Getting into the groove of a New Year, we recognize the passage of time and the inevitability of change.
A quarter century ago, the world was consumed with Y2K anxiety. We feared that our computers and society's infrastructures would crash.
Of course, that never happened, but since then we've witnessed terrible events that we never predicted. We’ve lived through political, social and economic upheaval, new wars, the growth of terrorism and a global pandemic.
Most of us have settled into our comfortable routines.
We have habits of action that we perform without a second thought — our routines at the beginning and end of each day, mealtimes and at work and in school. We have habits of relating to the people in our lives.
And we have habits of thought that we seldom question. These shape the mental lens through which we view the world.
We create our personal stories of who we are and how life works. These personal narratives are created through our life experiences and how we make sense of them and the influence of our parents and peers. We seldom pause to question these mental models which are seldom true reflections of reality. Our perceptions are limited by our senses and heavily shaded by our mindsets — the filters through which we take in and organize information.
We seldom question our self-told stories — the trances of everyday life — until we are shaken awake by radical change or disaster. We lose our job, our home or an important relationship. A loved one dies. We suffer from a serious illness or accident, or we become disabled.
Sometimes we will hold onto our old stories even when they no longer fit the reality we live today. Instead of acting like scientists who revise their theories based on new data that no longer fits, we can hold fast to our old world view as if it the dogma of a fundamentalist belief system.
Change is uncomfortable, and to change our selves requires work. No wonder we are ambivalent about change itself. Without challenge and novelty, we become bored. With overwhelming change, we are stressed. We are most comfortable with a balance of novelty and stability.
Although I discourage unprofessional language in my clinic, there is one four-letter word we accept when facing unexpected change: flux (which of course means change itself).
Yet everything in our lives is in a state of constant change — everything in the outside world and every cell in your body, changing from moment to moment.
We can embrace the reality of change with the growth mindset. We each have the capacity to learn, adapt, grow and positively change our thoughts, beliefs, feelings and behaviours. We can each become agents of positive change in our world and in ourselves. We can face life and its changes by being proactive rather than reactive.
Begin with your values. What matters most to you?
We each have a positive potential and it is in answering the calling that is the intersection of your talents (what you do well), your passions (what you really care about), your values and the needs of the world. It is our personal duty to discover and live our individual positive potentials and to help others and our society achieve theirs.
What will you do today — and throughout this new year — with your precious time, energy and attention?
Make choices today and act each day to create the positive changes that will shape your future. Act as the person you want to become.
Begin with one or two of your daily routines. What small change will be your first step towards greater health, satisfaction, happiness and connection?
Dr. Davidicus Wong is a Burnaby family physician and has written for Glacier Media since 1991.
For a fresh start to this New Year, join Dr. Wong in the Burnaby Division of Family Practice’s next Empowering Patients public health webinar, The Keys to Positive Change: Transforming Our Bad Habits into Healthy Ones, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16.
For more information and free registration, you can visit the family practice's website or call Leona Cullen at 604-259-4450.
