The Attitude Lounge: Question Change

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The Attitude Lounge by Kodwo Brumpon: Today is not Yesterday
Kodwo Brumpon is a management consultant and a life coach who inspires individuals, groups and corporate bodies

“Mix yourself with the grain and you will be eaten by the pigs.” – South African Proverb

The phenomenon of relentless change we are witnessing in our age is quite scary. The pace is so ferocious it represents a monumental challenge to our humanity. While you are getting used to the ‘new version’, a newer version is being launched – and a much newer version is ready to roll off the production line once the launch is over.

It is as if we are being sucked into an endless twirling movement of ‘new versions’ every other moment. Change has carved itself into pleasure and is dancing round the pole with satisfaction in her palms.

The influence of this ruthless change is that living is becoming messy and messier. It has become more like a drama wherein no scene is fully played out. A little bit of that and a little bit of this colour everything our senses associate with. We are being bombarded with so many choices that our taste-buds never really get used to a particular flavour.

We always get half-way there and then have to drop all our gains and start all over again, because a new version of what we are getting used to is out there.

That reality is that we are missing out on being exceptionally good at our acts. The commercial voice of change is so loud, and is drowning the compassionate voice of steadiness.

But the reality of fleeting trends we are witnessing is none other than a draining reaction to the tyranny of change. We are afraid, as a failure to swim with the currents would leave us irrelevant and unproductive.

Deep down, there is a certain yearning for some certainty – the classic case of ‘better the devil you know than the angel you do not’. We crave a relative period of stability so that we can enjoy the spoils of war.

The ruthless changes being heaped upon us are making it difficult for us to relate to well among ourselves. Everything has become transitory, and finding meaning in such a state is becoming more elusive. Is it thus strange that societal values are withering against the artifacts of change?

In times gone by, we never bothered to question change. With open arms, we viewed it as an outpouring of freshness to stimulate our creativity – and with a mission to enlarge our humanity. Thus, we just changed. Unfortunately, we have changed so much we barely recognise who we are.

Our confidence is no longer in the self but in objects. Our belongingness is centred more on ‘classiness’ than on our humanity. Worse still, our motivation is not spurred by a desire to deepen our humanity, but by a glittering pendulum dangling in front of us like the bait-bone for a dog. Change has inflicted a cut so deep the self has lost its senses.

Change is good, but when it misses its point of heartening our humanity, it jolts the core of our being. And that is what the change around us is doing. It has pulled up our roots and left us hanging on the branch of fleetingness. Its ‘shock’ is heaping one distraction after another on us.

Our appreciation of life and living has greatly reduced. With shallow roots, we have very little choice but to expend our capabilities on self-satisfaction. We spend the greater part of our productive efforts seeking adrenalin-rushes to fill the emptiness that is drilling itself inside of us. We have less energy to thoroughly think-through issues and challenges to make holistic decisions.

If we do not want to be condemned to the aimless and endless twirls of change, with our minds numbed by the array of its pleasurable choices, then we must question its antics every time it knocks at our doors.

If its object is to profit a few to the detriment of the majority, then we must reject it. Let us never forget that our call is to life, to enrich and uplift it. Every change that wakes must be aimed for living life to the fullest.

It should not be change for change’s sake; neither should it be a drive that chips away the age-old values which hold our humanity firm and functional.

Sometimes, change can be a wonderful experience – but it simply remains as such, nothing more. Change is not permanency.

It is never an end in itself, no matter how alluringly it is packaged. It is just a pause-button in life. It is not base on which we build our future. Our tomorrow needs a foundation that can withstand the heaving and blowing of the tsunamis that will crash against it. For this, we need the assurance that certainty offers.

We need the faithfulness of the things which do not pass. Granted that most of us do not initiate change but are instead called to follow change, how are we walk that road is important.

Our weakness lies not in change itself, but in our ignorance regarding the goals of change. We must therefore tread cautiously when it comes to inspiring others to follow the scent of change.

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Kodwo Brumpon is an author, life-coach and philanthropist who inspires individuals, groups and organisations to think and feel that which is true, by helping them positively respond to that which is beautiful while nudging them to let goodness govern their actions.

Comments, suggestions and requests should be sent to him at [email protected]

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