz, a manufactured robot programmed only to do one thing (which was to fulfil a specific task for its client successfully) was shipwrecked on an island only inhabited by animals. Finding herself unexpectedly in very foreign and unknown surroundings, also having become the mother of a very cute orphaned gosling, she had to adapt.
After attempting to return to her manufacturers HQ upon technical completion of her one programmed task to teach the gosling to swim and fly for winter migration, she learned that the group of wild animals she had come to know were all trapped in a severe thunderstorm. And so, very unlike a robot, she made the decision to return and save them all.
The story really made me ponder my own latest pivot (after a shocking health scare) of accepting a completely new role as the General Manager of Corporate Affairs after 20 + years as a seasoned General Counsel. Becoming a goslings’ mother, or, a loving and loyal friend to wild forest animals was certainly not part of Roz’s programming. Human beings are all also full of historic storylines and conditioned beliefs about who we are and what we should be doing with our lives.
But the truth is, what is needed for our own personal evolution and progress in the world, or, the unique environments we find ourselves in, changes every day. Roz assessed the need of the time and the changing circumstances that life had brought her, she overcame her program and adapted to meet that need. If Roz had stayed stuck in her programming, then what was needed for evolution and survival at that point in time for her young gosling and the forest of endangered animals would not have been addressed successfully.
Purpose in a difficult world can often feel for many of us like an undiscoverable life gem. If we are meditators who, through daily practice, cultivate awareness of such fine acuity for all of the signs delivered to us from the Universe, our purpose in the grand scheme of evolution will show itself to us. My new role was offered to me at a very unique and unexpected time. But it felt so innately right. For my own personal needs and passions and the needs of the business at this stage of its growth.
If Roz had used her high-end computing processor to rationally think her way into what to do for the sake of the animals, or if we humans use our intellects to assess the pros and cons of something that feels naturally charming to pursue, then critical evolutionary opportunities are missed. Change, Change, don’t go away. Hang around so we can play.
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